Streamline Your Product Development -
Altium 365 Cloud PLM Integration with Arena

Wednesday, March 27th, 3PM CET

Wednesday, March 27th, 3PM CET

Streamline Your Product Development -
Altium 365 Cloud PLM Integration with Arena

Thursday, March 28th, 10 AM PST / 1PM EST

Thursday, March 28th, 10 AM PST / 1PM EST

ECAD-MCAD CoDesign / Shaping a PCB in MCAD Completed Sign In To Save Your Progress
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ECAD-MCAD CoDesign

Shaping a PCB in MCAD

To give the board to the mechanical engineer, go to the MCAD CoDesigner panel, click the Push button.
Fig. 1 - Altium downloads page
Fig. 1 - Locate the Panels button 
Fig. 2 - Installation wizard
Fig. 2 - Select MCAD CoDesigner
Fig. 3 – Launching the plugin
Fig. 3 - The Push button on the MCAD CoDesigner panel
Specify a comment, click Send to share.
Fig. 4 - Altium CoDesigner in the menu bar
Fig. 4 - Type in comment and Send
NOTE: If your mechanical engineer is not invited to the workspace, the administrator can invite them by specifying their email address.
At this stage, the mechanical engineer can already start their work in their MCAD system. Click the Pull button in the Altium CoDesigner panel.
Fig. 6 - Altium CoDesigner in the menu bar
Fig. 6 - The Pull button on the MCAD CoDesigner panel
After selecting a project and saving it, an identical PCB will appear in the working window of the MCAD system.
Fig. 7 - Altium CoDesigner in the menu bar
Fig. 7 - Select a project
An initial sketch that previously formed a board shape can be safely removed.
OFFSET: the offset entities tool can help to create an appropriate gap between the board and the enclosure in just a few clicks.
Fig. 9 - MCAD CoDesigner panel in Inventor
Fig. 9 - Offset Entities button on the ribbon
HOLE: the hole tool is used to create mounting holes allowing you to set any desired whole size.
Fig. 10 - Select a project
Fig. 10 - Hole Wizard button on the ribbon
CUTOUT: first, create a new sketch on the board surface and then apply the extruded cut tool.
Fig. 11 - Select a location to save the project
Fig. 11 Extruded Cut button on the ribbon
When it is ready to transfer back to the electrical engineer, use the Push button in the Altium CoDesigner panel, specify a comment and upload it to the server, updating the board.
Fig. 12 - Leave a comment and share the project
Fig. 12 - Push from the MCAD CoDesigner panel
The mechanical engineer will be notified about the changes in the MCAD CoDesigner panel, to either view the proposed changes or discard them.
Fig. 13 - Settings to allow 3D copper and vias
Fig. 13 - Notification on MCAD side
When they click on view changes, a list with each design change made is shown on the screen.
Every single change can be seen in a live preview and if it is wrong it can be disabled without affecting other changes
Fig. 14 - Top of MCAD CoDesigner panel in SOLIDWORKS
Fig. 14 - List of changes from the ECAD side
After accepting the selected changes the PCB acquires the exact look that the mechanical engineer has set.
Recommended Documentation: Making Changes to the PCB Design in MCAD
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