Variant changes not shown in schematics nor BOM

Question

Hi,

I tried to make my first variant in CS. My need was to remove 3 components from my base design to make the specification for production PCB.

Making a variant seems to be quite straightforward. Marking the components "not fitted" is simple. But these seem to have no effect on the schematic nor the output files.

Is there something I need to do besides creating the variant? I am using the default Drawing Style options as given when the first variant was created. I have understood it should draw a red cross over the "not fitted" components (just like the example shows when in the drawing style dialog you toggle this option on and off and on again). Additionally all the components are still listed in BOM.

I would very much like to get the variants to work. I can of course do this in the old style editing manually the BOM and writing notes to our PCB manufacturer, but the variants seem to be the better way - if it works.

Are there anywhere else some settings I need to adjust to get variants to work? Now I have just made sure the Current Variant on Project-> Project Actions show the right variant I want to use.

BR Olli

e14softwareuk · Accepted Answer

Hi, assuming you have set up variants correctly and marked the 3 components as not fitted you should be able to view the red cross through the components in the schematic editor. If you open the schematic sheet at the bottom of the document window there should be two tabs, "Editor" and "Sheet1" (assuming your sheet was named Sheet1). Selecting Editor views the schematic as normal, selecting Sheet1 puts the schematic into variant view. Use the Project > Current Variant drop down to select between your base design and variants, this will show not-fitted components with a big red cross. For the BOM you will need to select the variant from the Generate Outputs dialog, this will then generate for that specific board variant.

Variant changes not shown in schematics nor BOM

Top Replies