Creating PCBAs

Objective: To learn how to import PCBAs from CAD applications.

Difficulty: Easy

In this article:

1. Component hierarchy
2. Independent revisioning
3. Exporting spreadsheets from electrical CAD applications

Duro makes it easy to import Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA) designs from any Electrical CAD application including Altium, Cadence, KiCAD, and Eagle. Users have several options for building their own PCBA component hierarchy in Duro that fits their workflows and suppliers' requirements. In this help document, we will demonstrate Duro's recommended structure that gives users the most flexibility for revisioning PCBs and Electrical Bill of Materials (EBOM), independently.

Component hierarchy

Users can build their PCBA in Duro from a mix of component categories available in their accounts. This includes PCBA, Printed Circuit Board (PCB), EBOM, Sub-Assembly, or any other assembly category. In this example, we will create three primary components in the following hierarchy:

At the top-most level is the PCBA itself. Nested at the first level are just two components, the PCB and EBOM, each with their own revision value. Within the EBOM assembly are all the passives, connectors, and any other components that are part of the BOM.

Independent revisioning

Since the PCB and BOM can be modified and revisioned independently of each other, this hierarchy makes it trivial to update each one independently.

For example:

• If the PCB layout is changed (e.g., traces re-routed, footprints rotated, etc.) but no BOM components were changed, then only the PCB component should be updated with the new board files.
• If the PCB layout is not modified but one or more passives were replaced with pin compatible parts (e.g., a 10k 0402 resistor was replaced with a 27k 0402 resistor), then only the EBOM needs to be updated and revisioned. 

Users can choose where to attach the production documents such as schematics, fab files, and Gerber files that makes the most sense for them and their Electronic Manufacturing Service (EMS) suppliers. In the above example, the schematic is attached at the top level PCBA while the fab and Gerber files are attached to the PCB component.

Exporting spreadsheets from electrical CAD applications

All electrical CAD applications allow exportation of the BOM into a .csv or .xlsx file format. Duro can accept either one. Furthermore, each CAD application allows users to customize which data fields are included in the export. To import data into Duro from a spreadsheet from an electrical CAD application, we recommend exporting the following fields from your CAD application:

1. Part name (should be unique)
2. Manufacturer Part Number (MPN)
3. Quantity
4. Reference designator
5. BOM notes

Duro also requires a category field for each component (e.g., resistor, capacitor, transistor, etc.), which some electrical CAD applications can include. If yours does not, Duro will automatically add the column during the import wizard where you can assign the appropriate values.

For more details about importing spreadsheets, see our Importing Spreadsheet Files help document.