SolidWorks Collaboration
This document is no longer available beyond version 15.1. Information can now be found here: Altium MCAD CoDesigner
The SolidWorks Collaboration panel.
Summary
SOLIDWORKS and Altium Designer collaborate with each other through an ECAD-MCAD Project Collaboration Server (or Altium Vault), whose behind-the-scenes role is quite transparent. The designer working in each application uses the Collaboration panel to Push and Pull design changes from one application to the other. Notifications about incoming changes appear automatically in the Collaboration panel, as soon as a Push is performed on the other side. The SolidWorks Collaboration panel also allows you to examine and accept updates to your PCB from SOLIDWORKS, as well as view your push/pull notification history.
Access
When the PCB Editor is active, click the 
button at the bottom-right corner of the workspace and select PCB from the context menu. Alternatively, you can access the panel through the View » Workspace Panels » PCB sub-menu.
Options/Controls
Pushing and Pulling Changes
The Push button is used to push changes from the active application into the Collaboration Server/Vault. The Pull button is used to pull changes from the Collaboration Server/Vault into the active application.
Before pushing your PCB document through to SOLIDWORKS, Save All modified files (Files menu) and commit all changes into the Collaboration Server/Vault (right-click in the Projects panel, select Version Control » Commit Whole Project). Ensure that the PCB is the active document. In the SolidWorks Collaboration panel, click the Push button. You will be prompted to enter a comment; do so, then click the Post button to complete the process, as shown in the images below. This action will:
- Create a Parasolid model file for the board and each component in the design, and store them in the
\<ProjectName> SOLIDWORKS Collaboration\Exported 3D Models\folder in the working copy of the ecad project folder. - Release these models to the
\Mechatronic 3D Models\folder in the Collaboration Server/Vault.
The steps to collaborating from Altium Designer - click Push in the SolidWorks Collaboration panel, then Post a message to upload the shared elements (board shape and components).
Examining and Accepting Design Changes
If there is a new update to be pulled from the vault, the SolidWorks Collaboration panel will display a New Changes have been detected dialog. Click the View changes button.
Clicking to View changes in the Collaboration panel.
Both Altium Designer and SOLIDWORKS present potential changes using a simple animation, flashing or animating a purple shape to represent the new object / location. The animated GIF below shows an example of three component relocations being passed from SOLIDWORKS to Altium Designer. Click on a proposed change to animate it in the workspace and enable the Accept checkbox to update the design to include that change. Use the commands in the right-click menu to toggle the state of multiple checkboxes.
The objects that have changed are presented in purple, making it easy to identify the before and after states. Enable the Accept checkbox for each change you want to make.
If you are not ready to Accept changes yet, click the 
. You can view and Accept them later by clicking the Pull button to re-open the dialog. Otherwise, wait until new updates are pushed through the SolidWorks Collaboration panel.
Notes
- SOLIDWORKS Collaboration is a standard Altium Designer extension (DXP » Extensions and Updates), which adds the SOLIDWORKS Collaboration panel into Altium Designer.
- Use of the SolidWorks Collaboration panel and feature requires Altium Vault 2.5 (or later). If you have an existing vault, it can be used but may require an update.
- A managed project is not automatically available for collaboration. You must also perform a Push in the SolidWorks Collaboration panel to save the required collaboration elements into the Collaboration Server/Vault.