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Tom Yunghans , 11-29-2023, 05:56 AM

I was thinking that Altium' Multi-board assembly file (MbaDoc) might be a good way to verify that my Altium design PCB fits in the chassis properly. The Multi-board capability has some fairly new features to assist in placing the PCB in the chassis (mating) and also a "section view" which can be very useful in looking for collisions and clearance problems. However, currently, the MbaDoc capability does not seem to be able to support hiding the various pieces of the step model that you import. So, for example, I have a 3D step file for the chassis which has separate pieces (e.g. lid, body), but I can't hide the lid or body in the MbaDoc, which makes it pretty difficult to define the mates and get the PCB mounted properly inside the box.

The capability to hide the various pieces of the step model exists in the normal PCB worksheet. Does anyone know if Altium plans on incorporating this into the MbaDoc?

Does anyone know of an easy way to take this step file, disable the lid, then export a new step model which I could then import into the MbaDoc? Do I need to use a tool like "Fusion 360" to do that? Any suggestions?

Robert Feranec , 11-29-2023, 09:47 AM

I am curious to see the answers here as I have not used Multi-board design yet.

Tom Yunghans , 11-29-2023, 02:25 PM

Hi Robert, what about that last question concerning modifying the step file in fusion 360? Could that be done fairly easily without a huge learning curve?

Roland Mist , 11-29-2023, 03:40 PM

It is pretty easy to hide/delete parts in a step file using Fusion 360.

QDrives , 11-29-2023, 09:51 PM

As for the last part - FreeCad may be able to do this too (and is actually free).
It depends on whether the bodies are distinct or not.
Steps:
1) File / new
2) File / Import
3) Select (ctrl) from the navigation tree the bodies you want to export.
4) File Export (step with color)

As for the first part - I think that Altium expect people to do this mating / checking in the 3D tool (ie. Solidworks).

QDrives , 11-29-2023, 09:56 PM

I have seen it in action by a colleague 3 years ago. But he also had and used Solidworks.
At that time he was 'struggling' with a varistor that collided with a connector on another board.
Struggle, as there was little room in that area and the design changes should actually be done in Eagle! (Altium was only used for this 3D check)

Tom Yunghans , 11-30-2023, 05:33 PM

Altium originally promoted this multiboard approach as a way to avoid the multiple step file exchanges between ECAD and MCAD. Now that they also have the cloud based ECAD/MCAD approach to allow quick exchanges between the two, it's not clear to me if they still consider the multiboard approach as a valuable feature to be supported. Any one have any thoughts on that?

Tom Yunghans , 11-30-2023, 05:46 PM

In the past, I have placed step models of the chassis temporarily into my PCB layouts to make sure the PCB fits with no collisions and the mounting holes line up. It worked fairly well, but I sometimes would have trouble getting the PCB aligned with the chasiss and also viewing clearances. The mating and section view features in the Multiboard Assembly seemed like a big improvement. However, the Multiboard assembly only allows a complete STEP model of the chassis. The 3D model can't be broken apart (e.g. take the lid off) so you can move things around inside the chassis. I wish they would either bring the new features (mating and section view) into the PCB, or allow the STEP files to be non-monolithic in the Multiboard Assembly. Maybe I will submit this as an "idea" on the Altium web site.

Tom Yunghans , 11-30-2023, 10:49 PM

I just discovered that they added the "section view" to the PCB 3D editor a few months ago in version 23.5. It apparently was requested in 2018 after it became available in the multi-board assembly in 2018. It took over 200 votes and almost 5 years before they got around to it. Doesn't give you much incentive for suggesting changes, does it? Here is the link on the Altium Idea site: https://bugcrunch.live.altium.com/#/idea/1344

Robert Feranec , 12-01-2023, 02:28 PM

Usually I import PCB into CAD software rather than enclosure to PCB software. The mechanical properties of PCB are usually more stable (will change less) comparing to mechanical properties (design) of enclosure (unless you are designing for an existing enclosure). Also often enclosure design starts after PCB the design and we can keep working on enclosure even after the PCB has been finished - so the final enclosure is always checked with the final PCB. PS: I did try to play with multiboard (some time ago), but it had some limitations (I don't remember exactly what), but I then decided to stick with single board design per project.