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.
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.
Read more below:
Project Scoping
Before 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 Creation
Actually 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.
Design 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
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!
Schematic Review
Review 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.
Reviews are a great way to learn about our circuits and get familiar with Altium!
Component Build-out
During 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.
Designing 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
Layout is the most daunting part of Altium, but the only way to learn is to try it out! Some ways would be to make your own practice project or to spend some time working side-by-side with a more experienced team member (hit up the Chief EE for help if needed).
Component Review
As 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.
Layout Review
Design 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.
Once 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.
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 requires logging into the client, starting with clicking “Not Signed In” in the top right.
Finding the sign in button
You can then enter your username and password which should have been setup when requesting a NER account (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. 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
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)
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:
Once open, all NER projects can be accessed from the 365 vault. Right click the “Northeastern Electric Racing” cloud section, and select “Open Project”:
From this window, you can easily find, select, and open any NER project!
Explorer Panel
Alternative method for opening projects
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:
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”, which contains the actual schematics, layouts, and BOMs of the project.
Opening any file in a project is as simple as double clicking it!
Click below for more depth on files:
File Statuses
All 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:
Very 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.
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.
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 the file tabs.
Schematic View
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).
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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
Read more below:
Planned
Component 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
Draft
The 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 Review
The 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 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.
Reviewed
The 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.
Production
The 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.
Obsolete
The 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.
