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  • Author Author: embeddedguy
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PCB designing with Autodesk Fusion 360

embeddedguy

Most of us who like to make PCBs are familiar with Eagle CAD drawing software. I started using EAGLE when it was taught in my university during my bachelors degree. At that time I did not even realize that PCB designing skills would be very useful to me in the future even after years of passing out.

But some time ago Autodesk announce that it will discontinue EAGLE from somewhere in the mid of 2027. That was a bit shocking news for me who used EAGLE to design some PCBs.

But recently I gave found that Autodesk Fusion 360 for personal use is cloud-based development platform also to design PCBs, with similar features as EAGLE has. It is free to use for personal use and has limited features. BTW the full feature version comes at $ 85/month or $ 768/year plan.

For now, I just give it a try to Fusion for personal user. Here is a 2-layer PCB layout design. I personally found Fusion 360 for PCB easy to use and it has some nice features that helps developer to create complex PCB. 

What do you think? Let me know in the comments,

image

  • in reply to embeddedguy

    Agree, they explicitly call that out in the datasheet too.

  • in reply to embeddedguy

    Hi! I understand that, but what I mean is that the ground path needs to follow the RF signal path all the way back to the IC. It shouldn't deviate and have to travel through other portions of the PCB through multiple vias if that is happening.

    Since there's no full ground plane, that path needs to be checked and corrected (I can't work that path out, it's hard to do visually).

  • in reply to shabaz

    All those separate GND islands are connected with VIAs.

  • in reply to shabaz

    One thing to note that according to reference design, the GND pin from C6 as seen above is only supposed to be connected to GND pin 32 on Chip.

  • in reply to embeddedguy

    I'm having trouble seeing what is the ground path for the RF. Looking at the top layer, I've colored in green the connections on the IC that are grounded, and there's only one via from the IC to the bottom layer.

    Then, looking at the bottom layer, I've marked in green the area of copper that connects to that via. From then on, I can see how the ground area to the left of the IC gets connected (using the top layer, but I've not colored that green to keep it simple), but can't see how that path eventually leads to the antenna.

    I also tried working backward from the antenna ground, but can't see the path that will lead back to the ground on the IC. I'm sure it does connect since the electrical rules passed for you, but it's quite a difficult path to visually follow. I reckon you will need to move to a 4-layer layout, if it's this tight. Otherwise, performance will be impacted. If desired, you could import your EAGLE project into KiCad, and then you'll be able to generate ground planes on the inner layers. There's a learning curve but well worth doing that, unless you're planning to upgrade to 4-layer EAGLE.

    The reference design also has via holes on the center pad to the ground plane, you'll need to add those.

    image