Pushing, Pulling, and Importing IDX Files

You can push, pull, and import IDX (Incremental Design Exchange) files that contain modifications to a board such as holes, constraint areas, and component instances. These files are useful for collaboration between ECAD and MCAD designers.

Note: There are two types of IDX files.
  • Baseline IDX files contain all the data of a board. They can be imported into an ECAD program.
  • Change IDX files only contain the data relevant to the changes of a board. These files are particularly useful for MCAD designers.

This task shows you how to:

Before you begin:

Make sure that Circuit Board Design is running.

See Also
Exchanging IDF Data

Push an IDX as Baseline

You can push an IDX file as a baseline or a change.

  1. Click Push IDX .
  2. Select Push as baseline and click OK.
    1. From the EDMD Push dialog box, select More options.
    2. Edit the General and System fields as required.
  3. Click Push.
  4. In the file explorer, select a file location, rename it, and click Save.

    The newly created IDX file contains all the board's data.

    A notification titled Push succesful appears.

The baseline IDX file containing all the board's data is created and is used as a reference for future changes in the board.

Push an IDX as Change

You can push an IDX file as a baseline or a change.

  1. Click Push IDX.
    The EDMD Push Choice dialog box appears.
  2. Select Push changes.
    1. Select a baseline IDX file to compare with.
    2. Edit the General and System fields as required.
    3. Click OK.
  3. Click Push.
  4. From the file explorer, select a file location, rename it, and click Save.

The change IDX file is created and is used to import changes in the ECAD program.

Pull an IDX File

You can pull an IDX file to compare the changes with a baseline IDX file.

  1. Click Pull IDX.
  2. Select the IDX file that contains the changes and click Open.
    The EDMD Pull dialog box appears and lists the changes.
  3. Click Pull.
    An EDMD report dialog box appears to warn of any potential design conflicts.
  4. Click Close.
    • Click Dump and Close to dump the data and close the report.
    When relevant, a notification titled Push succesful appears.

The MCAD designer can now view and integrate changes created in the ECAD program.

Import an IDX Model

You can import a baseline IDX file to create a new board in a new tab in the 3DEXPERIENCE.

Before you begin: Create a new board assembly or import an IDX baseline file.
  1. From the 3D part node in the tree, click Import IDX.
    • Alternatively, from the top bar, you can import an IDX baseline file by clicking > Import... and scrolling down to select IDX (.idx) in the Format section of the Import panel.
  2. From the file explorer, select a baseline IDX and click Open.
    The EDMD Import dialog box appears and contains the name, status, type, and description of each characteristic in the imported file.
  3. Click Import.
    A new board assembly is created.
    Important: Layer stack data is not imported from IDX files.