Altium Designer

Altium Designer is an advanced schematic and PCB design software.

• PCB Design

Base settings

• Text height: 30mil [1]
• Text width: 8mil
• Grid snap: 5mil

Layer Standards

• Mechanical 1 – Board Outline (along with the Keep-Out Layer, but that can be used for other things also)
• Mechanical 2 – PCB Info (manfacturing info, added as text)
• Mechanical 11 – Top Layer Dimensions <paired with M12>
• Mechanical 12 – Bottom Layer Dimensions <paired with M11>
• Mechanical 13 – Top Layer Component Body Information (3D models and mechanical outlines) <paired with M14>
• Mechanical 14 – Bottom Layer Component Body Information (3D models and mechanical outlines) <paired with M13>
• Mechanical 15 – Top Layer Courtyard and Assembly Information <paired with M16>
• Mechanical 16 – Bottom Layer Courtyard and Assembly Information <paired with M15>

Libraries

• 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
  • altium designer addons - tons of scripts and libraries

New project

• Add a new PCB group by in the File menu

New Schematic

• 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

New PCB

• 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

Edit schematic symbols

• 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

Edit footprint

• 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

Make generic footprint

• 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

Define footprints for components

• 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 Set As Current to make it active

Transfer design

• 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

Routing board

Traces

• 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
• Shortcut for Interactive Routing is P+T

• Routing a net reference

Re-routing board

• Use the Interactive Routing tool to place a new trace, the old one will automatically be erased when the new on is laid
• To unroute a trace use T+U+C

Adding via and changing layer automatically

• While routing a trace, press "+" and click to add a via and change signal layer

Quickly change via or trace size

• Press the 3 and 4 button while placing a via or trace to change to to preferred, max or min according to the set rules

Ground pour

• Place a Polygon Pour from the Place menu
• Select Solid and change the Net to GND
• Click the four corners of the board to mark the area where the copper should pour/remain
• To make it easier to place and route the board, hide the pour by right-clicking on the board, Options, Show/Hide, and Hide Polygons
• After moving parts, update the pour in Tools Polygon Pour and Repour All Polygons

Branding logo

• Open the design in Photoshop in PaintBrush, resize to 1000px width
• Select all and ctrl+c to copy to clipboard
• Switch to Altium PCB document and ctrl+v to paste it into the board
• Use the square handles to resize the logo
• In the PCB Inspector switch layer to Top Overlayer or Bottom Overlay
• To flip or mirror the design, mark the design, Edit, Select and Flip selection

Board shape

• Select Design, Board Shape, Redefine Board Shape and click on the 4 corners to outline the board size
• Then select Create Primitives From Board Shape, 4mil width, put the board outline on the Keep-out layer (Gerber friendly, GKO file)

Fabrication files

• To get standard Gerber manufacturing files, open the PCB and select File, Fabrication Output and Gerber files
• Select Format 2:5, clock Plot Layers and Used on, deselect Paste, Mechanical, and Pad Master layers and enable the GKO Board Outline layer when sending to a PCB manufacturer
• Click OK and get the Gerber files
• Then for the drill files, go to File, Fabrication Output and NC Drill files
• Select Format 2:5 and click OK to export the drill text file

Multiple board design

To keep multiple PCB boards design updated, each separate board has to be kept in individual .PcbPrjct files. All the schematics are then added to a master project with only ScDoc files, no PcbDoc files. This keeps all the net and rules the same for the schematics but the PCB layout nested. See this article for details.

References

• Alitum tricks and standards