Creating Fabrication and Assembly Drawings In Altium Designer | Design Outputs.New Draftsman Document | Altium Designer User Manual | Documentation
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The parameter listing can be narrowed down using the filter buttons at the top of the panel. A parameter can be quickly placed as a special string using the Place button at the bottom of the list when the parameter is selected in the panel.
The Parameters tab for the Board mode of the Properties panel provides you with comprehensive parametric information on your PCB design. Features for comparing locally saved schematic documents with a commit or release of the Altium Workspace project for which these documents are constituent parts have been implemented. After selecting a command, the comparison results will be presented in a new tab of your default web browser.
An example of schematic comparison results. In this release, a new Design Reuse mode of the Properties panel has been implemented. When a selected schematic or PCB component is part of a reuse block placed in the design, this mode can be accessed by clicking the Reuse Block link provided in the Component mode of the panel. The properties of the component's parent reuse block will be presented in the panel.
To return to the properties of the initially selected component, use the Component link. Access the reuse block properties from a component that is a part of this reuse block. The images above display accessing the properties from a schematic component. Hover the cursor over the image to see access from a PCB component. General tasks tasks applied to the current project but are not associated with a project comment or document are now shown in the Comments and Tasks panel.
These tasks are listed in the panel in a separate group under the entry of the project. For general tasks, the same content and attributes are shown in the panel as for regular tasks assignee, priority, etc.
General tasks are now listed in the Comments and Tasks panel. Each example demonstrates a real-world use case of simulation, complete with information on setting up the simulator and interpreting the results. In the Sim Data Editor, the Y-axis for simulation results can now be presented in logarithmic form in the same way that was previously possible for the X-axis. Use the Y Axis Setting dialog to configure the Y-axis to be presented in logarithmic form.
The following features have been taken out of Open Beta and have transitioned to Public in this release:. When this and the Jump to Results options are enabled, all found elements will be zoomed while other elements are dimmed according to the settings on the System — Navigation page of the Preferences dialog. To give you more flexibility, differential pairs can now be defined using custom suffixes in the Diff Pairs region of the Project Options - Options dialog.
Custom suffixes cannot be added if only one suffix of the pair is defined or if any of the suffixes are used in another pair of custom suffixes. The final goal of each PCB design is to get a correct and reliable set of assembly and fabrication outputs, and one purpose of any design tool is to provide a user with tools to find and resolve the issues that could arise during the design process before the design goes to production.
For example, PCB components could have degrees rotation value in previous versions of Altium Designer, but this situation is not allowed anymore in the current versions — the software will set such components to 0 degrees. To help you in detecting and resolving such issues, and some other issues that can arise under certain conditions, the concept of PCB Health Checks has been introduced. These checks allow you to discover common issues in the PCB design, fix them, and avoid potential problems during the next stages of the design and manufacturing process.
The list of available PCB Health checks will grow up moving forward. The Board mode of the Properties panel available when no object is selected in the active PCB document has the new Health Check tab that enables you to configure, perform, and explore the results of the PCB Health Check. Recommendations for fixing the issues of a specific type can also be found on this tab of the panel. The new Health Check tab of the Properties panel is in the Board mode.
This button allows you to control visibility for the board shapes of the PCBs that are constituents of the selected board array. Use the Board Shape button to control the visibility of the board shape. Hover the cursor over the image to see the difference between the enabled and disabled states. The Print dialog has been enhanced to streamline the configuration of the pages to be printed from a PCB design. Some options have been relocated and updated from bullets to highlighted boxes in order to improve the readability for our users.
The Pages tab now includes Printout Properties options for the display of surface mounts, through-holes, and design views, as well as a Displayed Layers region to configure specific layers.
All copper layer objects with a net assignment of No Net will be checked. To run the check, click Tools » Design Rule Check. The value field of this option applies to the plane. All other objects are checked regardless of size. This option is enabled by default.
Version control status icons provided in the Projects panel for documents are now active controls that can be clicked to receive more information on the VCS status of the document and access options to perform the relevant actions. For example, clicking the icon for a document that has locally-saved changes but that have not yet been sent to the Workspace shows the date and time when local changes have been saved, as well as options to save the project changes to the Workspace or revert local modifications of the document.
Click a VCS status icon in the Projects panel to show more information on the document status and access-related actions. The converted design project, which will retain the previous history of VCS commits, can then benefit from the Workspace's native VCS-enabled features, such as advanced project sharing, single authentication, and the event-based History timeline.
The New Library dialog has been introduced to facilitate the creation of a new library. The dialog is accessed by choosing File » New » Library from the main menus. It provides the flow to create a new Workspace library component, component template, footprint, or symbol, or for creating an older generation library file-based or database type library. The Name , Description , and Path of a local snippet can now be edited through the Snippet Properties dialog that is accessed from the Design Reuse panel by clicking within the local snippet's tile or right-clicking anywhere on the tile then selecting the Edit Properties command from the menu.
Edit properties of a local snippet using the Snippet Properties dialog accessed from the Design Reuse panel. When viewing variants on a compiled tab of a schematic document, alternate part properties are now displayed in the Properties panel, rather than the original component properties that were displayed in previous versions.
The alternate part properties are read-only. An alternate part is defined for a component on the schematic sheet. When a compiled tab is selected, the Properties panel will show the properties of the component for the current variant.
The ability to reuse design content not only saves time but also means that a set of proven circuitry blocks can be created, which helps reduce component inventory and frees up your design team to focus on the development of new concepts and products. To extend the existing concept of design snippets, new Reuse Blocks have been implemented in this release. When connected to your Altium Workspace, the new content of the Reuse Block type can be created, used, and managed, as well as Workspace-based schematic and PCB snippets.
The new Design Reuse panel provides access to reuse blocks and both Workspace-based and local snippets. The Design Reuse panel. A reuse block can contain both schematic circuitry and its physical representation for the PCB.
When such a reuse block is placed on a schematic sheet, its physical representation will be placed automatically during the ECO process.
This feature is in Open Beta and available when the UI. DesignReuse option is enabled in the Advanced Settings dialog. The Gerber Setup and Gerber X2 Setup dialogs have been replaced by the dialogs with specific options to suit each Gerber format. The new dialogs include two output naming options using either the PCB filename with a unique extension or a unique filename with a common extension.
When Gerber or Gerber X2 output is generated for a PCB panel an embedded board array , the new dialog includes a column for the panel as well as a column of layers for each board included in the panel. Use this new column to quickly verify that the various board layers are mapped to the correct panel layers. Learn more about Generating Gerber Fabrication Data.
GerberDialog option is enabled in the Advanced Settings dialog. ShowMirrorColumn option is enabled in the Advanced Settings dialog. Along with the current ways of accessing the Library Importer e. When the library to be imported is selected in the dialog, click the Import control in the dialog's grid section. New component categories to be created during the import process and the Uncategorized entry are now labeled with and icons.
Validation now checks for empty Workspace folder paths, conflicting system parameters, and duplicate models. For a quicker start of work with a Workspace Library, additional controls have been added to the Components and Explorer panels. At the first launch of the Components panel in the current Altium Designer session, the following controls are available when connected to a Workspace:. When in offline mode, a warning will be shown in the panel along with controls to keep using the cached component data or to clear the cache.
Creating a new component. In the Explorer panel , when a folder of the Components type has no components in it yet, a number of controls are now presented to assist you in populating the folder with components. Use these controls to perform an appropriate action:. Regardless of whether or not there are components in the folder, these actions can also be performed using the options of the menu associated with the Add Component drop-down at the top-right of the panel.
With this release, you can set the drill symbol with one size on a Drill Drawing View and a different size on the Drill Table. You can set the desired size defaults on the Drill Symbol tab of the Draftsman - Defaults page of the Preferences dialog or for a specific project in the Drill Symbols Configurations dialog as shown in the images below. To set different sizes for the Drill Drawing View and Drill Table, click to unlink the two sizes then set the desired sizes independently of each other.
An option has been added to the Via Type mode of the Properties panel that allows you to select from what side covering should be applied. The Side option in the Properties region of the panel includes a drop-down so that you can choose the desired side. The options of the drop-down depend on the via type selected in the ViaType option in the same region of the panel. For via types 1B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5, 6b, and 7, the option is essentially disabled with Both as the only option and is the default for those via types.
When connected to an Altium Workspace , note that the Generic Components functionality is not supported with the Standard Subscription Plan.
As such, this functionality will not be available with this level of access to Altium Also, note that the Generic Components functionality is not supported when connected to a Concord Pro Workspace. This release introduces the concept of standard Generic Components, which can quickly be placed in a design without the need to find and choose a specific manufactured part.
Generic Components are intended as placeholders that are easily replaced by parameter-matched real-world components later in the design process. They also can be considered as virtual or parametric components. A new SheetSymbolDesignator special string has been added as part of this release. This special string can be placed on a child schematic sheet to display the designator of the associated Sheet Symbol object that is placed on the parent schematic sheet. The SheetSymbolDesignator special string can also be used in a multi-channel design.
Select a compiled tab of the child schematic sheet to display the converted value of the special string. Use the SheetSymbolDesignator special string to show the parent sheet symbol's designator. Hover the cursor over the image to see the special string's converted value on the compiled tab of the sheet.
The Tools » Update from Libraries schematic editor and Tools » Update Schematics schematic library editor commands are now functional for alternative components in variants. Running either of these commands results in updating parameters of alternate components, which are visible in the Variant Management dialog and a compiled tab of the schematic sheet.
When updating the alternate components using the Tools » Update from Libraries command from the main menus of the schematic editor, make sure that the Include Variants and Update To Latest Revision options are enabled on the first page of the Update From Library dialog that opens after launching the command.
Example of an updated alternate component from the Workspace library. Shown here is the alternate component before the update. Hover the cursor over the image to see the component after creating a new revision and updating the component using the Update from Libraries command.
You can now negate include a bar over the top of a Power Port object as can be done for ports, net labels, and sheet entries. Include a backslash character after each character in the Name field in the Power Port mode of the Properties panel e.
To assist in identifying Text String objects that are using special strings, the name of the special string can now be shown on the schematic sheet. When the new Display Name of Special String option is enabled on the Schematic — Graphical Editing page of the Preferences dialog, each special string has its name displayed as a faint superscript.
To improve the usability of the Via mode of the Properties panel when editing a via stack in Top-Middle-Bottom or Full Stack mode, the user interface of the panel's Via Stack section has been changed.
Basic information about the via stack on different layers of the PCB design is now available for viewing and editing in tabular form. When you click within a layer name cell, the Thermal Relief option becomes available.
A custom thermal relief can be set if the Relief option is enabled. Tuning and matching the route lengths within a specific tolerance is an essential ingredient for a high-speed design as it ensures that timing-critical signals arrive at their target pins at the same time.
In this release, tools for specifying length matching requirements have been enhanced by implementing a feature for selecting an xSignal as a target for a Matched Lengths design rule when an xSignal class or all xSignals of the design is used as the rule scope. The previous behavior used the longest xSignal of the xSignal class as a target for length matching. When an xSignal class is selected as a Matched Length design rule scope, one of its xSignals can be selected as a source target.
The xSignal selected as a target will be labeled as such in the new Margin column of the xSignals mode of the PCB panel while deviation from this target length is shown in this column for other xSignals of the selected class. Deviation from the target length is shown in the new Margin column. During interactive length tuning, the Interactive Length Tuning mode of the Properties panel provides the ability to switch between tuning relative to the selected target xSignal the new behavior or the longest net in the xSignal class scoped by the rule the previous behavior.
Select a desired mode for the tuning target during interactive length tuning. If a PCB component has its primitives locked the Primitives option in the Component mode of the Properties panel is in its state , most properties of these primitives can no longer be modified by graphical e. This will help to prevent occasional changes of component primitives that can result in incorrect assembly and fabrication outputs. By way of an example, the Pad mode of the Properties panel is shown in the image below for a pad that is a constituent part of a PCB component that has its primitives locked.
Note that all properties of the pad except for Net and Testpoint properties are dimmed and not available for editing. Note also that the icon is shown at the far right of the pad's Component field, which denotes that the parent component has its primitives locked, and pad properties cannot be modified. The Pad mode of the Properties panel on the left for a pad of a PCB component that has its primitives locked on the right. Enhanced Save to Server Dialog. A hint that describes how to link an existing task to the project commit has been added to the Save to Server dialog.
The " Add task-id to connect this commit to a task " text is displayed in the Comment field. As the hint states, add the task ID to the Comment field as it appears in the Comments and Tasks panel ; the task will be linked to the project commit that will be created after clicking OK in the dialog. The link to the commit will be shown in the task detail pane when the task tile is selected on the Tasks page of the Altium Workspace browser interface or the Tasks view of the project's detailed management page.
Click the link to open the project's History view with the related commit highlighted on the timeline. The link to the connected commit will be shown in the task detail pane. Hover the cursor over the image to see the History page that opens after clicking the link and the related commit highlighted on the timeline. The speed of the simulation process has been increased when running analyses. Also, when using the Components panel for browsing large simulation model libraries, the speed to upload the content of such libraries has been improved.
Simulation models used in a project are cached now in the project, so simulation of such projects can be easily run on different machines. Any digit or number may be used as the first or last index of a repeated Sheet Symbol, including 0. Negative numbers are not allowed.
The last index must always be larger than the first index. Use this new feature to add the new class Component Class Name to set parameters for components within a blanket by means of the Parameter Set mode of the Properties panel. Associating the Component Class Name to a component or group of components will result in sending the information about the component class, its name and members to the PCB as is done currently for Net Classes. Added the ability to mark a pin as containing internal pull-up or pull-down resistors.
The new graphical symbol will be displayed next to the pin as sown in the images below. Many designers use the special string capabilities available in Altium Designer to create complex strings that display important information on the schematic sheets.
Special string support has been added to Text Frames and Notes, allowing you to create complex special string definitions as a single, multi-line text object. Altium Designer supports resolving numerical calculations defined in a Text String, with support for resolving numerical calculations extended to include those defined in schematic Text Frames and Notes. When this feature originally entered into closed beta as indicated above , the special string or formula had to be enclosed in curly brackets.
The last variant that was set prior to closing a project is now remembered and will be the variant presented when the project is reopened.
Previously, the base design [No Variation] was always presented when the project was reopened. A number of improvements have been applied to the Counterholes functionality that was implemented in previous releases. If the size of the counterhole is larger than or equal to the pad size, the pad shape is removed from the corresponding side of the PCB since this pad shape will be drilled out when drilling the counterhole.
Example of a removed pad shape from the top layer. Previous releases include significant improvements to the process of working with Rigid-Flex board designs in Altium Designer.
This new feature set is referred to as Rigid-Flex 2. In this release, to enable the Rigid-Flex 2. Enable the Advanced Rigid-Flex mode to configure a Rigid-Flex board; either via the Tools menu or by clicking the features button hover the cursor over the image to show this. Note that when trying to disable the Rigid-Flex 2. When the option is enabled, the rule tests the creepage distance between scoped polygons and other objects. If a polygon pour and other objects are scoped by a Creepage Distance design rule with the Apply to Polygon Pour option enabled and a Clearance design rule , both rules are considered and the tightest set of constraints is applied when pouring the polygon.
For example, if the Creepage Distance rule has a larger constraint value than the Clearance rule, this larger value will be applied. An option for accessing the Comment Export Configuration dialog has been added to the Comments and Tasks panel. Click the button at the top-right of the panel then select the Export Comments option from the menu to open the dialog and configure the comment export to a separate document.
The Remove Leading Zero option has been added to the Document Options mode of the Properties panel that allows you to automatically remove the leading zero for mil and inch values. This option is disabled by default. Default values of some additional properties of the Draftsman's Drill Table object can now be defined on the Draftsman - Defaults page of the Preferences dialog.
Default settings for some additional options of Draftsman's Drill Table can now be defined on the Drill Symbols tab of the Preferences Draftsman - Default page. The xDxDesigner Importer has been enhanced to allow importing an xDxDesigner project to also import defined variants of that project automatically.
To import xDxDesigner project variants, the following steps should be performed:. This release brings further improvements to the Sensitivity Analysis tool. Group Deviations of Global parameters as a sensitivity parameter are now supported, and Temperature as a sensitivity parameter is also now supported. The Global Paramete r option has been added to the Sensitivity analysis Group Deviations options; hover the cursor over the image to show where the parameters are defined.
Adding cross-references to the project allows you to easily follow the connective flow of nets between the schematic sheets in a project. In this release, the support of cross-references has been extended by adding the Jump to commands for Sheet Entry and Off Sheet Connector objects. When cross-references are enabled for sheet entries on the Options tab of the Project Options dialog , use the Sheet Entry Actions right-click menu of a sheet entry to Jump to the matching port on the child schematic sheet.
Use the Jump to command to jump to the matching port. For a flat design, when cross-references are enabled for off-sheet connectors in the Project Options dialog, use the Off Sheet Actions right-click menu of an off-sheet connector to Jump to a matching off sheet connector on a related schematic sheet.
Use the Jump to command to jump to a matching off-sheet connector. Keepout objects placed in a PCB design can now be shown in a panelized embedded board array using the PCB as a source. Enable visibility of the Keepout layer on the Layers tab of the Properties panel when an Embedded Board Array is selected in the design space. Note that this feature only provides a visual representation of the Keepout layer. This gives you the freedom to customize the color in order to distinguish the cursor from grids, etc.
Click the color box associated with the new option to open the Choose Color dialog , then select the desired new color for the cursor. To improve the usability of the Pad mode of the Properties panel when editing a pad stack in Top-Middle-Bottom or Full Stack mode, the user interface of the panel's Pad Stack section has been changed.
Basic information about the pad stack on different layers of the PCB design is now available for viewing and editing in tabular form. When clicking within a layer name cell, additional options become available for this layer: Corner Radius for Rectangular shape and Thermal Relief shows the current parameters of the pad's thermal relief; custom thermal relief can be set if the Relief option is enabled.
The updated Pad Stack section of Pad properties when editing a pad stack in Top-Middle-Bottom the first image or Full Stack the second image mode with the Top layer options expanded. Upon validation of a PCB design project, the Components and Nets folders that list the project's components and nets are displayed in the Projects panel.
To manage the visibility of these folders, the Show Components and Nets folders option has been added to the Settings pop-up of the Projects panel appears when the icon is clicked at the top of the panel and the General region of the System — Projects Panel page of the Preferences dialog. The Show Components and Nets folders option in the Projects panel setting pop-up. The Comments panel allows you to add comments to a defined area or point in the active document of a Workspace project and assign these comments to Workspace members, essentially creating tasks for them.
To reflect that, the panel has been renamed Comments and Tasks. Also, the new Tasks only option in the panel's filter menu allows you to display only the comments with tasks. If the layer can not be deleted because it contains component primitives that cannot be removed, an error pop-up will appear to alert you that the action cannot be completed.
If the layer is associated with primitives that can be removed, a pop-up will appear to ask for confirmation of the deletion. There are two sets of layer types; one set for individual layers, the other set of layer types is for layer pairs. Both types are configured in the Edit Layer dialog , the options available in the dialog depend on whether you are editing an individual mechanical layer, or a component layer pair. The options available in the dialog will differ depending on what you double-clicked on, the first image below shows the Edit Layer dialog for a component layer pair, and the second image shows the Edit Layer dialog for a mechanical layer.
Use the Layer Type drop-down to select the required layer type. Available layer types are defined below. Mechanical layers have an additional display feature; they can be set to remain visible when the display is in Single Layer Mode. Hold Ctrl as you click on the visibility icon of a mechanical layer to enable the Display in Single Layer Mode feature. The mechanical layers that are currently configured to be visible, will be displayed. In some situations, the extra detail included on a mechanical layer is only needed once, for example, assembly notes that detail the component load order and important assembly instructions.
In this situation, a standard mechanical layer is added, named, and where possible, has its Layer Type assigned more on this below. If the extra detail is required for a component, for example, component courtyard outlines, there needs to be two mechanical layers assigned: one layer holding the courtyard detail when the component is placed on the top side of the board; the other mechanical layer holding that same courtyard detail if the component is flipped to the bottom side of the board.
In this situation, a pair of mechanical layers are added as a Component Layer Pair. When mechanical layers are added as a Component Layer Pair, they are displayed in the Component Layer Pairs section of the View Configuration panel, as shown below.
A number of user-defined Component Layer Pairs have been added. A common approach to managing mechanical layer usage is to assign a dedicated layer number for each required mechanical layer function. This approach requires all designers to adhere to the same layer assignment and numbering scheme.
It can also create difficulties when components are obtained from other sources that do not follow the same assignment and numbering scheme. If a different scheme has been used, the design objects must be moved from their current mechanical layer to the mechanical layer assigned for that function.
This issue is resolved with the introduction of the Layer Type property. When a component is placed from a library into the PCB editor, or copied from one library to another, or created by the IPC Footprint Wizard , existing Layer Type assignments are automatically matched, regardless of the mechanical layer number s assigned to those Layer Types.
The objects are relocated on the correct layer s according to their Layer Type. If the software is unable to match by Layer Type, it will fall back to matching by Layer Number. For both individual mechanical layers and Component Layer Pairs, you can select a Layer Type from a pre-defined list of types. The images below show the list of available Layer Types. You can access the dialogs shown below by right-clicking on an individual layer, then selecting the Edit Layer or Add Component Layer command from the menu.
Select the Layer Type from the pre-defined list of Types; individual mechanical layers are shown on the left; Component Layer Pairs are shown in the middle and a new Component Layer on the right. When a Layer Type is assigned, the layer automatically has its Layer Name property changed to be the same as the Layer Type. This can be overridden, if needed, by typing in a user-defined name.
There is one exception to the naming behavior just described when a Layer Type is assigned — a user-defined name is not permitted when the Layer Type is set to Route Tool Path.
The reason for this is that older versions of the software use the name of the Route Tool Path layer to identify the layer that contains the route information also referred to as rout information. Fixing the naming of this layer ensures that the design will continue to function correctly in an older version. The Route Tool Path layer type is used to indicate the layer that contains the mechanical routing information.
A typical approach to using this layer is to place tracks and arcs around the outer edge of the board shape to define the machining path and width. Solid sections are left to hold the board within the panel, then a series of small holes are placed across each solid section to create perforations often referred to as mouse-bites , allowing the board to be snapped out of the panel once the assembly process is complete.
When the board is displayed in 3D mode, objects detected on the Route Tool Path layer are displayed as a routed slot in the board, as shown below.
Objects detected on the Route Tool Path layer are used to visualize the routed board, in 3D display mode. Enable the Route Tool Outline option in the dialog to have the objects placed outside the board shape rather than centered along its edge. Some designers prefer to add the fabrication information when they use the Embedded Board Array feature to create an assembly panel , rather than including this detail in the actual board file. Where possible, it is recommended to edit the source library and assign Layer Types.
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