Tools/Altium Designer

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Contents

These pages contain informations on how to design Schematics and PCBs using Altium Designer.

First Steps

New Project

Some model documents are available in the folder P:\Library\AltiumLib\Templates\ProjectTemplates.

  • HESSO\HESSO2L.PrjPcb for in house pcb manufacturing
  • Eurocircuit4L\Eurocircuit4L.PrjPcb to work with an external PCB manufacturer.


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Klick on File->Open in Altium Designer and select the desired project template.

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If you’re not sure, ask someone of the Electronics Laboratory AE01.


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In the Projects view right-click on the ***.PcbDoc file and klick Save As... to copy it.

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Please give your board an explicit name, Pcb.PcbDoc or Board.PcbDoc aren’t!

New Schematic Sheet

Before adding a new Schematic Sheet to your project you have to define the default schematic template.

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Set the default schematic template at DXP -> Preferences -> System -> New Document Defaults -> Schematic from P:\Library\AltiumLib\Templates\SchematicTemplates:

e.g.: P:\Library\AltiumLib\Templates\SchematicTemplates\A3\HESSO Lanscape A3.SchDot.

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Right click on your project and select Add New to Project -> Schematic, to add schematic sheets.

Project Parameters

The Name of a Project Parameter serves as placeholder for its Value throughout the design. At HEI we use it mainly to put it as text on the PCB. If you write .<ProjectParameterName> in any text field inside the project, it will be replaced by the <ProjectParameterName>.

This step is optional.


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Right-click on ***.PrjPcb -> Project Options... -> Parameters, and fill in the fields as shown in the table below.

Parameters
Name Value
PcbDate <date>
PcbDesigner <name>
PcbRevision <version>
SchematicDate <date>
SchematicDesigner <name>
SchematicRevision <version>


There exist already a long list of Predefined Special Strings in Altium Designer, which are used the same way, e.g: .Pcb_File_Name_No_Path.

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Use CamelCase to differentiate your Paramters from the Predefined Special Strings, which add in snake_case.

Save Project

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In the Projects view right-click on the ***.PrjPcb file and select Save Project As..., enter the project name and choose the right destination folder (typically inside the folder PCB of your project on I:).

Altium will ask you to give a name for the ***.SchDoc.

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Give an explicit name to the different sheets.

The Project View of your design should now look something like this:

Project View of Example Design with 3 schematic sheets and a PCB sheet
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