Flexible PCB?

May 26, 2004 3 Replies

Are there any solutions or features with-in Solidworks that would be useful in the design of flex circuit boards. We currently dont have a sufficient way to create flex board w/out using the paperdoll method. I have been looking in to what could help solve this problem. We'd love to have a model that can represent the entire assembly from the housing all the way down to the electrical components on a flexboard. Like to see a flex board in its bent state then be able to make a "flat pattern" of sorts for creating a drawing for dimensioning and producing



All thoughts and ideas and examples are appreciated.



ADAM


Adam,

What is a flex board and how does it work?

Dennis

SolidWorks is fairly good for modeling flex circuits. Just think of them as very wimpy sheet metal. Sketched bends allow you to bend them flat on themselves. Flat patterns work great. The hard part is when you get a model back from the EEs. We use Protel and the EDA-Desktop interface to generate a solid model from the electrical design. It doesn't understand flexes, so the parts are all brought in fixed. You have to play games to get the parts to move properly when you bend the flex. (Mating all the components is not much fun!)

Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems "take the garbage out, dear"

Maybe this is a good use for the Deform feature?

Mike Wilson

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