This new app integrates SnapEDA’s database directly within Fusion 360, enabling electronics engineers and designers to search and place millions of electronic component models - including symbols, footprints and 3D models - directly within the Fusion 360 environment.

Creating computer-aided design (CAD) models is a time-consuming and error-prone process. SnapEDA provides engineers with ready-to-use CAD models, aiming to save engineers time, while allowing them to create more impactful products. Today, over a million engineers use SnapEDA’s search engine each year, with Autodesk’s user community making up over 20% of that audience, according to SnapEDA.

Fusion 360 unifies schematic capture, PCB design, library management, simulation, and mechanical design into a single development platform. As a result, Fusion 360 provides a native 3D experience when designing electronics, eliminating the need for interchange between file formats, and ensuring that mechanical constraints are considered at every stage of the PCB design process.

“Fusion 360 is on the forefront of MCAD and ECAD integration. Autodesk is rethinking the electronic design experience from first principles, breaking down barriers we previously accepted as status quo. This resonates with us at SnapEDA, where we are taking a similar approach as we pioneer the electronics design data space. We are honored to jointly serve Fusion 360 users with this complementary offering,” said Natasha Baker, Founder and CEO of SnapEDA.

“As products get more sophisticated and complex, it’s increasingly critical that the process of designing integrated electronics and PCBs be efficient, accurate and seamless,” said Srinath Jonnalagadda, Autodesk’s VP of Business Strategy & Marketing for Fusion 360. “Our collaboration with SnapEDA puts its robust libraries of part models easily at the fingertips of Fusion users, immediately benefiting the engineers and designers who are building the future.”

Using the app is simple. Engineers simply search for the part they need, either using the manufacturer part number, or a keyword, such as ‘usb type c connector.’ After selecting a part, they can either place it directly in their designs, or add it to their library. The library is then synced with Library.io, to enable corporate sharing, or syncing with other Autodesk tools such as EAGLE.

The new SnapEDA for Autodesk Fusion 360 app features thousands of electronic component manufacturers and is updated with new supplier content each day. Notably, the SnapEDA database includes over 500,000 complex connector models from Samtec, a global manufacturer of interconnect solutions. Its connector models are especially beneficial to engineers because connectors often take many hours or even days to define, due to their custom-shaped bodies, custom solder stencils, fine pitches, irregular pad shapes, and cutouts.

To celebrate the launch on the new SnapEDA for Autodesk Fusion 360 app, Samtec welcomes Fusion 360 customers to request CAD models, for free, of any Samtec parts that aren’t yet available in its digital library. The part symbol and footprint will be created and delivered to the user within 24 hours via SnapEDA’s InstaPart service. Once created, the models are then made available to the entire SnapEDA and Fusion 360 communities for free.

“Samtec is known as the industry leader in customer service, and we challenge ourselves to evolve and redefine that expectation for our customers year after year. Partnering with SnapEDA and Autodesk in this effort was an obvious way to celebrate the steps that they are taking to do the same. Together, we’re making an engineer’s job easier and enabling them to work faster. 2020 highlighted the importance of having those efficiencies in place, and we’re grateful for partnerships like these that help us do our part,” said Ashley Quinlan, Strategic Marketing Director, Samtec.

The free Samtec requests will be exclusively available to users of the new SnapEDA for Autodesk Fusion 360 app and Samtec website users at time of launch.