How to send an IDF from Creo to Mentor Xpedition with components included?

[SR_9103733]

I am trying to figure out how to pass an IDF from Creo (7.0.8.0) to my electrical coworkers who use Mentor Xpedition. I have been able to import IDF pairs I have received from them and see all the components, but I can't seem to export an IDF that shows them the components.

Why is it that Creo only exports an emn from an assembly and no emp? When I send the emn over and they import it to Xpedition, they get the board outline, holes, keepouts, etc. but the components don't come in and it says "Component [ref des] found in IDF file but not in design so it was not imported" and I'm not sure what that error really means.

How can I give an IDF with components placed with their outlines to my EEs?

[tbraxton]

Are you certain you are flagging components to be exported from Creo when you are creating the .emn file? Check the export status of components to make sure they are included.

Try following the process shown in this link and report back if it does not work.

To Export Board Outline and Component Assembly Data (ptc.com)

[SR_9103733]

Yes, all the components are being exported (I did specifically have to go in and flip some coordinate systems around to do so and get the export status set to "YES" on all of them). When I open the emn in the notepad, they're there like this (part numbers redacted):

[tbraxton]

I assume you are using IDF 3.0 if not please clarify which version.

Without actual files it can be tricky to get to a root cause.

The .emn has the component location and orientation info in it when exporting out of Creo, this is good. IME the most likely cause of this type of issue is related to the csys of the components and the PCB and how they are managed. There are default ecad names for boards and parts that Creo needs to manage, have you configured these with your config options and start parts? Do you have a hint map file for components within a library or project space?

One thing to check is to make sure that the Z axis of the component ecad csys for all ecad components is normal to the PCB placement plane (top/bottom). For the PCB itself the ecad origin must have the z axis normal to the thickness of the PCB.

[SR_9103733]

Yes, IDF 3.0 and the z axis are all normal to the board (it wouldn't export them otherwise).

I have not touched anything in the config files and I'm not aware of a hint map file, I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do there. Our Creo is linked to our Windchill server, so all the parts come from there- so when I send the emn to another mechanical, they can open it in Creo and it gets all the parts from there. So I don't know how Xpedition would get the parts.- they do have a library where they should be able to pull the parts from as well, but I don't know their naming convention ( I could probably find out though) and I also don't know where each part's coordinate system would be.

[tbraxton]

The hint map file is what is used to map the mechanical (Creo) library of parts to that of the ECAD library of parts (Mentor). If you do not have a process for ECAD/MCAD data exchange that deals with library part origin and orientation standards etc. that may be part of your issue. Does your company have a documented process for data exchange for MCAD/ECAD?

[SR_9103733]

Ah thank you, that makes sense! Right now our MCAD/ECAD data exchange process/documentation is limited to importing IDF pairs (board plus components) from Xpedition to Creo and exporting emns (boards only, no components) from Creo to Xpedition. That's why I'm investigating this now- I'm trying to expand that so that we can export boards with components from Creo to Xpedition. 

I guess that means I have to dig into the ECAD library and figure out how to match up our MCAD parts to their ECAD parts. I have concerns about coordinate systems not matching up, as like I said I had to flip some coordinate systems around on the parts in Creo in order to get them to export- but it sounds like if I at least keep a common scheme for all the csys (maybe tie them to pin1?) I can make the hint map file translate those over correctly?

[tbraxton · Accepted solution]

Definitely read about the hint map file and what it does. Talk with your Windchill admin about this before you establish standards as it will likely require some mods within Windchill to get it to work as you want it.

I worked on the team that set this up for Motorola back in the 90s. We ended up with full time librarians that created the component models for both the MCAD and ECAD libraries and maintained the library for each within Windchill.  Once set up it worked quite well. Many man hours went into defining the standards and documenting the process before deployment for production use.