Custom families

The custom families are out of FIDES scope, they can be used for R&D purpose or if you have a specific domain of application where the FIDES Guide is not applicable.

Enabling custom families

To use custom families in your document, you have to enable the feature first. For that, go to the Properties tab

Properties tab

Here, you can check the Use custom families checkbox, and then press the save button in the upper-right corner ( save ).

The, a new Custom family tab appears.

Managing custom families

To have access to the custom family management, you have to go to the Custom Family tab.

Custom Family tab

Creating new custom families

You can create a new custom family using the add () button of the custom family table (at left). Then edit the form:

Custom family creation form

A custom family is necesserely linked to an existing standard family defined in the FIDES guide. That is why the creation form let you choose any family among the 3 following macro families :

Electronic components
Microwave and radiofrequency components
Miscellaneous subassemblies

Once this standard has been chosen, it cannot be edited after.

Editing a custom family

Once created, you can select the corresponding row in the custom family table to display the custom family edition panel.

Custom family edition panel

Custom families are made of 6 elements :

Main fields : describes the behaviour on the custom family, with combobox selections and formula definitions
Family params & applications stresses : params used in the custom family formulas, that must be displayed in the component form
Laws : physical laws that are used to compute the failure rate for this family
Pi forms : Forms for Pi that are used in the custom family
Data tables : Tables that are used in the custom family formulas.
Law modifiers : Law modifiers are rules applied on laws on specifics conditions, when the component is in a hybrid or multi-chip component.

By default, all these elements are duplicated from the chosen standard family.

Main fields

The custom family main fields are editable in the properties form.

Custom family edition form

Here you can edit :

C sensibility : formula
Pi placement : either a formula, or a pre-defined form
Pi PM : pre-defined form
Pi Item : pre-defined form and a type
Lambda wearout : formula
Lambda family : formula evaluated and then added to the lambda constant

All the formulas are edited as a textual mathematical expression. You can press the help () button to see what you can do, or what operation are authorised. Some formula may need to use a FIDES param that can be :

a Family param
an application stress
a FIDES pre-defined table
a field from an entity (Mission profile phase, BOM item)
A Pi value

To help to insert params inside formula field, you can press on keyboard CTRL+SPACE keys. It will open the param insert popup.

Formula field auto-complete popup

You can then search you param and insert it in your formula by pressing ENTER key (when selected), double-click on it, or click on the OK button.

Family params & applications stresses

You can edit the params associated to the custom family in the Family params panel.

Custom family params panel

You can switch params from left (available params) to right (associated params) by clicling on the corresponding buttons : ( left/right selection )

Once a param is associated to the family (right table), you can edit the selection by double-clicking on cells for complementary columns :

Is Optional : Indicates if the param is mandatory or not
H&M param : Indicates if the param should be displayed only in a hybrid or multi-chip module component
Column span : (1 or 2) Specify the field width in the BOM item form
Parameter Index : Specify the order of the param in the BOM item form
Default value : Define a default value for the field. That means that the parameter is fixed to that value.

Once finished, don't forget to press the Save button (top right).

Laws

Yon can edit laws for a custom family by clicking on the Laws tab. It displays the law edition panel.

Custom family laws panel

The law edition panel is divided into 2 parts :

the laws table (at left)
the law form (at right, displayed when selecting a law in the table)

The law table enables you to add or remove a law.

You can add a new law by pressing the add () button. It displays the law creation popup :

Custom family law creation form

Here you can choose :

the law type : Physical stress that the law described
the law class : Mathematical formula corresponding to the law
a specific name : Used to distinguish 2 laws with the same type in the result tables (can be empty)

Once created, you can edit the law formulas by selecting it in the table.

Custom family law edition form

Don't forget to press the Save button (top right) for each law when finished.

Pi forms

FIDES Lab does not offer to edit / customize PI forms yet. You have to choose one of the existing pre-defined form in the FIDES guide.

Data tables

FIDES Lab does not offer to edit data tables yet. You can only used pre-defined FIDES guide tables already linked to the associated standard family.

Law modifiers

FIDES Lab does not offer to edit law modifiers yet. That means that the laws follows the same modification rules as the associated standard family in case the component is inside a hybrid or multi-chip module component.

Actions on custom families

The custom family table enables you to do some more actions on custom families :

Button	feature
	Deletes the selected custom families
	Copy the selected custom families to the clipboard
	Paste the previously copied custom families to the table, adding new lines
	Export table content into an EXCEL file
	Import custom families from a Open-Fides
	Export selected custom families into Open-Fides format

Custom family signature

Custom family have their own signature, created when saving them into an OpenFIDES file (partial or full saving). This signature ensures that the custom family has not been altered.

It is checked when the OpenFIDES file is loaded and displays a warning if there is a problem with the signature.