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Navigating Altium
On Startup
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On startup Altium usually will open the “Home” page. It has some links to trainings, articles, and surveys, none of which are particularly useful. Feel free to close it out by right clicking on the tab and clicking “Close”
To actually view documents and edit projects you’ll need a license and access to the vault/Altium 365! This comes in two parts:
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Once logged into 365, you should have access to the vault. Sometimes your license will also activate, but you can double check by opening the licensing page:
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Managing your License
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“Use License”: Click to take one of our licenses
“Roam”: Takes a license for a certain amount of time, for use offline (you shouldn’t have to use this)
“Seats” Dropdown: See who has licenses (and bother them in #pcb to give you one)
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Pay attention to the #pcb channel in Slack when working on boards. Sometimes the licenses get taken up accidentally when people are not actively working and we run out of licenses. |
Accessing Projects
Projects Panel
Opening projects is primarily completed through the projects panel. Location of the projects tab can be moved wherever is preferred (just click and drag) but it defaults to the left side panel column:
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requires logging into the client, starting with clicking “Not Signed In” in the top right.
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You can then enter your username and password which should have been setup when requesting a NER account (https://nerdocs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/NER/pages/3932597/Altium+Designer#Get-Access).
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Once logged into 365, you should have access to the vault and license manager. Sometimes your license will also activate, but you can double check by opening the licensing page. This is also found in the top right, by clicking on your profile and then selecting “Licenses…”
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See below for more information regarding activating a license.
Managing your License
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See explanations for the markers in the above image:
“Use License”: Click to take one of our licenses
“Roam”: Takes a license for a certain amount of time, for use offline (you shouldn’t have to use this)
“Seats” Dropdown: See who has licenses (and bother them in #pcb to give you one)
| Note |
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Pay attention to the #pcb channel in Slack when working on boards. Sometimes the licenses get taken up accidentally when people are not actively working and we run out of licenses. |
Accessing Projects
Projects Panel
Opening projects is primarily completed through the projects panel. Location of the projects tab can be moved wherever is preferred (just click and drag) but it defaults to the left side panel column. Below are two examples of locations it may be:
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Once open, all NER projects can be accessed from the 365 vault. Right click the “Northeastern Electric Racing” cloud section, and select “Open Project”:
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The projects panel has two view modes, list and folder. This can be toggled with the button in the top right of the above screenshot. |
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From this window, you can easily find, select, and open any NER project!
Explorer Panel
Alternative method for opening projects
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All projects for NER are stored in the online vault, which can be accessed by right clicking the top of the panel and selecting “Explorer”:  |
The panel that opens can then be used to select a project and open it:
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The projects panel has two view modes. This can be toggled with the button in the {XXX} of the above screenshot.
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The panel that opens can then be used to select a project and open it:  |
Accessing Files
Opening Files
Once a project is open there are many dropdowns and folders of the project contents. The most important folder will be “Source {Documents??}”Documents”, which contains the actual schematics, layouts, and BOMs of the project.{screenshot of a project}
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Opening any file in a project is as simple as double clicking it!
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Checkout the Schematic Capture page for how to work on schematics
Checkout the Quick Altium Reference & , Tips, Troubleshooting page for schematic view shortcuts
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Checkout the Schematic Capture page for how to work on schematics
Checkout the Quick Altium Reference & , Tips, Troubleshooting page for schematic view shortcuts
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More tips are highlighted in the Quick Altium Reference & , Tips, Troubleshooting page. Additionally, official documentation on selection is provided by https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/design-object-selection.
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