Difference between revisions of "Altium Designer"

Revision as of 11:24, 24 June 2013

Altium Designer is an advanced schematic and PCB design software.

Add the following libraries to get a good base to start from - edit the symbols or footprints to fit your need
Libraries:
- Miscellaneous Devices and Miscellaneous Connectors
- Altium 10 libraries - all major manufacturers covered
- SparkFun Altium PCB Library - selection of common parts
- siliconvalleygarage.com - good selection

Create a schematic and add it to the PCB group by dragging it in the Projects panel
Save the board in a new project folder

Create a new PCB board using the PCB Wizard on the Files panel and drag the PCB into the PCB group in the Projects panel
Right-click the sheet and select Options, Board Options and uncheck Display Sheet
Add the necessary design rules before transferring the schematic, i.e. thicker power traces for power nets
Save the board in the same folder as the schematic

Create a new Schematic Library to collect the new symbols, save it to a common location
Open the other Integrated Library or Schematic Library from the File menu and in the Project panel pick the SchLib file
Switch over to the SCH Library panel to view all the symbol drawings
In Tools, select Copy component to save it to your own Schematic Library from the list
Make the changes to the symbol and save it
To use the new symbol, open the Schematic and place a new component, select your own SchLib file to view the list of all the components

Create a new PCB Library for the new footprints
Open the other PCB Library, from the File menu, with the footprint you want to edit and pick it from the Projects panel
Switch to the PCB Library panel to view all the footprints, pick the right one
In Edit, pick Copy Component to copy the entire footprint
Switch over to your own PCB Library in the Projects panel, the PCB Library, and right-click in the Components list to Paste 1 Components to the library
Edit the footprint and save it for later use

Open your PCB Library and switch over to PCB Library panel
In Tools, pick IPC Compliant Footprint Wizard to make common SMD footprints or Component Wizard for all other kinds
The footprint is automatically added to your current open PCB library

In the schematic, select Footprint manager in the Tools menu
Go through the list to by clicking Add and Browse to pick the correct footprint for each component
Right-click to select As current to make it active

Compile the schematic in the Project menu and watch the System, Messages window for error messages, double-click the line to focus on the fault
In the schematic, select the Design menu and Update PCB to transfer the design
Click Validate Changes and Execute Changes, watch for errors after the transfer has been performed
All the components footprints will now be placed besides the PCB board outline ready to be placed and routed

If one of the transfers fails with a message "unknown pin", do:

Open the PCB Library for the footprint and find the footprint in the PCB Library panel
Change the name and designator to match the schematic symbol, i.e. pin 1 in the symbol should be pin 1 on footprint
Save and switch over to the footprint manager to change to the new footprint/make sure the pin designators has been updated

Place the components in a favorable way with common components grouped close together to minimize trace length
Use Interactive Routing from the Place menu to lay the traces
It might be useful to perform a Autoroute to check if there is problems or better ways to place the components, undo the autoroute

@@ Line 48: / Line 48: @@
 * In the schematic, select Footprint manager in the Tools menu
 * Go through the list to by clicking Add and Browse to pick the correct footprint for each component
+* Right-click to select As current to make it active
 == Transfer design ==