How to Make a PCB Board With Fusion360

This project aims to build a PCB board for soldering practice using Fusion360.

Julia Piascik

• Fusion360

We will first create our own components library to create the board. Fusion360 has a great library filled with footprints for all types of electronic components; however, since our PCB design does not use any of them, we will combine multiple soldering pads to create 5 different components; ESC, FCBOTTOM, FCRIGHT, FCLEFT, FCTOP and ESCBATTERY.

Open up Fusion and click on File and then New Electronics Library.

Click Add Footprint and name your new footprint. I will do the "ESCBATTERY".

Above View, click on the grid icon and change the size to 1 mm or inch (depending on how you want to measure the sizes of the soldering pads and the spaces between them). Click OK.

SMD (Solder Mask Defined) Pads are a type of soldering pad used for surface mounting. Essentially, they are solid soldering pads with no holes through them. They will show up as red/orange drawings on the grid.

When you click on SMD PAD, a window with the Angle, Size, and Roundness will pop up.

Angle: Changes the orientation of the pad.

Size: You can select one of the provided sizes or double-click to type in a custom size.

Roundness: Rounds the edges. 100% gives you a circle.

PTH (Plated and Non-Plated Trough Holes) Pads are soldering pads with a through-hole, allowing us to put wires through them. They will show up as mint green drawings on the grid.

When you click on PTH PAD, a window with the Rotate, PadShape, size of the pad, and size of the hole will pop up.

Rotate: Changes the orientation of the pad.

PadShape: Icons show how the pad will look like. There is a square, circle, octagon, long, offset, and slot.

When you click on the square, circle, octagon, long, or offset, the first measurement is the overall size of the pad.

When you click on the slot option, the first measurement is the width of the pad, while the second measurement is the length of the hole.

The last measurement for all pad options is the width of the hole.

For all measurements, you can select one of the provided sizes or double-click to type in a custom size.

For the ESCBATTERY, I will use the SMD pad.

Click on SMD PAD, and put your values into the pop-up window. With the WINDOW STILL OPEN, click on the grid to place the pad. Once you have placed all pads, click DONE on the window.

Click File, Save. A window will pop up, instructing you to name the library.

Repeat steps 2 and 5 to make as many footprints as you need for your PCB.

If you would like to add text to your board, you will need to do this while you are in the footprint settings. You can create a new footprint for the text, or you can add it to an existing footprint.

Click on Text or the A icon. A window will pop up with a large text box, size, font, font family, ratio, line distance, align, mirror, angle, and spin. Play around with the settings until you like the look of your text. With the WINDOW STILL OPEN, click on the grid to place the text. Click DONE on the window.

Click on the top left, Create New Component. A window will pop up asking you to name the device. I named mine the same as the footprint so as not to get confused.

Click OK.

On the right side, click New, Add local package. Your footprints will pop up. Click on the footprint with the same name. Click OK. Click Connect. Click OK.

Repeat this step for all footprints created.

Click File, Save.

Click File, New Electronics Design. Click New Schematic. Click on All Libraries and search for the library you just created. It usually is at the bottom of the list. Double-click on it.

Click on the component you want and drag and drop to the open white space on the right side. YOU WILL NOT SEE THE COMPONENT. Do not worry! The components that we created do not have a physical chip or electronic, so it will not show up. Click DONE on the pop-up window, or else the components will not show up in the PCB window.

Drag and drop all components and as many as you need. Try to space them out randomly.

Click Save.

Click SWITCH and Switch to PCB document. Your components should be found on the left side of a big black box outlined in yellow.

Click on the grid icon, change the size to 1 mm or inch, and Display On. Click OK.

To change the size of the PCB board, click on one of the yellow lines. It should appear highlighted. While clicking, drag it to change its size. You can do this with all sides.

To make a custom shape, click on BOARD. A window will pop up with bend, line width, style, radius, and miter.

Select your preferences and start drawing inside of the previous box. Make sure your drawing is a closed shape or else the design will not work. Click DONE. Delete any lines that are not part of your design. Your final PCB board should have a black inside, and the surrounding outside area should be dark gray.

Click on your components and drag them into your board design. Click Save.

To get the files for PCBWay or any other manufacturing company, click MANUFACTORING, which should be below your PCB tab. Click on the third option, Export Gerber, NC Drill, Assembly, and Drawing Outputs. Click OK.

CONGRATULATIONS! You just made a PCB board.