ECAD-MCAD CoDesign_AD

Collaborating between the electronic and mechanical design domains has always been a challenge. ECAD and MCAD tools have different design objectives and have evolved down different paths, and so has the way they store and manage their data.

But today's designs demand that this challenge be solved - small and complex product enclosures that house multiple, irregular shaped printed circuit boards - to successfully design these products the designers must be able to fluidly pass design changes back and forth between the ECAD and MCAD domains.

Passing complex and detailed design changes between different design software is much more than just being able to save data in another format. The electronic and mechanical design teams work independently, and need to be able to transfer changes at any point in their design process. The issue is, how do you manage the flow of changes back and forth between the teams, without impacting on either team's day-to-day design work? The last thing the design teams need is for one team to have to stop work until the other team has accepted their latest change, before both teams can proceed.

This challenge is solved by Altium Concord Pro, creating a bridge between the ECAD and MCAD domains. Both design domains connect transparently to Concord Pro. Whenever they choose, either designer can Push their design changes across to the other. When the receiving designer next opens that design in their ECAD/MCAD software they are immediately notified that there are changes pending, and can review the individual changes and choose to accept them or not.

By working through Altium Concord Pro the update process becomes stateless. That means each side can continue to work independently, there is no need to worry about what the other team is doing.

So when the MCAD designer Pushes a board shape change and then realizes she has forgotten that a mounting hole also needs to move, there's no need to worry. The ECAD design is always compared to the current state of the design in Altium Concord Pro, so when the ECAD designer come back from lunch, their list of changes includes a board shape change and a mounting hole move. Accept the changes and click to Apply, and the ECAD design is in sync with the MCAD design.

What MCAD Software is Supported?

The following MCAD platforms and versions are currently supported:

• Dassault Systemes SOLIDWORKS® - version 2018, 2019, 2020
• Autodesk Inventor Professional® - version 2019, 2020
• PTC Creo Parametric® - 4.x, 5.x, 6.x

The Collaborative Design Interface

Both Altium Designer and your MCAD software interface to each other through a panel (tab) in the software. In Altium Designer it's the MCAD CoDesigner panel, in your MCAD software it's called the Altium CoDesigner panel, or tab.

Design changes are Pushed and Pulled between the ECAD and MCAD domains through a dedicated panel.

• In Altium Designer, the MCAD CoDesigner panel is used to Push and Pull design changes back and forth, and display messages.
• In the MCAD software, the Altium CoDesigner panel is used to:
  • Create new collaboration projects
  • Open an existing collaboration project
  • Configure collaboration options
  • Push and Pull design changes back and forth
  • Display messages

The MCAD CoDesigner panel is always available in Altium Designer's PCB editor. For the Altium CoDesigner panel to be available in the MCAD software requires the installation of an Add-In. Details about configuring each of the supported MCAD applications is outlined below.

Inviting a Mechanical Engineer to Your Workspace - (Concord Pro hosted on Altium 365)

Related page: Specifically Inviting an MCAD User to Your Workspace

As part of support for ECAD-MCAD CoDesign in Altium Designer - in conjunction with having Altium Concord Pro hosted on Altium 365 - you can share a project with a Mechanical Engineer at the time of pushing the PCB to your Workspace and, in doing so, invite that person into your Workspace Team (if not already a member). To do so:

1. With the required managed project from your Workspace open in Altium Designer, make the PCB document active.
2. Access the MCAD CoDesigner panel (from the menu associated to the  button at the bottom right of the main design window). Click the  button.
3. Enter a message for the MCAD designer that describes what you are pushing to them, then click the  button to complete the Push process. A message dialog will appear, reporting the status of the process. During this process, the working copy of the modified PCB file is automatically saved, if it is currently unsaved. The changes are written to a tool-neutral snapshot file, stored in the Workspace.
4. The Share with a Mechanical Engineer dialog will appear. Enter the email address of the Mechanical Engineer and an optional note (if required). Then click the  button.
5. You are able to share with a person that is already a member of your Workspace Team, another AltiumLive user in or outside of your organization, or a user that does not have AltiumLive.

As part of the invite process:

• A user that is already part of your Workspace Team will have the project shared with them (Read-only access), they will be added to the Mechanical Engineers role, and they will receive an invitation email with which to gain access to the project within the Workspace.
• A user that already has an AltiumLive account (irrespective of whether they are in or outside of your organization) will be added to the Workspace Team, the project will be shared with them (Read-only access), they will be added to the Mechanical Engineers role, and they will receive an invitation email with which to gain access to the project within the Workspace.
• A non-AltiumLive user will receive an invitation email with which to gain access to the project within the Workspace. However, they will first need to sign up/register for an AltiumLive account before they are added to the Workspace Team. Once they have signed up to AltiumLive, they are subsequently added to the Workspace Team, the project will be shared with them (Read-only access), and they will be added to the Mechanical Engineers role.

The Collaborative Design Process

The new CoDesign project can be started in either the ECAD or the MCAD design domain.

Starting the new Design in Altium Designer

Create the Project

Create a new managed project in Altium Designer.

Add a PCB to the Project

Regardless of where the project is first created, a PCB must be added to the project in Altium Designer.

Define the PCB Layer Stack

The Layer Stack, or Z-plane properties of the CoDesign board, are defined in Altium Designer's Layer Stack Manager.

Push the Board to the MCAD Designer

Assuming that the X-Y shape of the board is being defined in the MCAD software, the board can now be Pushed.

The MCAD designer can now Pull the design into their MCAD software.

Starting the new Design in your MCAD Software

You can also start the design process in your MCAD software, via the Altium CoDesigner panel. The process is the same in all of the supported MCAD environments.

1. Click the New Board button in the Altium CoDesigner panel (also referred to as a tab in some MCAD tools). If you are not currently signed in to Altium Concord Pro the Sign in dialog will appear, sign in and click OK to continue.
2. The Create New Server Project dialog will open, as shown above. In the dialog, enter a suitable Name and optional Description for the project, and click OK. The Windows Save As dialog will open.
3. A default board assembly is now being created in the MCAD software, which you need to save in a suitable location. Enter a name, select a location to store the assembly, and click Save in the Windows Save As dialog. The MCAD workspace will display the new, default board shape. As part of this step an Altium Designer project is also created in Altium Concord Pro.
4. The new board shape information does not exist in Altium Concord Pro yet. To add it, click the Push button on the Altium CoDesigner panel. A message window will appear on the Altium CoDesigner panel, this message will be displayed in the ECAD software.
5. Enter a brief description in the message window and click the Post button. A message dialog will appear while the changes made to the board shape are being saved to Altium Concord Pro. When that process is complete your Push message will appear in the Altium CoDesigner panel.

Opening an Existing Project

When the design file already exists in your design space (either ECAD or MCAD), to continue working on an existing board design simply re-open your working copy of the project and board file (Altium Designer), or Assembly (MCAD). If there are any updates pending the CoDesigner panel will display a warning that New changes have been detected! 

If the mechanical assembly already exists, reopen it to continue working on the design.

Opening an Existing Project for the First Time

If the project and the board have already been created in Altium Designer but not yet opened in your MCAD software, the project is Pulled from Altium Concord Pro. To do this:

• Open your MCAD software.
• Display the Altium CoDesigner panel. Because there is no assembly currently open, the panel will display the New Board Assembly and Pull Board from Server buttons.
• Click the Pull Board From Server button. If you are not currently signed in to Altium Concord Pro the Sign In dialog will appear, sign in to continue.
• The Select Project dialog will open, select the required project and click OK.

• An MCAD assembly file is created from the change data present in Altium Concord Pro, choose a suitable location and enter a filename in the Windows Save As dialog.
• The board assembly will display in the MCAD workspace, ready to be worked on. Save the MCAD design changes in the MCAD assembly file.
• Whenever required, design changes can be passed to the ECAD environment by clicking the Push button in the Altium CoDesigner panel.

Passing Design Changes Between ECAD and MCAD

At any point in the design process, changes can be transferred between the ECAD and MCAD tools by clicking the Push button in the corresponding panel.

  Changes are pushed and pulled between the ECAD and MCAD tools.

• When the Push button is clicked, an editing window appears at the top of the source editor's panel. Enter a message about the design change then click Post.
• When Post is clicked:
  • The working copy of the modified PCB file is automatically saved, if it is currently unsaved.
  • The changes are written to a tool-neutral snapshot file, stored in Altium Concord Pro.
  • The Posted message is automatically displayed in the message thread of the source editor's panel, as shown in the image above on the left.
  • The target editor's panel will display a message that there is a change pending the next time they open their working copy of the design file, as shown in the image above on the right.

Working with the Change List

When the View Changes button is clicked, each change that needs to be made to the working file to sychronize it with the tool-neutral snapshot on Altium Concord Pro, is listed, as shown below.

• Each difference detected between the current design and the snapshot stored in Altium Concord Pro is detailed as a Change in the Change List.
• A Change does not have to be accepted. If a change is ignored it will appear in the Change List again, the next time an update is performed in that direction. Be aware that if you choose to ignore a change, for example moving a mounting hole, and you then perform a Push of your design changes, the ignored change may be overwritten since in your version the mounting hole still has the old location. The MCAD designer can avoid loosing their change by not accepting your mounting hole move.
• A single design change, such as changing the location of a component, can become multiple changes in the Change List. When a PCB component is moved there are MCAD changes to the location of: the component, the shapes that component makes on the Component Overlay, and the shapes that component makes in the top and bottom copper layers. Related changes should all be applied together.
• The list may include changes that cannot be applied in the target environment. In this situation the change will be displayed but the checkbox will be unavailable, indicating that this difference cannot be resolved.
• Where possible, the selected change is highlighted in the workspace when you click on it in the Change List.

Highlighting A Change

In Altium Designer and some of the MCAD environments, certain types of changes can be highlighted in the workspace. For example, when you select a change to a component in the Change List in Altium Designer or SOLIDWORKS, the component is highlighted in purple and displayed in the current state, then moved to the changed state.

Click on a change to highlight the before and after states of that change.

Object and Shape Support

When the design data is transferred between the ECAD and MCAD environments the design objects must be translated from an object-kind supported in the source editor to an object-kind supported in the target editor.

The table below summarizes the current level of ECAD-MCAD CoDesign support for each of the available MCAD tools. These capabilities continue to be developed, additional feature support will be added over time, where possible.

Current ECAD-MCAD feature support: