Skip to main content
B
bridgel1-Visitor
1-Visitor
February 12, 2014
Solved

Rigid/flex CCA modeling

  • February 12, 2014
  • 3 replies
  • 8608 views

I am looking to model a rigid/flex CCA. I was hoping to model the board and flexes as one entity all flat and then fold it up. The problem I am having is that the rigid areas and flex areas are different thicknesses so when I try to convert to sheetmetal it doesn't work. Any ideas on how to make this work?

Seems if I make the rigid areas and flex areas all different parts and assemble them, they loose connection when I bend them.


This thread is inactive and closed by the PTC Community Management Team. If you would like to provide a reply and re-open this thread, please notify the moderator and reference the thread. You may also use "Start a topic" button to ask a new question. Please be sure to include what version of the PTC product you are using so another community member knowledgeable about your version may be able to assist.
    Best answer by bridgel

    I have successfully created my rigid flex using family tables. It works fantastically and it is very easy to determine the flex lengths. Each rigid board was modeled and the parts were added via IDF export from Mentor Graphics. Each flex was modeled and converted to sheet metal. The boards and flexes were assembled. The family table allows me to have versions bent, flat, and with and without the parts. It is great. I bit of setup to define each table entry, but not bad. The only thing I found annoying was it would not allow me to select all the components on the board and add them to the family table. I had to do them one at a time. If you have a board with a lot of parts, that would be a pain. Would be nice if it would take them as a group. I did not see how to do that.

    3 replies

    T
    TomD.inPDX17-Peridot
    17-Peridot
    February 12, 2014

    You cannot thin sheetmetal and have it remain a sheetmetal feature where it understands what you did.

    There is Spinal Bend for flexures... and now we have Warp. Setting up flexures is not simple, but you can fool the system in many ways... including intelligent sections that allow for the deviation where the assembly can control the next level state with flexible component settings.

    It all depends on what you want to do, but I suspect in your case, sheetmetal is not the right choice.

    T
    TomD.inPDX17-Peridot
    17-Peridot
    February 12, 2014

    ...and what is CCA?

    D
    dschenken1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    February 13, 2014

    Circuit Card Assy.

    Flexible boards are a problem to model as you are capturing the behavior of a complex assembly of various materials. It's a composites stress analysis problem, though the properties of the component materials are uniform, the distribution of copper, reinforcements, attached components, and vias make it far from easy. Much cheaper to build and test.

    B
    bridgel1-VisitorAuthor
    1-Visitor
    February 14, 2014

    So I lost track here. Whole lot of stuff I don't understand. Being an EE and just dabbeling in mechanical stuff. Soundsl ike the bottom line is that there is no way to use sheetmetal mode with a part that varies in thickness. Is that a fact? Sounds like I might be able to do something with a spinal bend (I assume this is not a sheetmetal mode) I have not seen that option yet. My company is too cheap to buy the training and our initial technical support ran out so I'm grasping for straws here.

    D
    dschenken1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    February 14, 2014

    It's a basic feature. IN WF5 it;s under insert/advanced.

    You create a curve that represents a path to take and then specify two planes which bound the material to bend. If the distance between the planes is not the same as the length of the curve, spinal bend will shrink or expand the material to fit.

    Its interesting to use, and OK for pictures.

    B
    bridgel1-VisitorAuthor
    1-Visitor
    February 14, 2014

    This sounds interesting. I will have to play with it.

    B
    bridgel1-VisitorAuthorAnswer
    1-Visitor
    April 10, 2014

    I have successfully created my rigid flex using family tables. It works fantastically and it is very easy to determine the flex lengths. Each rigid board was modeled and the parts were added via IDF export from Mentor Graphics. Each flex was modeled and converted to sheet metal. The boards and flexes were assembled. The family table allows me to have versions bent, flat, and with and without the parts. It is great. I bit of setup to define each table entry, but not bad. The only thing I found annoying was it would not allow me to select all the components on the board and add them to the family table. I had to do them one at a time. If you have a board with a lot of parts, that would be a pain. Would be nice if it would take them as a group. I did not see how to do that.

      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement