From Autodesk University, Stephen Hooper (Director of Autodesk Fusion 360) gave the attendees a glimpse of what’s to come. He presented 5 new features coming to F360 and number 1 was integrated electronic PCB design via eagleCAD. From the video, you can see a demo of a PCB being drawn in F360, then brought into Eagle where components are laid out. The .brd file is then presented in F360 where you can select “Create PCB”. That brings it to a web UI where tools like “Detailed Components View” will automatically install all of the associated components to the board. It gets embedded back into F360 where a “clash” is found but quickly fixed by adjusting the board in Eagle and gets automatically updated in F360. The back and forth seems relatively seamless. This could be quiet helpful for projects that need a tight integration from PCB to enclosure.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
An interesting and timely addition to Fusion360 following the acquisition of Cadsoft. It’ll be interesting to see some functional integration of (both abstracted and higher fidelity) models of ME/EE/SW for more integrated modelling, design and simulation purposes…..and to better integrate, qualify and reuse digital assets during design/validate/manufacture/test/in-use/service lifecycles.
An interesting and timely addition to Fusion360 following the acquisition of Cadsoft. It’ll be interesting to see some functional integration of (both abstracted and higher fidelity) models of ME/EE/SW for more integrated modelling, design and simulation purposes…..and to better integrate, qualify and reuse digital assets during design/validate/manufacture/test/in-use/service lifecycles.