Altium Reference: A General Page for Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting

The more you learn Altium, the more you realize how much there is to memorize to be truly fluent in the software. This page will include useful tips, references, and shortcuts that we find worth highlighting whether you are new to Altium or just need a refresher on useful shortcuts. Use this page, alongside all the other Altium Designer | Use Altium pages when working on a project with NER, regardless of experience level!

CONTENTS

1 Altium Workflows
2 Component & PCB Suppliers
3 Helpful Websites
4 Tips & Tricks
- 4.1 Schematics
- 4.2 Layout
5 Shortcuts
6 Troubleshooting
- 6.1 License Popup
- 6.2 Duplicate Item
- 6.3 Not a valid value for [X]

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Altium Workflows

{link to component, project, layout, etc on other pages}

Component & PCB Suppliers

PCB Fab Houses

Company Name	Pros	Cons

Company Name	Pros	Cons
JLCPCB PCB Prototype & PCB Fabrication Manufacturer - JLCPCB	Very fast turn Usually cheap 6+ layer boards have free plug & plate vias	Doesn’t do extremely thick copper
PCBWay https://www.pcbway.com/	Good turn, but requires manual review for most boards (adds 1 day) Usually cheap	Manual review can cause prices to go wayyy higher than auto quote {}
OSHPark OSH Park ~	USA made Ok pricing given it’s USA Good deal on 2oz and on rush (5 day turn) PCBs	Very limited selection of layer counts and wieghts
Advanced Circuits (http://4PCB.com ) AdvancedPCB - Standard PCBs \| Design Services \| Assembly Services	USA made Has student discounts and pizza party specials Can be fast, at a cost	Pretty expensive
PCB Unlimited https://www.pcbunlimited.com/	USA made From current research, one of the fastest rapid turn fabs	Boards we have gotten have definitely been noticeably lower quality In terms of silks, masking finish, etc Still expensive compared to China

Component Suppliers

Digikey & Mouser are our core suppliers. Typically Digikey is used as the primary, but given recent events we may use Mouser as our primary.

Company Name	Pros	Cons

Company Name	Pros	Cons
Digikey https://www.digikey.com/	Great customer support Usually same day fulfilment by ~6pm	The great warehouse meltdown of 2023 Not guaranteed fulfilment!
Mouser Electronic Components Distributor - Mouser Electronics	Guaranteed same day fulfillment till 9PM ET	Not as good customer support, but ok usually
Newark https://www.newark.com/	Free shipping over $150	VERY BAD customer service Sometimes shitty fulfilment (wrong parts sent) Most orders arrive in multiple small separate shipments Sometimes has crazy minimum order quantities
Arrow https://www.arrow.com/en	Fine Has a rewards program	Not particularly fast
Future https://www.futureelectronics.com/	Seem to have great stock on everything	They are a closed service and we currently don't have an account IIRC we should be able to get a “sponsorship” of being let onto their website
TTI https://www.tti.com/content/ttiinc/en.html	Sometimes is the only supplier of odd TE parts	Sometimes has weird minimum order quantities Not particularly fast
Avnet (owner of Newark) https://www.avnet.com/wps/portal/us	Fine	Not particularly fast Owns Newark, so the same issues may arise
RS Components (Allied) https://us.rs-online.com/	Fine	Not particularly fast

Turn-Key Fabrication (PCB + Assembly)

Company Name	Pros	Cons

Company Name

Pros

Cons

MacroFab

Technology-Driven PCB Assembly & Electronics Manufacturing | MacroFab

Very nice service
Have sponsored us previously

Typically quite slow turn
Expensive without a sponsorship

CircuitHub

https://circuithub.com/

Shockingly cheap!

Have not used them yet

JLCPCB

Cheap

Have not used them yet

Helpful Websites

Component Aggregator

Single website that searches effectively all online suppliers for stock

Octopart - https://octopart.com/

EDA (Footprint Sources)

SnapEDA - https://www.snapeda.com/
Ultra Librarian - https://www.ultralibrarian.com/ (Digikey partner)
SamacSys (a.k.a. Component Search Engine) - https://componentsearchengine.com/ (Mouser partner)
Celestial Library - https://altiumlibrary.com/ (open source community library)
Manufacturer sites (some companies provide official footprints!)

Calculators

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Tips & Tricks

Schematics

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Layout

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View Configuration

{talk about hiding rooms, configuring opacity, configuring what to show, maybe also link to where we talk about Shift + S for single view, maybe talk about perspective vs flat 3D views}

Shortcuts

Altium Designer includes a shortcut for almost every single possible action in the software, which can be super helpful but also overwhelming. The following table includes some of the teams most popular shortcuts.


Component creation





Schematic

View	Function	Shortcut	Notes/Restricitons

View	Function	Shortcut	Notes/Restricitons
Schematic
Layout
3D Layout
etc

Troubleshooting

License Popup

You do not have any licenses applied

You have no license. Just click “License Management” and figure it out. Likely just need to activate one, or log in.

Duplicate Item

Error. Create item failed. Duplicate item HRID: [X]

Your client is attempting to create an item with an overlapping “unique” ID. This error seems to occur for some people when making their first ever symbol or footprint.

The fix we’ve identified currently is to just increment manually the Item ID until the error does not occur. In this screenshot it is the “000161,” from which you could try …162, …163, …164, etc and if this doesn’t resolve, move to tens: …174, …184, …194, etc.

Not a valid value for [X]

“[X]” is not a valid value for [X]

This is a glitch that occurs where parameters with dropdowns (dictionaries) are swapped from where they should be. This results in values being placed in the wrong parameter fields, causing type errors (a current cannot be text in this example).

To fix, you can click the arrow of the drop down on the parameter field and instead of selecting a value, instead start typing the value you’d like to enter. This should avoid the mis-fill. Restarting often fixes this issue as well, but of course is more annoying…