Altium Designer LIVE - event highlights

Highlights

Copyright © 2016 Premier EDA Solutions Ltd.

www.eda.co.uk

Altium Designer is an all-encompassing PCB design software that works with the entire PCB design
process. It’s used industry wide for creating the simplest to the most complex of boards and is
adaptable for those with distinct technology requirements. The software is flexible enough to
integrate with a variety of company structures, sizes and cultures.

Premier EDA Solutions is the UK Sales & Support centre for Altium Designer. We provide support,
training and technical know-how that helps design professionals become quickly skilled in operating
this powerful software.

Selecting PCB design software can be a major decision whether it be by yourself or with the
involvement of other business stakeholders. We have produced this document as highlights of
Altium Designer and as a summary of what we demonstrated to you. It includes points to consider
when selecting your design software and hyperlinks to videos that illustrate how Altium Designer
addresses these.

Please feel free to share this document with colleagues and management within your organisation.
If you have any questions or require any further information, please contact us.

Copyright © 2016 Premier EDA Solutions Ltd.

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Table of Contents

1. UNIFIED APPLICATION .............................................................................. 4

1.1. Altium Designer Home page and user environment ..............................................................4

2. DESIGN DATA MANAGEMENT WITH ALTIUM DESIGNER ........................... 5

2.1. Vault Console Overview ..........................................................................................................5
2.2. Vault Explorer in Altium Designer ...........................................................................................5

1. .................................................................................................................. 6
3. LIBRARY MANAGEMENT WITH ALTIUM DESIGNER ................................... 6

3.1. Create ATSAM3N0CA-CU schematic symbol in Vault .............................................................6
3.2. Create BGA footprint...............................................................................................................6
3.3. Create component ..................................................................................................................7
3.4. Supply chain ............................................................................................................................7
3.5. Placing components via Libraries panel..................................................................................7
3.6. Component Vault ....................................................................................................................8
3.7. Wiring and dragging ................................................................................................................8

4. SCHEMATIC CAPTURE WITH ALTIUM DESIGNER ...................................... 9

4.1. Design annotation ...................................................................................................................9
4.2. PCB Directives .........................................................................................................................9
4.3. Component-based PCB Rules................................................................................................10
4.4. Collaborative Comments.......................................................................................................10
4.5. Design reuse ..........................................................................................................................10
4.6. Checking the integrity of a schematic ...................................................................................10
4.7. Active BOM............................................................................................................................11

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4.8. Design Variants......................................................................................................................11

5. PCB LAYOUT WITH ALTIUM DESIGNER ................................................... 12

5.1. Starting a new PCB ................................................................................................................13
5.2. Engineering Change Order (ECO) ..........................................................................................13
5.3. PCB placement with Altium Designer ...................................................................................14
5.4. PCB routing............................................................................................................................14
5.5. PCB routing (cont’d) ..............................................................................................................15
5.6. Planes & Polygons .................................................................................................................16
5.7. Native 3D PCB Design............................................................................................................17
5.8. Importing mechanical enclosures .........................................................................................17
5.9. Live 3D clearance checking ...................................................................................................18
5.10. Flex-Rigid ...............................................................................................................................18

6. RELEASE DATA MANAGEMENT ............................................................... 19

6.1. Draftsman..............................................................................................................................19
6.2. Output jobs............................................................................................................................19
6.3. Releasing data into the Vault ................................................................................................20
6.4. Vault Explorer........................................................................................................................20

7. FURTHER INFORMATION......................................................................... 21

Contact us.........................................................................................................................................21

Copyright © 2016 Premier EDA Solutions Ltd.

1. UNIFIED APPLICATION

1.1. Altium Designer Home page and user environment

 Altium Designer is a single application for all electronics design phases
 Latest news and software updates brought to Home page
 Documents can be managed in three ways

 Using the Windows File System
 Using the built-in Subversion (SVN) version control system
 Using the optional Altium Vault
 The demonstration opened a “Managed Project” from a Company-specific Vault.
Projects in Altium Designer contain all of the design documents and also give
access to non-native file types (like Excel and PDF), so all relevant documents are
just a click away. By using a Managed Project, it also gave control over the revisions
and “life cycle states” (Prototype, Production etc.) of the design documents.

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2. DESIGN DATA MANAGEMENT WITH ALTIUM DESIGNER

What to consider

Design Data Management

When developing an electronic product, you create literally hundreds of documents.
Managing these documents is the key to success. Knowing which versions of schematic
matches with which version of PCB and matches with which version of the Bill of Materials is
not easy. The Windows file system is great and well known, however it is easy for things to
get unwieldly. We forget document naming conventions, overwrite data and often have
multiple versions of the same document saved in different places.
Clearly there needs to be a better way for Companies which require more formal data
management and revision control processes.

2.1. Vault Console Overview

 The Company-specific Vault was first accessed using a Web Browser
 This Vault Console allowed access to

 Users and Roles
 SVN as a repository for informal versions
 Create a managed project from the console to define user access rights and

starting point
 Project as a managed item

2.2. Vault Explorer in Altium Designer

 Overview of Vault Structure. The Vault contained a series of folders which were
used to organise the storage area in accordance with their Company needs. Areas
for Libraries, Released Data and even an Engineers “Sand box” had been created

 Open Managed Project
 Projects Panel shows all documents related to this project

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3. LIBRARY MANAGEMENT WITH ALTIUM DESIGNER

What to consider

Library Management

Component Libraries form the cornerstone of successful PCB design. Representing the
schematic symbols and PCB footprints accurately however is only a small part of the
equation here. Mistakes cost money. Time-pressure leads to lack of discipline. Incomplete
and duplicate components create problems with supply chain information and in turn lead to
engineers wasting significant time in Excel spreadsheets "fixing" the Bill of Materials. Lack of
consideration for production documentation at library level similarly causes engineers to
defocus from creativity. This in turn can raise the need for pre-processing and tidying up the
passage of data from design into manufacturing.

3.1. Create ATSAM3N0CA-CU schematic symbol in Vault

 Users identified and given access rights
 Copy Pin Data from datasheet
 Symbol Generator Wizard
 Import Pin data from Excel
 Rapidly create a 100-pin schematic symbol which matches with datasheet
 Place Component and Release to the Vault

3.2. Create BGA footprint

 IPC 7350 Compliant Footprint Wizard built in, rapidly create a 100-pin BGA
 Link to STEP model or define 3D within Altium Designer – both used for clearance

checking

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3.

3.3. Create component

 Components bring together schematic symbols, PCB footprints and simulation
models

 Searched component suppliers via the web for the device. This gives all of the
starting properties (price, datasheet, supply chain details etc)

 Could use a Company Standard Template to ensure key properties are always
present in a new component

3.4. Supply chain

 Add Supply chain information to component
 Link to internet suppliers such as Farnell and Digikey
 Able to link to your own internal supply chain data (via ODBC). Easy to integrate

with Company ERP/MRP systems

3.5. Placing components via Libraries panel

 Components can be easily found based on key properties. Search and filter
 Select the Capacitors Library, focus on Value and Voltage. Group by both and look

at 10nF – we can easily see all of the available 10nF capacitors, grouped by Voltage
Rating
 Place a capacitor and view Supply chain data from Schematic (hover mouse to see
component Pricing and Availability)

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3.

3.6. Component Vault

 Lifecycle flags the “state” of each component (New, Prototype, Production,
Obsolete etc.)

 Vault controls Approvals and authorisation process, so only specific users can
“promote” components from various lifecycle states (eg from Prototype, to
Production)

 Increment the lifecycle to Prototype. Try to increment the lifecycle to Production
and note that an approval request has been sent

 Can accurately track component history, revision and who authorised it’s use for
production

3.7. Wiring and dragging

 Place components from the libraries panel
 Wire and dragging dynamic feedback when a new connection will be made

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4. SCHEMATIC CAPTURE WITH ALTIUM DESIGNER

What to consider

Schematic Capture

Capturing the functional aspects of the design and seamlessly passing these aspects into the
PCB layout phase are often the only consideration for capturing a schematic. Looking deeper
into the process here, we know that there is relatively more time during this phase than in
the PCB layout phase. We also know that if the schematic is "wrong" then the PCB will be
"wrong" and this could be costly both in monetary value and in terms of project timescales.
Capturing the design intent at schematic level will drive the layout phase more effectively,
having re-usable schematic elements (sub-circuits and even entire sheets) will increase the
quality and repeatability of your designs. Taking time to thoroughly check and verify your
schematic will significantly decrease the potential for having to do "silly" Engineering Change
Orders.
Having fluidity between the schematic and PCB phases will allow for early release of
information to the PCB designers. This in turn facilitates rapid consideration of perhaps 3D
placement or mechanical constraints before committing to PCB layout.
Early consideration of the Bill of Materials will allow rapid evaluation of cost, supply chain
and other critical aspects of your design. Gain confidence in the integrity of the information
passed to the PCB layout phase and that critical design rules, engineering notes and
component selections are correct and robust.

4.1. Design annotation

 Nets with High Speed Digital considerations were highlighted in Yellow. This allows
us to easily identify critical aspects of the design

 This colour will sync to PCB if you wish

4.2. PCB Directives

 Capture the design intent and “drive” the PCB layout process
 Differential Pair parameter set placed
 PCB Layout Directive (setting Power Width Constraints)
 Blankets can be used to group components/nets and apply Rules

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4.

4.3. Component-based PCB Rules

 Add a Clearance Rule to the Connectors. Can be defined at Library Level or at
Schematic Level

 Eg. Extra clearance around SMB to ensure connectors can be plugged in (room for
fingers)

4.4. Collaborative Comments

 In a Managed Project, engineers may add Comments which are linked to the
associated design document (eg schematic or PCB)

 Select a Comment to view the panel. Note that the Comments may be “resolved”
or additional notes added to provide communication between multiple engineers
working on the same project

4.5. Design reuse

 Managed Sheets allow you to access a “library” of reusable schematic sheets
 Place PSU Managed Sheet into top level sheet
 Drill in to show the reusable sheet is flagged Read-Only

4.6. Checking the integrity of a schematic

 “Silly” mistakes are shown using a red underline (eg Duplicate Designators,
Ambiguous Net Names etc).

 More comprehensive error checking is performed by Compiling the Project. Here a
whole host of things are checked for and an interactive browse mechanism is used
to easily find the offending items.

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4.

4.7. Active BOM

 Interact with component supply chain and design costs from within Altium
Designer

 Component suppliers can be ranked. Pricing, stock levels, availability are all visible
and auto-adjusts based on volume and target prices (set by the user)

 Ability to add placeholders for non-electrical components such as Mechanical
Items, Heatsinks, PCB bare board and software. This means the costing can be for
the entire product rather than just the components on the PCB.

 Can be run at any stage in the design process, so easy to get costing estimates
early

 Construct custom report, column order, sorting, grouping, filtering

4.8. Design Variants

 Create a Variant to define Fitted, Non Fitted and Alternative Parts
 Propagates through to Bill of Materials, Schematic Drawings, PCB Assembly

Drawings, 3D drawings, Pick and Place Reports etc.
 Control over how the Variant is displayed (eg Red Cross through Non Fitted

Components, change text font for Alternate Values etc.)

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5. PCB LAYOUT WITH ALTIUM DESIGNER

What to consider

PCB Layout

In many cases it makes sense to pre-define as much of the starting point for PCB layout as
possible. Utilising common and repeatable form factors, design templates, layer stacks and
design rules will allow the PCB layout engineer to jump-start the design rather than starting
from a "blank sheet" every time. Handling changes in a seamless and robust fashion
supports the iterative nature of the early design phases. Being able to quickly identify
components, nets, rules and design notes creates confidence that the PCB will properly
reflect the design intent. Streamlining component placement and PCB routing with modern,
easy-to-use, commands allows the designer to concentrate on what is being designed rather
than the layout tool itself. Gaining visual feedback (even in 3D) whilst designing, leads to
efficiency and increases your ability to design the board right first time.

Consideration of complex design rules for manufacturing, high speed digital and high
voltage/current should be easy and should give control to the designer rather than simply
constrain. This leads to confidence which in turn increases quality and reliability.

Being able to view the PCB in 3D at board level, component level and even assembly level
revolutionises the way in which the designer can interact with the PCB. This is so much
more than just seeing if the board can fit into its enclosure!

When it comes to outputting critical manufacturing data, have everything pre-defined and
ready-to-go. Set up custom reports specific to your processes, combine multiple outputs into
a single, searchable PDF, handle assembly variants with ease and create documentation sets
which are portable between projects.

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5.

5.1. Starting a new PCB
 File » New » PCB
 Pre-loading of a custom PCB Template, containing Fabrication Drawing, board

outline and mechanical constraints, layer stacking and design rules

 A third party tool from ICD was used to create layer stack using a robust library of

board materials, ability to define impedance requirements and adjust track
widths/clearances to optimise design rules for impedance-controlled boards

 Bring in components from schematic
 ECO - adding new components, nets, classes, rooms and rules
 Rooms represent placement regions on the PCB. Automatically defined from each

sheet in the design (eg Power Supply Sheet)

5.2. Engineering Change Order (ECO)

 There is a natural fluidity between Schematic Capture and PCB Layout phases in
Altium Designer

 After starting the PCB phase, we placed a Snippet into schematic
 A Snippet is a section of circuitry (or part of the PCB layout) which can be stored

away and rapidly re-used
 Having placed the Snipped, we run ECO to update PCB and observe the results.

ECO is fully documented and you can preview the changes before actually making
them

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5.

5.3. PCB placement with Altium Designer

 Floor planning and pre-placement by using Rooms.
 Move Component by designator and place in specific location on back of board.

Lock component to avoid moving it in error
 Polar Grid can be created and components can automatically rotate to suit. In fact,

you can have as many grids as you need
 View-Flip Board and work from the back of the board
 Can use the schematic to help drive the PCB layout process. Split the screen, cross

probe, cross select.
 Reposition selected components brings each component to your cursor in the

order in which you selected them
 Interactive placement allows component Pushing, Avoidance and Swapping

5.4. PCB routing

 Altium Designer is crafted to make visualisation during the PCB layout phase easy
 Net names are shown on tracks and pads plus in the Heads Up Display
 Single-Layer Mode can be toggled on/off at any time. This highlights the current

layer and puts the others into a grey scale, the highlight can be faded up and down
using hotkeys
 You can define Layer Sets and hard toggle layer visibility as well
 Differential Pairs are easy to work with
 Ratsnest and routing is highlighted in the same colour as used in Schematic
 There is a specific panel for Differential Pairs, allowing you to rapidly find them and
adjust their rules etc.
 Routing enjoys all of the features of the interactive routing engine in Altium
Designer (follow mouse, push/shove, avoid obstacles etc.) AND has specific
controls for differential pairs (toggle spacing/widths etc.)
 Multi-trace routing

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5.

5.5. PCB routing

 Select a series of pads and route them as a multi-trace object
 Switch layers and automatically put in vias, adjust via pattern (linear or
staggered) using hot keys
 Adjust clearance between these traces using rules and/or manual override

 Pin swapping
 Can be defined at library level, or on-the-fly in PCB
 Can stop routing to perform interactive or automatic pin swapping
 Can pin swap whilst routing too!

 Smart dragging. Select a group of tracks and push them around. Clearance and 45
degree angles are all maintained. Easy to perform “tidy up” as a result

 Interactive routing. Really easy to use, has hot keys which toggle the routing
modes to suit your needs. Walk around, push and auto complete modes. Can also
re-route existing traces and redundant loops are automatically removed

 Interactive trace length tuning
 Can be performed on single nets or differential signals. Define the rule and
then click on the net where you wish the trombones and accordions to start.
Move the cursor along the net and see a bar graph showing how close to the
defined length you are. Adjust the trombones and accordions using drag
handles and maintain full length control

 xSignals

 Where more complex length controls are needed, you can define xSignals.
Here you can define a complete path from source, through a series
terminator to destination. Length rules are defined and respected in the
usual way. Visual indication of the “quality” of the routing (from a length
perspective) is shown by colour highlighting in the xSignals panel

 This technique also has a built in wizard to help with the complex
requirements of DDR (for example)

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5.

5.6. Planes & Polygons

 Place polygon interactively if you wish
 Use the central Polygon manager for more control
 Create a Top Layer polygon from the board outline
 Copy the properties of that polygon and create a Bottom Layer polygon
 Set up clearance, and thermal relief rules, adjust the order in which polygons are

poured
 Having created the polygons, plough through by routing a trace
 Via Stitching can be created easily to connect Top Layer to Bottom Layer.
 The via stitching area is considered as a single object and can be easily edited

and/or removed if needed
 A similar technique may be used for Via Shielding – ie surrounding a specific net

with a “guard band” of vias.

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5.

5.7. Native 3D PCB Design

 Contrast 2D and 3D visualisation of the “finished” board

 Show that the visualisation of the bare board can accurately model the physical
PCB. Solder resist colour can be changed. Silkscreen can be moved, mounting holes
can have their solder resist expansion changed, it is easy to see if vias have been
“tented”

 Change the settings and we can see an expanded view of the board
 Notice that the via barrels are emphasised
 Use the PCB panel to highlight specific nets and busses, visualise power plans
etc. all in 3D

 Revert back to the realistic 3D view and turn on the components
 See the STEP models used for accurately modelling the connectors
 See the 3D bodies created in Altium Designer used to model the coil and
other parts which do not have a STEP model

 Modify the colour of an LED component from Red to Green. Discuss using this
technique to produce a specific 3D drawing showing the “hand inserted”
components

5.8. Importing mechanical enclosures

 Open a board with a pre-placed enclosure. Note that you can import “free” models
(STEP format) into Altium Designer
 Models can be easily aligned with the PCB using snap points
 Models can be used to define complex board outlines
 Models are used in conjunction with PCB component models for clearance
checking and collision detection

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5.

5.9. Live 3D clearance checking

 The design is showing some errors – clearance violations and collisions
 Clearance rule is modified to allow better fitting of connectors through apertures

in the moulding
 Variants are used to show that a collision with one connector is not valid as it is

only used for test purposes and will be removed before the PCB is placed into its
enclosure
 The remaining “offending” connector is moved to better align with the aperture in
the moulding. Note that moving the component in a PCB design system (as
opposed to a Mechanical system) allows full appreciation of electrical design rules

5.10. Flex-Rigid

 View layer stack regions in 2D. Highlight the bend lines
 Switch to 3D to show folding, note that full clearance checking is performed during

the fold process

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6. RELEASE DATA MANAGEMENT

6.1. Draftsman™

 Open draftsman document from project
 Automated extraction of drawing data from the source PCB document
 Interactive placement of:

 Assembly & Fabrication Views
 Board Detail & Board Section Views
 Layer Stack Legends
 Drill Drawings & Drill Tables
 Bill of Materials
 Callouts, Notes, and Dimensioning
 Direct outputs to PDF and printers

6.2. Output jobs

 An Output Job is a document containing all of the settings for all of the outputs
from your entire Project

 We have defined Schematic Prints, Assembly Drawings, 3D Prints and three
different versions of the BoM, all of these outputs are targeted to create a single
multi-page PDF

 Show that Gerber, ODB++, Gerber X2, IPC-2581 and other “file based” outputs can
be targeted to specific date-stamped folders

 Illustrate how to create a specific report from the BoM highlighting the non-RoHS
compliant components. Show that this output could be targeted to Excel and
merged into a heavily stylised report using templates.

 Create Smart PDF containing a complete documentation set. Schematic Prints, PCB
Drawings, 3D Prints Bills of Materials and custom reports combined into a single
PDF with bookmarks allowing easy searching for components and/or nets

 Create a 3D PDF allowing manipulation of the PCB in 3D within the Acrobat PDF
Reader

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6. RELEASE

6.3. Releasing data into the Vault

 Open the release view to show that by using Altium Vaults, we have a robust
means of maintaining verified release data

 The process involves creating a Snapshot of the Project, verifying that that
Snapshot passes ALL DRC checks and then Releases everything as a new version
into the Vault

6.4. Vault Explorer

 Open Vault Explorer to show the bare board output for the project and its life cycle
 Open Item History of Bare Board, observe the complete development history of

this project, from New Design through various Prototypes, through different
Production Runs
 Each Item contains complete information to re-instantiate the project at that point
in time

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7. FURTHER INFORMATION

Contact us

 Premier EDA Solutions Ltd.
4 Millers House (1st Floor)
Roydon Road
Stanstead Abbotts, Ware
SG12 8HN
UK

Tel: 01920 876250
eMail: [email protected]
Web: www.eda.co.uk

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