Supported MCAD Tools
A built-in panel, displayed in Altium Designer and your mechanical CAD, allows engineers to push and pull changes with a mouse click. No manual conversion or exchange of files is required.
SOLIDWORKS®
PTC Creo®
Parametric™
Autodesk
Inventor®
Autodesk
Fusion 360®
Siemens NX
“With MCAD CoDesigner, we can detect potential problems like we couldn’t before. We can see silkscreens, hidden vias, make sure polarities are correct, where copper traces are—our models are now 100% complete, including overlay and copper. I don’t have to worry about board shapes, or connector placements, even in very tight spaces. ”
Bi-directional ECAD-MCAD Design Collaboration
Share design revisions with your mechanical engineering team to ensure the board fits right the first time. In a high-quality PCB layout, component placement must satisfy mechanical constraints.
Avoid error-prone file exchange between tools: quickly push and pull changes between Altium Designer and your mechanical CAD.
SOLIDWORKS®
PTC Creo® Parametric™
Autodesk Inventor®
Autodesk Fusion 360®
Siemens NX
Advanced Copper Geometry in MCAD
Give your mechanical designer all the data they need to perform detailed mechanical checks or FEA with advanced geometry support for extruded copper and via transfers.
- SOLIDWORKS®
- PTC Creo® Parametric™
- Autodesk Inventor®
ECAD-MCAD Rigid-Flex Synchronization
Design your electronics to meet the needs of today’s portable and flexible devices with rigid-flex support.
- SOLIDWORKS®
- PTC Creo® Parametric™
ECAD-MCAD Native Component Linkage
Save time on your PCB layout: place key components directly in an MCAD environment with complete visibility of enclosure constraints.
Components placed in an MCAD application are automatically synchronized with ECAD components to simplify your design process.
- SOLIDWORKS®
- PTC Creo® Parametric™
- Autodesk Inventor®
MCAD-ECAD
Enclosure Exchange
Enclosures can fail to fit together at the prototyping phase, and the PCB often contains restrictions based on the mechanical enclosure. Altium MCAD CoDesigner makes it easy to transfer a 3D enclosure model from the MCAD to Altium Designer.
- SOLIDWORKS®
- PTC Creo® Parametric™
- Autodesk Inventor®
- Siemens NX
Advanced History
The Altium MCAD CoDesigner panel displays the full history of accepted and rejected changes from both the electrical and mechanical sides. As soon as changes are applied or rejected by the mechanical engineer, you will see a notification in Altium Designer.
- SOLIDWORKS®
- PTC Creo® Parametric™
- Autodesk Inventor®
- Autodesk Fusion 360®
- Siemens NX
Start Collaborating
In ECAD, open a *.PCBdoc, activate the MCAD CoDesigner panel, and click Push.
On the MCAD side, the Mechanical Engineer should download the latest version of the plugin for the MCAD tool, install and activate it in MCAD, and click Pull.
In ECAD, the Electrical Engineer should open a *.PCBdoc, activate the MCAD CoDesigner panel, and click Push.
On the MCAD side, download the latest version of the plugin for your MCAD tool, install and activate it in MCAD, and click Pull.
For detailed step-by-step instructions, visit our Getting Started Guide.
Visit the download page for all the
versions of the CoDesigner plugin
For detailed step-by-step instructions,
visit our Getting Started Guide.
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Create board-to-board connectivity and verify net-to-pin assignments and pin-to-pin interconnects. Changes and updates can be pushed down into affected PCB projects or bought back up to the source system schematic. A system-level BOM can be created to provide a single source BOM across the multi-board project, eliminating the need to manually combine individual sub-project BOMs. A physical counterpart to the logical system design in a multi-board schematic which is populated with imported PCB data from the multi-board project. Each PCB module in the system design schematic is represented by a physical PCB. Allows each separate board to be rotated and aligned with each other. Additional parts, boards, assemblies, or STEP models can also be imported and positioned within the multi-board assembly. Platform Services
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Share your projects with as many people as you need at no additional cost. All of your project stakeholders can view, measure, search, cross-probe, and comment on your live design, seeing all of the latest changes and updates right in the browser. Learn more Comment to an entire document or a specific object, highlight the problem area directly in the design, and tag people and get them straight to the context of your comment, all without leaving your design environment. Learn more Never lose an important action item, easily get a high-level view of the state of your project, all without leaving your design environment. Learn more Mechanical (MCAD) Integration
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Enable bi-directional communication between ECAD and MCAD (SOLIDWORKS®, PTC Creo® Parametric™, Autodesk Inventor®,Autodesk Fusion 360®) domains, allowing changes to be reflected and updated on either side. Learn more Synchronize and update PCB keepout areas in both ECAD and MCAD environments. Create precise copper 3D models in MCAD (including vias and plated pad barrels) for FEA purposes, advanced mechanical checks, etc. Available for SOLIDWORKS®, PTC Creo® Parametric™, Autodesk Inventor®. Learn more Collaborate on the design of rigid-flex boards with mechanical engineers who use SOLIDWORKS® and PTC Creo® Parametric™. Learn more Place components in MCAD so that they are recognized in ECAD (available for SOLIDWORKS®, PTC Creo® Parametric™, Autodesk Inventor®), or use the native MCAD components when transferring PCB from ECAD to MCAD (available for SOLIDWORKS®, PTC Creo® Parametric™). Learn more Send a mechanical enclosure from MCAD to ECAD directly from your device assembly and simplify the design process in ECAD. Available for SOLIDWORKS®, PTC Creo® Parametric™, Autodesk Inventor®. Learn more View the detailed history of accepted and rejected changes between the electrical and mechanical teams, along with the rejection comments. Learn more PLM Integration
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"Ensure consistency between ECAD and PLM with component metadata synchronization (Arena, Winchill, Agile*, and Teamcenter*) *Supported on-prem only" Leverage configurable and automatic generation of manufacturing deliverables along with direct release and archive to PLM to ensure release data is accurate and complete. (Arena, Windchill, Agile*, and Teamcenter*) *Supported on-prem only Create an initial project data structure from ECAD directly into PLM, capturing all of your company-specific project parameters to drive efficiency and enterprise-wide transparency. Integrates With
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Design Data Storage
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Store and access all of your design assets in one centralized location in the cloud with full visibility of the changes made. Review every change that happens to your designs, including details like net and component modifications, with in-depth search capabilities for modified data. Manage schematic sheets, reusable layer stacks, design templates, and defaults. Store and manage all of your releases, form manufacturing packages and communicate changes with the manufacturer, all in one place. Define lifecycle states and assign them to design data, including components with models, managed schematics, and releases. Centralized Libraries and Supply Chain
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Easy-to-use design libraries stored in a centralized, secure, and version-controlled cloud platform. Control the list of manufacturing parts associated with the components in your design and always have up-to-date information about their status and availability. Access models, parameters, and basic lifecycle data for millions of electronic components in Octopart Formal data management for design library components, including support for lifecycle states, in-design validation, templates, and where-used traceability. Load component data from other external sources, including CSV, Excel, and ODBC. Advanced component data from IHS Markit. Proactively monitor design libraries for validity, quality, and potential issues. Teamwork
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With a managed workflow, automatically initiate the request process, electronically communicate with the librarian, and receive automated notifications when the validated part is ready for use. Enable cross-domain design teams and stakeholders to easily collaborate providing feedback and needed changes directly within design documents. Team members can review, mark-up, provide comments, and assign actions eliminating manual methods and miscommunications. Capture all of your company-specific project and required parameters every time a new project is created. Leverage an advanced approach to organizing, tracking and storing the design output files required for manufacturing a PCB design project. This employs an automated process that ‘releases’ a specific set of design output files to the server as read-only ‘Item’ revisions, which collectively corresponds to a physical entity that may be manufactured. Define and manage lifecycle definitions to provide better visibility of the states and transitions involved, with each lifecycle built in a graphical way to show the flows involved at-a-glance. Support and Services
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Connect with our community, join discussions, share tips, ask/answer questions, and give feedback to our developers. Quickly find in-depth answers and step-by-step instructions to the most common questions asked by users. Chat with Altium's staff of Technical Professionals 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday. Access on-demand educational videos and get previews of our full technical courses covering everything from introductory to advanced and specialized electronics design. Up to 5 hours of customized onboarding with a Dedicated Customer Success Manager to ensure your team gets set up quickly in Altium 365 as well as Live and On-Demand technical sessions to get you working efficiently in Altium 365. After on-boarding, your Customer Success Manager will continue to make periodic check-ins as required to ensure everything is on track and to proactively identify areas in Altium 365 that you may want to learn more about. Receive priority processing for escalated support tickets resulting from Live Chat. Get priority access to Altium's Technical Professionals through Live Chat ensuring faster connection times. Partner with a Customer Success Manager who, leveraging full access to the history of your deployment and utilization of tools, will be dedicated to you and your organization's success. Access to unlimited On-Demand Training for the duration of your subscription period. Cloud Storage
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