Hello,
We have the following situation:
We want to use Altium Designer to design PCBs, Solidworks is our MCAD Tool.
Our approach is:
1. Create the empty raw board in Solidworks
2. Place the mechanical relevant parts (Connectors, LEDs, ...) also in SolidWorks.
3. Export via STEP to Altium Designer
4. Create PCB there
5. Export finished PCB back to SoWo for a final interference check.
My Problem: How can I create (with Altium Designer) a connection between the mechanical parts I place on the board and the corresponding components on the schematic?
Or: Is there a different approach for pre-placement of mechanical parts with SoWo?
Thank you
Peter
Peter,
I'm not up to date on the very best methods to use for the back and forth required between Altium and SolidWorks, but I believe that the best method we have come up with so far is to build a dummy board in Altium that has the known connectors and other big components on it. Export that PCA to SW. Modify the PCB and PCA in SW to match the actual mechanical requirements. Ship it back to Altium for the initial board design. Repeat as needed. The dummy board can be just a simple rectangle. It is needed to set up the initial features in Altium.
Jerry Steiger