Altium designer 17 pcb tutorial free

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

It is all about preparing for a schema that you will be working with and may involve dragging an existing schema and adding it to your project.

You are free to choose the library you want to use. Open the browser and ensure that the component you want to use is integrated into the circuit. Type the name of the component in the library as well. You may also choose the footprints that you want to include. You can choose from medium, large or normal. Standard suffixes N, M, and L, are there to choose from.

In this Altium designer tutorial, we will choose to work with the normal N. It is good, especially if you will choose a high-density design. This helps you to find the right chip to use. The next thing you must do is find the right components, including resistors and capacitors, and place them in the dialogue. Also, find the headers in the library header and let them be included.

Click the Ok button, and you will have your Altium designer ready to use. You may then finish your Altium designer by placing power ports on it.

Place your VCC10, and a red cross will appear to show you where the connectors will be placed. What remains now is for you to place wires to finish it off. The next thing that must be done is to set the component values. You may edit your components by double-clicking on them if you feel that your values are incorrect. You may also select the right capacitors from the portal and remember to give your components unique reference names. At this point, you have everything you need to make the pairing.

You may then save the schematic. With this in place, make a PCB layout using the Altium designer. Once your schematic is created and successfully verified, you can transfer your design to a PCB layout, which defines the physical architecture of your board. This may seem simple enough, but each task requires that several interdependent steps. Moreover, there are constraints and guidelines that must be followed to ensure your design can actually be manufactured. Managing this process is daunting, but a circuit board design application like Altium Designer can help guide you through the process.

Who has time to learn PCB design through trial and error? Whether you are about to design your first printed circuit board or you have years of successful design experience, your new PCB design package should help guide you through the design process. The rules-driven design engine in Altium Designer is a critical portion of the application. Here are some of the important design mistakes you can catch in your PCB layout:.

Altium gives you more than just design tools. Altium Designer guides you through your first schematic and helps you learn how to design a PCB layout. Circuit board parts have been traditionally difficult to find, and many designers have spent hours creating these parts manually.

Altium Designer offers access to a Manufacturer Part Search panel, which helps you quickly add components to your library. All you have to do is search and click to download accurate parts directly from a managed library. When you need more resources to finish a complex design, Altium gives you free access to PCB layout tutorials both online and in-application that guide you through the various design features.

Altium also gives everyone access to their knowledge base through their website. The technical documentation for Altium Designer includes many thoroughly explained examples to help you use design tools. Contrary to what some believe, DFM is specific to your manufacturer. Reliance on default or general specifications can cause manufacturing delays and may require design changes.

This is easily avoided by setting up your DRCs to match the capabilities of your manufacturer. After checking your layout against your design rules, you can generate manufacturing output documentation for your fabricator. This includes Gerber files, pick-and-place files, assembly drawings, and much more. A great way to assist your manufacturer is with panelization. Altium makes panelization easy, including the ability to evaluate 3-D views to determine the best panel arrangement.

Learn more about circuit board panelization in Altium Designer. Working in a unified design environment gives you access to all the features you need to get started designing your next PCB.

Altium Designer uses a rules-based design that helps you avoid simple mistakes. Capturing your schematic in your layout is simple, allowing you to start routing connections between components and finish building your new device.

All along, the rules-driven design engine, PCB design tutorial, and online resources will help you stay on track. The design environment in Altium Designer is fully customizable. You can rest assured your layout will comply with your design rules, and you can check and correct any rules violations quickly and easily.

These rule definition and checking features help you stay within standard design guidelines and help you build a device that meets your technical requirements.

Jumping into PCB board design for the first time or picking up a new design software platform can be daunting. Luckily, Altium provides you with the resources and PCB layout tutorials you need to be successful.

Altium Designer on Altium delivers an unprecedented amount of integration to the electronics industry until now relegated to the world of software development, allowing designers to work from home and reach unprecedented levels of efficiency.

We have only scratched the surface of what is possible to do with Altium Designer on Altium You can check the product page for a more in-depth feature description or one of the On-Demand Webinars. Zachariah Peterson has an extensive technical background in academia and industry.

 
 

– The Demands of Electronic Product Design

 

In this manner the connection lines act as a guide to the optimum position and orientation of the component as it is placed. If themouse has a wheel, press and hold it while moving the mouse to zoom in and out. All zooming is relative to the current cursor location; position the cursor before zooming. See Getting to know your Editor for additional information on zooming and panning. To place the components, position the cursor over the middle of the component and click-and-hold the left mouse button.

The cursor will change to a cross hair and jump to the reference point for the part. While continuing to hold down the mouse button, move the mouse to drag the component. The dialog has two sections:. Note: Keep track of the rule name for the next section. When a new rule is added, it will initially be given a default name based on the specific type of rule. If a rule with that name already exists, it will simply be given an incremented numerical suffix i.

Design rules can also be created using the Design Rule Wizard. If you click Finish before completing the entire Wizard, the newwidth rule will be created using the system defaults for the component type you selected.

Note: Creating a custom query is a powerful tool for the design process. Visit the Query Language Reference Page for more information on creating custom queries. If the Bottom Layer is not visible, press the L shortcut to open the Layers and Colors dialog, and enable the Bottom Layer by clicking the Eye Symbol next to the layer name.

The cursor will change to a crosshair, indicating you are in interactive routing mode. As you move the cursor close to the pad it will automatically snap to the center of the pad – this is the Snap To Object Hotspot feature pulling the cursor to the center of the nearest electrical object configure the Range of Attraction in the Board Options dialog.

Sometimes the Snap To Object Hotspot feature pulls the cursor when it is not desirable, in this situation press the Ctrl key to temporarily inhibit this feature. Left-Click or press Enter to anchor the first point of the track.

Note how track segmentsare displayed in different ways as shown in the image below. During routing, the segments are shown as:.

For the connection that you are currently routing: Press Backspace to rip up the last-placed segment. Move your cursor back along the path; as soon as you pass over an existing uncommitted segment, the uncommitted routing unwinds back to this location. Routing can use both the top and bottom layers, because the PCB was originally defined as double-sided.

The PCB editor will automatically insert a via in accordance with the Routing Via design rule as necessary when layersare changed. Next, modify an existing route. There are two approaches: reroute, or rearrange. When rerouting, there is no need to un- route a connection to redefine its path. Simply initiate interactive routing and start rerouting; the Loop Removal feature will automatically remove any redundant track segments.

The Loop Removal feature will automatically remove any redundant track segments, including vias. The PCB editor also includes a net analyzer that automatically analyses the route path as work progresses and removes redundant segments. Routing can start and end on the new route path at any point, swapping layers as needed. For this board, it should default to the Default Multi Layer Board strategy.

The Messages panel displays the process of the autorouting. The tutorial will continue with the manually routed board. The auto-router will route on both the top and bottom layers, red tracks on the top layer, blue on the bottom layer. The layers that are used by the auto-router are specified in the Routing Layers design rule, which defaults to top and bottom layers. Also notice the two power net tracks running from the connector are wider, as specified by the second Width design rule you set up.

The Design Rule Verification Report is created and appears a tab in the workspace. Create an intentional DRC error as shown below by clicking a trace segment on the GND net, going to the Properties panel and changing the Width property to 0. Dismiss the window and review the Design Rule Verification Report. The top of the report is a summary of any violations. The specific DRC violations are listed below the summary as hyperlinked text.

Clicking on the link will bring the area of concern into view in the PCB editor window. Click on the one at the bottom of the report similar to the one shown below:. Correct the trace Width in the Properties panel or by entering Ctrl-Z to undo your width change. Save the file, and assure there are no DRC errors by rechecking again. The board will display as a 3 imensional object. Note that a directional sphere appears at the current cursor position, as shown in the figure below. Rotational movement of the model is made about the center of the sphere position the cursor before pressing Shift to position the sphere using the following controls.

Move the mouse around to highlight and select each one:. This dedicated document is a single environment for establishing all settings related to all varieties of output types including Gerber, NC drill, assembly drawings, pick and place and more.

The file can also be configured for independent or combined project outputs for design variants. You can now set up the dialog options to appear as below. In the Properties section of the dialog, type in the Designator Q1. Confirm that the Visible checkbox for the Comment field is enabled. Leave all other fields at their default values, and click OK to close the dialog. Move the cursor, with the transistor symbol attached, to position the transistor a little to the left of the middle of the sheet.

Note the current snap grid, it is displayed on the left of the Status bar down the bottom of the application. It defaults to 10, you can press the G shortcut to cycle through the available grid settings during object placement. It is strongly advised to keep the snap grid at 10 or 5, to keep the circuit neat, and make it easy to attach wires to pins.

For a simple design such as this, 10 is a good choice. Once you are happy with the transistor’s position, left mouse click or press Enter on the keyboard to place the transistor onto the schematic. Move the cursor and you will find that a copy of the transistor has been placed on the schematic sheet, but you are still in part placement mode with the part outline floating on the cursor.

This feature allows you to place multiple parts of the same type. You are ready to place the second transistor. This transistor is the same as the previous one, so there is no need to edit its attributes before you place it. The software will automatically increment the component designator when you place multiple instances of the same part. In this case, the next transistor will automatically be designated Q2. If you refer to the schematic diagram shown before, you will notice that Q2 is drawn as a mirror of Q1.

To horizontally flip the orientation of the transistor floating on the cursor, press the X key on the keyboard. This flips the component along the X axis. Move the cursor to position the part to the right of Q1. To position the component more accurately, press the PgUp key twice to zoom in two steps. You should now be able to see the grid lines. Once you have positioned the part, left mouse click or press Enter to place Q2. Once again a copy of the transistor you are “holding” will be placed on the schematic, and the next transistor will be floating on the cursor ready to be placed.

Since all the transistors have been placed, exit part placement mode by clicking the Right Mouse Button or pressing the ESC key. The cursor will revert back to a standard arrow. Finding and Placing the Resistors:. Right-click on the resistor’s Item-Revision number to display the context menu, then select Place CMP from the menu.

While the resistor is still floating on the cursor, press the Tab key to open the Component Properties dialog. In the Properties section of the dialog, type in the Designator R1. The footprint selected here will be transferred to the PCB during design synchronization.

Leave all other fields at their default values and click OK to close the dialog, the resistor will be floating on the cursor. Position the resistor above and to the left of the base of Q1 refer to the schematic diagram shown earlier and click the Left Mouse Button or press Enter to place the part. Next place the other k resistor, R2, above and to the right of the base of Q2.

The designator will automatically increment when you place the second resistor. This search will return all resistors whose values start with 1K, including 1K1, 1K2, 1K3, and so on. Position and place R3 directly above the Collector of Q1, then place R4 directly above the Collector or Q2, as shown in the image above. Right-click or press ESC to exit part placement mode. Finding and Placing the Capacitors:.

Return to the Vaults panel, and search for a suitable 22nF 16V capacitor. The search will return a number of potential capacitors, click on Item CMP to use in this design. While the capacitor is still floating on the cursor, press the Tab key to open the Component Properties dialog.

In the Properties section of the dialog, type in the Designator C1. Leave all other fields at their default values and click OK to close the dialog, the capacitor will be floating on the cursor.

Position the capacitor above the transistors but below the resistors refer to the schematic diagram shown earlier and click the Left Mouse Button or press Enter to place the part. Position and place capacitor C2. Right-click or press Esc to exit placement mode.

Finding and Placing the Connector:. Return to the Vaults panel, and search for header, 2-pin, vertical to locate a suitable connector. The search will return a number of potential terminal strips, some with 0. The search results list will change to show the 9 suitable headers that are in that folder. From the Description column you will see that some are low profile, one is a press fit, and four are standard through-hole headers. From those that are standard through-hole headers, select CMP from the list to jump to that Vault component.

While the header is floating on the cursor, press Tab to edit the attributes and set Designator to P1. Before placing the header, press Spacebar to rotate it to the correct orientation. Click to place the connector on the schematic, as shown in the image above. Save your schematic shortcut: F, S.

Component Positioning Tips To reposition any object, place the cursor directly over the object, click-and-hold the left mouse button, drag the object to a new position and then release the mouse button. Movement is constrained to the current snap grid, which is displayed on the Status bar, press the G shortcut at any time to cycle through the current snap grid settings.

Remember that it is important to position components on a coarse grid, such as 5 or You can also re-position a group of selected schematic objects using the arrow keys on the keyboard. Select the objects, then press an arrow key while holding down the Ctrl key.

Hold Shift as well to move objects by 10 times the current snap grid. The grid can also be temporarily set to 1 while moving an object with the mouse, hold Ctrl to do this. Use this feature when positioning text.

The grids you cycle through when you press the G shortcut are defined in the Schematic – Grids page of the Preferences dialog File » System Preferences. On the Schematic – General page of the Preferences dialog there are settings to select the type of units that will be used, select between Imperial or Metric.

Note that Altium components are designed using the DXP Defaults imperial grid, if you change to a metric grid the component pins will no longer fall onto a grid of 10 – because of this, it is recommended to use the DXP Defaults grid unless you plan on only using your own components.

Wiring the schematic:. To make sure you have a good view of the schematic sheet, press the PgUp key to zoom in or PgDn to zoom out.

Firstly, wire the lower pin of resistor R1 to the base of transistor Q1 in the following manner. Click the button Place » Wire to enter the wire placement mode. The cursor will change to a cross hair. Position the cursor over the bottom end of R1. When you are in the right position, a red connection marker large cross will appear at the cursor location. This indicates that the cursor is over a valid electrical connection point on the component.

Click the Left Mouse Button or press Enter to anchor the first wire point. Move the cursor and you will see a wire extend from the cursor position back to the anchor point. Position the cursor over the base of Q1 until you see the cursor change to a red connection marker. If the wire is forming a corner in the wrong direction, press Spacebar to toggle the corner direction. Click or press Enter to connect the wire to the base of Q1.

The cursor will release from that wire. Note that the cursor remains a cross hair, indicating that you are ready to place another wire. To exit placement mode completely and go back to the arrow cursor, you would Right-Click or press ESC again – but don’t do this just now. Next wire from the lower pin of R3 to the collector of Q1.

Position the cursor over the lower pin of R3 and click or press Enter to start a new wire. Move the cursor vertically till it is over the collector of Q1, and click or press Enter to place the wire segment. Again the cursor will release from that wire, and you remain in wiring mode, ready to place another wire. Wire up the rest of your circuit, as shown in the animation above.

When you have finished placing all the wires, right-click or press ESC to exit placement mode. The cursor will revert to an arrow. Wiring Tips Left-click or press Enter to anchor the wire at the cursor position. Press Backspace to remove the last anchor point.

Press Spacebar to toggle the direction of the corner. You can observe this in the animation shown above, when the connector is being wired. Available modes include: 90, 45, Any Angle and Autowire place orthogonal wire segments between the click points.

Right-click or press Esc to exit wire placement mode. Whenever a wire crosses the connection point of a component, or is terminated on another wire, a junction will automatically be created.

A wire that crosses the end of a pin will connect to that pin, even if you delete the junction. Check that your wired circuit looks like the figure shown, before proceeding. Wiring cross-overs can be displayed as a small arch if preferred, enable the option in the Schematic – General page of the Preferences dialog.

Adding net labels:. Click the button Place » Net Label. A net label will appear floating on the cursor. To edit the net label before it is placed, press Tab key to open the Net Label dialog. Type 12V in the Net field, then click OK to close the dialog.

Place the net label so that the bottom left corner of the net label touches the upper most wire on the schematic, as shown in the image below.

The cursor will change to a red cross when the net label is correctly positioned to connect to the wire. If the cross is light grey, it means there will not be a valid connection made. After placing the first net label you will still be in net label placement mode, so press the Tab key again to edit the second net label before placing it.

Place the net label so that the bottom left of the net label touches the lower most wire on the schematic as shown in the image below. Right-click or press ESC to exit net label placement mode. Save your circuit, and the project as well. Net Labels, Port and Power Ports As well as giving a net a name, Net Labels are also used to create connectivity between 2 separate points on the same schematic sheet.

Ports are used to create connectivity between 2 separate points on different sheets. Offsheet connectors can also be used to do this. Power Ports are used to create connectivity between points on all sheets, for this design Net Labels or Power Ports could have been used. Compiling the Project After you complete the schematic in Altium Designer, you compile it.

Configuring the Error Checking:. Scroll through the list of error checks to the Violations Associated with Components group. Changing the Connection Matrix:. To change one of the settings click the colored box, it will cycle through the 4 possible settings. Note that you can right-click on the dialog face to display a menu that lets you toggle all settings simultaneously, including an option to restore them all to their Default state handy if you have been toggling settings and cannot remember their default state.

Your circuit contains only Passive Pins on resistors, capacitors and the connector and Input Pins on the transistors. Let’s change the default settings so that the connection matrix detects unconnected passive pins.

Look down the row labels to find the Passive Pin row. Look across the column labels to find Unconnected. The square where these entries intersect indicates the error condition when a passive pin is found to be unconnected in the schematic. The default setting is green, indicating that no report will be generated. Click on this intersection box until it turns Ora nge as shown in the image above , so that an error will be generated for unconnected passive pins when the project is compiled.

You will purposely create an instance of this error later in the tutorial. Configuring Class Generation:. Clear the Component Classes checkbox, as shown in the image above. This will automatically disable the creation of a placement room for that schematic sheet. There are no buses in the design, so there is no need to clear the Generate Net Classes for Buses checkbox located near the top of the dialog tab.

There are no user-defined Net Classes in the design done through the placement of Net Class directives on the wires , so there is no need to clear the Generate Net Classes checkbox in the User-Defined Classes region of the dialog tab.

You are now ready to compile the project and check for any errors. Compiling and checking for errors:. When the project is compiled, all warnings and errors are displayed in the Messages panel. The panel will only appear automatically if there are errors detected not when there are only warnings , to open it manually click the button down the bottom right, and select Messages from the menu.

If your circuit is drawn correctly, the Messages panel should not contain any errors, just the message Compile successful, no errors found. If the there are errors, work through each one, checking your circuit and ensuring that all wiring and connections are correct. You will now deliberately introduce an error into the circuit and recompile the project: Click on the Multivibrator.

SchDoc tab at the top of the design window to make the schematic sheet the active document. Click in the middle of the wire that connects R1 to the base wire of Q1.

Small, square editing handles will appear at each end of the wire and the selection color will display as a dotted line along the wire to indicate that it is selected. Press the Delete key on the keyboard to delete the wire.

PrjPcb to check for errors. The Messages panel will display warning messages indicating you have unconnected pins in your circuit.

The Messages panel is divided horizontally into 2 regions, as shown in the image above. The upper region lists all messages; which can be saved, copied, cross probed to, or cleared via the right-click menu. When you double-click on an error or warning in either region of the Messages panel, the schematic view will pan and zoom to the object in error. Before you finish this section of the tutorial, let’s fix the error in our schematic.

Make the schematic sheet the active document. PrjPcb – the Messages panel should show no errors. Save the schematic and the project file as well. When you double click on an error in the Messages panel: The entire schematic fades, except for the object in error.

The amount that the schematic fades is controlled by the Dim level, set by clicking the button down the bottom right. The schematic zooms to present the object in error. Adding a New Board to the Project:. Note that you do not need to enter the file extension in the Save As dialog, this is automatically appended. Adding the PCB has changed the project, so save the project too right-click on the project filename in the Projects panel, and select Save Project. Setting the Origin and the Grid:.

There are two origins used in the software, the Absolute Origin, which is the lower left of the workspace, and the user-definable Relative Origin, which is used to determine the current workspace location. Before setting the origin, Keep zooming in to the lower left of the current board shape until you can easily see the grid – to do this position, the cursor over the lower-left corner of the board shape and press PgUp until both the Coarse and Fine grids are visible, as shown in the images below.

To set the Relative Origin, select Edit » Origin » Set , position the cursor over the bottom left corner of the board shape, then left click to locate it. The next step is to select a suitable snap grid, as discussed in the table above. During the course of design it is quite common to change grids, for example you might use a coarse grid during component placement, and a finer grid for routing.

For this tutorial you will be using a Metric grid. By entering the units as you entered a value, you have also instructed the software to switch to a Metric grid.

If you look at the Status bar you can confirm that the Grid is now metric. Redefining the Board Shape:. The default board shape is 6×4 inch, for the tutorial the board size is 30mm x 30mm. The board will exactly fill the PCB editor. The next step is to change the board shape.

The display will change, the board area will now be shown in green. Your choice now is to either redefine the board shape draw it again , or edit the existing board shape. For a simple square or rectangle, it is more efficient to edit the existing board shape, to do this select Design » Edit Board Shape from the menus.

Note that you must be in Board Planning Mode for this command to be available. Editing handles will appear at each corner and the center of each edge, as shown below. Note that clicking anywhere other than on an editing handle or an edge of the shape will drop you out of board shape editing mode. Use the current location information down the bottom left of the Status bar to guide you as you reshape the board.

Transferring the design from schematic capture to PCB layout:. Make the schematic document, Multivibrator. SchDoc, the active document. PcbDoc from the Schematic editor menus. The project will compile and the Engineering Change Order dialog will open. Click on Validate Changes. If all changes are validated, a green tick will appear next to each change in the Status list.

If the changes are not validated, close the dialog, check the Messages panel and resolve any errors. When completed, the target PCB opens with the Engineering Change Order dialog open on top of it, and the Done column entries become ticked as shown in the image below. Click to Close the dialog and complete the transfer process. The components will have been positioned outside of the board, ready for placing on the board. There are a few steps before starting the component process, such as configuring the placement grid, the layers and the design rules.

Right-click on a Tab to access frequently-used layer display commands. Configuring the Layer Visibility:. Open the View Configurations dialog. In the Board Layers and Colors tab, confirm that the 2 signal layers are visible. Note that this dialog is where you control the display of the mask layers, the silkscreen layers and the system layers, such as DRC and grids.

To have less visual “clutter” during placement and routing, disable the display of the Mechanical Layers, all of the Mask Layers, and the Drill Guide and Drill Drawing layers.

Switch to the View Options tab. Click OK to accept the settings and close the dialog. Configuring the board layer stack:. Open the Layer Stack Manager. For a new board, the default stack comprises: a dielectric core, 2 copper layers, as well as the top and bottom soldermask coverlay and overlay silkscreen layers, as shown in the image above. New layers and planes are added below the currently selected layer, which is done via the Add Layer button, or the right-click menu. Layer properties, such as material, copper thickness and dielectric properties, are included when a Layer Stack Table is placed, and are also used for signal integrity analysis.

Double-click in a cell to configure that setting. For example, the Thickness settings shown in the image below have been changed slightly to more suitable metric values. When you have finished exploring the layer stack options, restore the values to those shown in the image above and click OK to close the dialog. Support for Multiple Grids Altium Designer allows multiple snap grids to be defined. Only the default grid is used in this tutorial.

Configuring the snap grid:. Type the value 1mm into the Step X field. Because the X and Y fields are linked, there is no need to define the Step Y value. To make the grid visible at lower zoom levels set the Multiplier to 5x Grid Step , and to make it easier to distinguish between the two grids, set the Fine grid to display as lighter colored Dots.

Click OK to close the dialog. Configuring the Routing Width Rule for the signal nets:. Each rules category is displayed under the Design Rules folder left hand side of the dialog. Double-click on the Routing category to expand the category and see the related routing rules. Then double-click on Width to display the currently defined width rules.

Click once on the existing Width rule to select it. When you click on the rule, the right hand side of the dialog displays the settings for that rule, including: the rule’s Where the First Object Matches in the top section also referred to as the rule’s scope – what you want this rule to target ; with the rule’s Constraints below that.

Since this rule is to target the majority of nets in the design the signal nets , confirm that the Where the First Object Matches setting is set to All. An additional rule will be added to target the power nets. Note that the settings are reflected in the individual layers shown at the bottom of the dialog, you can also configure the requirements on a per-layer basis. The rule is now defined, click Apply to save it and keep the dialog open. Adding a Routing Width Rule for the power nets:.

The next step is to add another design rule to specify the routing width for the power nets. With the existing Width rule selected in the Design Rules tree on the left of the dialog, right-click and select New Rule to add a new Width constraint rule, as shown in the animation below.

Click on the new rule in the Design Rules tree to configure its properties. The last step is to set the Constraints for the rule. Click Apply to save the rules and keep the dialog open. When there are multiple rules of the same type, the PCB editor uses the rule Priority to ensure the highest prioity applicable rule is applied. When a new rule is added it is given the highest priority, and when a rule is duplicated the copy is given the priority below the source rule.

Click the Priorities button down the bottom of the dialog to change priorities. That is because this is a binary rule – it is a rule that applies between 2 objects. Defining the Electrical Clearance Constraint:. Expand the Electrical category in the tree of Design Rules, then expand the Clearance rule-type. Click to select the existing Clearance constraint. Note that this rule has two Full Query fields, that is because it is a Binary rule. The rules engine checks each object targeted by the setting Where the First Object Matches and checks it against the objects targeted by the Where the Second Object Matches setting, to confirm that they satisfy the specified Constraints settings.

For this design, this rule will be configured to define a single clearance between All objects. In the Constraints region of the dialog, set the Minimum Clearance to 0. Click Apply to save the rule and keep the dialog open. Expand the Design Rule tree and select the default RoutingVias design rule.

Since it is highly likely that the power nets can be routed on a single side of the board, it is not necessary to define a routing via style rule for signal nets and another routing via style rule for power nets. Set all fields Min, Max, Preferred to the same size. Save the PCB file. Setting the component positioning options:. This ensures that when you “grab” a component to position it, the cursor will hold the component by its reference point.

Note the Smart Component Snap option, if this is enabled you can force the software to snap to a pad center instead of the reference point by clicking and holding closer to the required pad than the component’s reference point. This is very handy if you require a specific pad, to be on a specific grid point.

It can work against you if you are working with small surface mount components though, as it can make it harder to “grab” them by their reference point. The connection lines are automatically re-optimized as you move a component – use them to help orient and position the components so that there is the least amount of connection line cross-overs.

Positioning the components:. Zoom to display the board and the component. One way to do this is to zoom out PgDn so the board and the components are all visible, then right-click and choose View » View Area , then click to define the top left and bottom right of the exact area you wish to view. The components will be positioned on the current Snap grid.

For a simple design such as this there are no specific design requirements that dictate what placement grid should be used, as the designer, you decide what a suitable placement grid would be. To simplify the process of positioning the components you can work with a coarse placement grid, for example 1mm. The components in the tutorial can be placed as shown in the image above.

To place connector P1 , position the cursor over the middle of the outline of the connector, and Click-and-Hold the left mouse button.

The cursor will change to a cross hair and jump to the reference point for the part. While continuing to hold down the mouse button, move the mouse to drag the component.

Press the Spacebar to rotate the component if required, and position the footprint towards the left-hand side of the board, as shown in the figure above. When the connector component is in position, release the mouse button to drop it into place. Note how the connection lines drag with the component.

Reposition the remaining components, using the figure above as a guide. Component text can be repositioned in a similar fashion – click-and-drag the text and press the Spacebar to rotate it.

The PCB editor also includes powerful interactive placement tools. Let’s use these to ensure that the four resistors are correctly aligned and spaced. Holding the Shift key, click on each of the four resistors to select them, or click and drag the selection box around all 4 of them. A shaded selection box will display around each of the selected components, in the color set for the system color called Selections.

Right-click on any of the selected components and choose Align » Align to open the Align Objects dialog. The four resistors are now aligned with the lowest component and equally spaced. Click elsewhere in the design window to de-select all the resistors. If required you can also align the capacitors and transistors, although this might not be required since you have a coarse Snap grid at the moment.

Preparing for interactive routing:. The first option releases the cursor from the current route when you click on a pad to finish that route. The second option allows you to change existing routing by simply routing an alternate path – you route a new path until it meets the old path creating a loop , then right-click to indicate it is complete – the software then automatically removes the old, redundant part of the routing.

This feature will be explored later in the tutorial. Interactively routing the board:. Check which layers are currently visible by looking at the Layer Tabs at the bottom of the workspace. Click on the Top layer tab at the bottom of the workspace to make it the current, or active layer, ready to route on.

Click button on the Wiring Toolbar, select Interactive Routing from the Place menu, or right-click and choose Interactive Routing from the context menu. The cursor will change to a crosshair, indicating you are in interactive routing mode.

Position the cursor over the lower pad on connector P1. As you move the cursor close to the pad it will automatically snap to the center of the pad – this is the Snap To Object Hotspot feature pulling the cursor to the center of the nearest electrical object configure the Range of attraction in the Board Options dialog.

Sometimes the Snap To Object Hotspot feature pulls the cursor when you don’t want it to, in this situation press the Ctrl key to temporarily inhibit this feature. Left-Click or press Enter to anchor the first point of the track. Move the cursor towards the bottom pad of the resistor R1, and click to place a vertical segment.

Circuit for the multivibrator. The animation of the designed PCB. Altium Designer can connect to a Workspace for providing a single, secure data source and storage while affording unparalleled collaboration.

It could be an Altium Workspace — a Workspace hosted on the Altium cloud-based infrastructure platform , or Concord Pro Workspace — a Workspace provided through Altium Concord Pro , a solution installed and managed by your own IT department. This tutorial focuses on using Altium Designer with a connected Workspace — the most streamlined and empowered environment for your design needs. However, if you are not able to enjoy the benefits that a connected Workspace brings, you can store your design data, including projects, component libraries, and design outputs, locally on your hard drive or in a shared network resource.

To complete this tutorial, you will need to be connected to a Workspace.

 

Altium designer 17 pcb tutorial free –

 
To resolve this violation you can: Increase the solder mask opening to completely remove the mask between the transistor pads, or Decrease the minimum acceptable sliver width, or Decrease the mask opening to widen the sliver to an acceptable width. To open the dialog:. The new project will appear in the Projects panel. The rule is now defined, click Apply to save it and keep the dialog open.