An introductory guide to Altium Designer! This will cover the high level steps of working in Altium along with in context links for more depth where needed. Topics include basic navigation & controls, the project workflow, the component workflow, and more.
CONTENTS
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RETURN TO HOME PAGE: Altium Designer
Project Workflow
Altium Designer delivers great results for PCB development but has many steps to achieve this, not only in software, but also within NER to coordinate between our members.
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Project ScopingBefore starting any project at NER we must determine the scope, constraints, timeline and otherwise the overall definition of the project. This is typically completed by leadership such as the chief engineer, system head, and potential project leads. A project at a high level (general function, budget, timeline) will be defined in FinishLine, and the details regarding actual electrical I/O level decisions may be elaborated on in further meetings and documented in Confluence. Project CreationActually creating the project in Altium Designer to be shared via 365! This is typically done by the project lead and only requires coming up with a project name and filling in some basic parameters. Details on this can be found here: https://nerdocs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/NER/pages/136314883/Schematic+Capture#Project-Creation Schematic DesignDesign of the actual electronics circuits. This encompasses picking components, digging into their datasheets to learn how to implement them, completing the wiring required, and even simulating when necessary to validate behavior. Critical setup and organization of the schematics should be done by the project lead, and then sub-circuits can be more easily divided between any available team members. Schematics should follow the Vault Guidelines Details on this can be found here: Schematic Capture We’ve recently changed that component build-out will not be required until the layout stage rather than during schematic design. For schematics “Draft” components are okay! |
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Schematic ReviewReview of the electrical design of the system. This review will be completed by everyone on the team who can contribute their time! Contents should be the electrical design itself, component choices (function as well as cost and solderability), and general schematic cleanliness & organization. Details on this can be found here: |
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Component Build-outDuring schematic design you may have selected some part numbers and assigned a symbol to it for schematic purposes, but not associated further data to the part. Component build-out is when all components are fully filled in to be used for layout. Typically this includes adding a footprint, filling in parameters, and updated supplier part numbers (SPNs). All members should participated in this, and given their modularity, this is a common task for new members to get familiar with Altium. Details on this can be found here: Component Creation PCB Layout DesignDesigning the way components and copper are placed on the board. Similar to the schematic design, the project lead will be responsible for critical actions, such as importing the schematics, and organization of efforts across the project team. All members should be able to participate in layout, but it can vary depending on board size and timeline demands. Layouts should follow the Vault Guidelines Details on this can be found here: PCB Layout
Component ReviewAs components are built out, they all must undergo a review. This can happen in parallel with layout and other processes, as long as all components are reviewed before release. These are completed by senior members/leaders of the team to ensure that all components in the library are robust. In summary, this just consists of checking every component thoroughly against the Component Review Checklist before a board is fabricated with the parts. |
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Layout ReviewDesign review of the completed board. Similar to the schematic, all members of the EE team are encouraged to participate! At this stage the board should be ready for fabrication, so the entire board is open to feedback, but the focus is primarily on the layout of the board. Details on this can be found here: |
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Project ReleaseOnce fully reviewed, the board needs to be made! Our Altium vault has been setup with OutJob templates that enable easy board exports for fabrication, alongside marking in the version control that the board is being released as a formal revision. This is typically done by the project lead or relevant head/chief. Details on this can be found here: https://nerdocs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/NER/pages/156205064/PCB+Layout#Export-for-Fabrication-(Out-Jobs) |
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
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requires logging into the client, starting with clicking “Not Signed In” in the top right.
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).
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
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. This is also found in the top right, by clicking on your profile and then selecting “Licenses…”
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)
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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
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to the left side panel column. Below are two examples of locations it may be:
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. |
From this window, you can easily find, select, and open any NER project!
Once you open a project you will usually be greeting by a message panel that may or may not be full of errors. Just close it out. Altium likes to remind us how bad our work is 😭
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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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
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Documents”, which contains the actual schematics, layouts, and BOMs of the project.
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Opening any file in a project is as simple as double clicking it!
Click below for more depth on files:
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File StatusesAll files within the Altium 365 vault will have a series of symbols in the projects pane indicating their status. The below screenshots summarize their meanings:   The full page with further info is https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/managing-project-documents#!indicating-document-status, particularly the “Indicating Document Status” section. Managing Open FilesVery quickly in Altium you’ll find yourself with many files open at once. It is important to be aware that Altium uses a stacked tab system once you have exceeded how many tabs can fit within your working window. |
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 When stacked like this, files can be accessed by clicking the arrow of the stack of the right file type, and then selecting the file name. |
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 No matter how many files are open, the projects tab can still be used to pull up files, even if they are already open. Just double click the file you are looking for. |
Closing Files
Just right click on the file name and select “Close”. This can be done from the projects panel or
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the file tabs.
There are many, many options for closing multiple files such as closing all others, closing all of the same filetype, and more. Feel free to explore as you work on projects
Schematic View
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Every filetype has a set of menus & tools available to it. Always be aware that menus may change in Altium depending on what file you have selected! |
Simple navigation within schematics is done by right clicking and dragging. This will pan the schematic. Zooming is achieved by holding Ctrl, right clicking, and dragging or by holding middle click and dragging. Depending on the computer, touchscreens and trackpads may or may not work intuitively (pinch to zoom, 2 finger drag to pan).
Checkout https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/navigating-document for official documentation on navigation
Checkout the Schematic Capture page for how to work on schematics
Checkout the
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, Tips, Troubleshooting page for schematic view shortcuts
Layout View
Layouts have three fundamental views:
Planning view
Layout view
3D view
These can be accessed by just pressing the keyboard key with the corresponding number (1, 2, or 3).
Planning view is rarely used for our purposes, so you can disregard it for now.
Simple navigation within 2D layouts is the same as schematics. Panning and zooming are the same as above. In addition, the whole board can be “flipped” by hitting Ctrl + F.
Within 3D view, the
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Shift key is used to access view rotations. When holding shift and right clicking on certain parts of the control sphere you will be able to rotate and tilt the view. Simple panning and zooming are again, the same as schematics and 2D view. Hitting Ctrl + F will flip the board about the cursor.
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, Tips, Troubleshooting page for schematic view shortcuts
Object Selection
Similar to most CAD software, Altium provides includes and exclusive selection depending on selection direction. Selecting from the left and moving right will select all touching the region, whereas right to left will select only objects fully within the region.
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Further selection control can be accessed via selection filters
Selection Filters
At the top of both schematic and layout views, there is a toolbar typically starting with the selection filter button.
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In this menu the user can select what types of objects they are interested in selecting. Once toggled, the same dragging selection can be used, but only matching object types will be selected.
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More tips are highlighted in the
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, Tips, Troubleshooting page. Additionally, official documentation on selection is provided by https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/design-object-selection.
Object Properties & Parameters
Almost everything in Altium has properties and parameters. What you can do with these will be discussed throughout these Confluence pages, but below will explain how to open the properties panel.
By default, the Properties panel will be hidden and needs to be opened. This is done via the panels button in the bottom right of the window. It can also be accessed from the toolbar “View” dropdown.
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Once open, the panel can be accessed by clicking on its tab (wherever you decide to place it), or the panel can be “pinned” open, using the pin button at the top right of the window. Pinning prevents the panel from minimizing itself.
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If the properties panel is open, an object properties can be viewed simply by clicking on something. Anything that is selected (even the files themselves) will have properties that will show in the panel.
When working in schematics or layouts, if you have the panel closed, any component properties can be opened by double clicking the component. This will automatically expand the panel and show the properties of the selected component.
Multiple objects can also be highlighted at once, with varying results depending on what was selected. Only common fields will be shown, and those will differing values will be displayed with an * rather than an exact value.
Using selection filters (https://nerdocs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/NER/pages/153026566/Intro+to+Altium#Selection-Filters) or queries (Altium Query Language) is the best way to select multiple objects and successfully edit properties of all of them at once
Component Workflow
To ensure consistency in our components, a lot of effort goes into keeping them organized. A large part of this is using Altium’s
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built in state flows to indicate status of components. Below is an example of where you see these states:
These states can be seen throughout Altium in BOMs as well as in component properties, the component panel, and more.
The following diagram shows our state flow and what each state implies
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PlannedComponent is a local draft. This should be fairly uncommon as it is only shown when first creating a component. Once uploaded to the server, the component will automatically become a Draft DraftThe component is a work in progress. This is a common state as it encompass all stages of “working on a component”, and as mentioned above, all components will move into this state by default. From this state anyone can move components to Pending Review or to Obsolete. Explanations for these are below. Pending ReviewThe component is complete and ready for review. Once team members/project leads determine a component is fully complete (symbol, footprint, parameters, etc all added), the component is marked with this status to indicate to the EE heads that it is ready for review. A review |
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will then be completed according with the Component Review Checklist. From this state only EE heads can move the component to Reviewed, but anyone can move it back to Draft. ReviewedThe component has been approved by an EE head. At this stage the component is fully complete, confirmed as so (according to Component Review Checklist), and is ready for production! Users can use these components knowing that no further work is needed on the component before releasing a board with it. From this state anyone can move the component to Production, Draft, or Obsolete. ProductionThe component has been used in a production PCB and required no reworks to function. After a board is fully functional, all components used in the board (that didn’t require fixes) will be marked with this state. It serves as a 100% guarantee that future boards can use the component without issues or further reviews. From this state anyone can move the component back to Reviewed or Obsolete. ObsoleteThe component is effectively “deleted”. The reason for obsoletion rather than deletion is backwards compatibility. Marking something as obsolete tells engineers to no longer use the component (or at least that revision of it), while still allowing older projects to include the component. This way if we look back at boards that are a few seasons old they don’t have a bunch of missing parts. From this state anyone can move the component back to Draft. |
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