Import an electrical package

Upchain enables you to import and manage your electical CAD data and generate a bill of materials (BOM) within a project.

Requirements

Before you begin, you must have:

• An active project and be added to the project team.
• A Professional license.
• The Upchain for Office plugin installed.

Create an eCAD template

Click here to learn how to create an eCAD template.

Gather the required files

To import the electrical package into Upchain, you must have the following files:

• An Excel spreadsheet that contains a list of all items included in the eCAD BOM. This spreadsheet must have the same column headings as those included in the eCAD template.
• A zipped file of the electrical project files.

Optionally, you can also include a drawing that contains the electrical schematics. This would likely be a PDF file but can be another file type supported by the PDF viewer. It is useful to include a drawing so that other non-eCAD users can view the electrical schematics.

Import the electrical package into Upchain

At this stage, you should have:

• An eCAD template.
• All required files saved to your computer.

1. Open the project into which you want to import the electrical package.

2. Open the BOM () section of the project.

3. Create an item for the new electrical package.

   Important: You must choose Electrical Package as the item type. Only the Electrical Package item type has the option to import electrical CAD data and other electrical documents to the BOM.

4. Once the item is created, load it into the center view.

5. Select item actions () > Import > Electrical.

   The eCAD import window opens.

6. Select the desired eCAD template from the BOM Template field.

7. Click Add files and select the Excel file containing the electrical package item details and the zip file. You can also include the drawing here as well.

8. Click Proceed.

The eCAD import process begins.

The eCAD BOM is created based on the components listed in the Excel spreadsheet. The BOM is created as a flat list of items under the parent Electrical Package item. Upchain uses the item name, manufacturer, and manufacturer's item number attributes to determine if the item already exists.

• If it does, it brings the latest version of it into the BOM. This latest version may already have a status of Released.

  • If the item exists but is a Manufactured item, the item type is changed to a Purchased ElectroMechanical Part.

• If it doesn't, the item is created as a Purchased Electrical Part and given a status of Development. It is assigned a new item number and is at its first revision level.

The item attributes for the child items in the eCAD BOM are populated based on the attributes that were included in the eCAD template.

The Excel spreadsheet and the zip file of the eCAD project are uploaded into the Electrical Package item in the item details > Documents > Specification documents > cBOM section.

If you imported a drawing as well, this is placed in the Electrical Package item in the item details > Documents > Specification documents > Drawing section.