Creative Use of Flexible Tools A question came up on the forums today asking how to make a design rule in Altium Designer® to check for silkscreen clearance to the board outline. Knowing that there is no direct method to achieve this, I had to get creative. A question came up on the forums today asking how to make a design rule in Altium to check for silkscreen clearance to the board outline. Knowing that there is no direct method to achieve this, I had to take step back and Read Article Component Development best practices - Part 1 During the coming weeks, we’d like to post details about our PCB component development standards, practices and processes. Along the way, I’d like open discussion about how you develop libraries, and where do you see challenges. We’d like to pull everything together into more formal best practices and standards guide. With solder paste, a solder mask, printed circuit assembly, and PCB fabrication, there is so much to consider so let's dig in! Hi Read Article AltiumLive - this time it's personal! Altium product manager Rob Irwin shares some personal thoughts on AltiumLive and its significance to electronics design. As many of you know, Altium recently acquired Morfik, a developer of software tools used to create web applications. On the surface it’s a puzzling match up. Altium makes tools to design and develop electronic devices. Morfik makes tools to develop web stuff. Where’s the synergy? I must confess that at first I was struggling to Read Article All you need to know about AltiumLive An introduction to AltiumLive and the cool new community applications that are available for you to use. AltiumLive is an online extension of your Altium Designer® software for PCB designs. It is a place where you can connect, engage and exchange values and ideas with the broader Altium Designer community. It’s also a mechanism that keeps you up to date with the latest device support, features, updates and online services. AltiumLive Forum The Read Article AltiumLive - FAQs Your AltiumLive questions - answered! The following is a list of Frequently Asked Questions, the answers for which are all aimed at getting you up-and-running with AltiumLive. OK, I'll ask it. What is the underlying purpose of AltiumLive? The key objective of AltiumLive, through its Forums, BugCrunch and the recognition program, is community building. We want to have a community that is rich in knowledge and expertise, and full of members who are Read Article Software development streams - the natural evolution of our business The software engineering industry is a bit of an ugly duckling when it comes to release cycles. For reasons of traceability, validation, verification, and marketing, most software packages are built to a certain level of completeness and then released with much fanfare. But is this how we should do things in the future? Software development streams - the natural evolution of our business The embedded software engineering industry is a bit of an Read Article Safeguard designs with source control In this Blog entry I'll show you how to get started with version control by installing the popular and free Subversion version control engine, and setting up Altium Designer® to work with it. In this Blog entry I’ll show you how to get started with version control by installing the popular and free Subversion version control engine, and setting up Altium to work with it. Altium is one of the first electronics design systems to tap into the Read Article Design custom NanoBoard peripheral boards – Pt2 Last month, we discussed how to get started on custom peripheral board designs by building a template from the PB30 reference design. This month, with an example prototype peripheral board in hand, we look at the process of registration using the 1-Wire bus EPROM which holds the board’s identity and allows Altium Designer® to automatically configure FPGA projects that use the new board. Design custom NanoBoard® peripheral boards – Pt2 Part 2 Read Article Design Custom NanoBoard Peripheral Boards If you want to add custom hardware functionality to your NanoBoard®, why not make your own add-on Peripheral Board? This two part Tech Tip details the easy way to create your own custom board to use with Altium Designer®. Part 1: Creating your own peripheral board template In this first installment of this two-part tech-tip, we’ll look at how to go about getting the PCB design under way, starting with the PB30 reference design and modifying it to Read Article Automate Output Job File Processing with PCB Release View in Altium Deisgner There are many ways to peel an orange - so to speak - and some are better than others. And when it comes to generating fabrication and assembly outputs from your designs this adage holds true. In this PCB design tip, FAE Dave Cousineau describes a re-usable, highly effective way of managing output jobs using the PCB design release capability of Altium Designer®. Using Output Job files to define and store the necessary documentation needs for any Read Article PCB Design Environment Migration: How Many Interfaces Does It Take to Complete a PCB Design? Ever find yourself juggling multiple interfaces just to accomplish one singular goal of your PCB design? Learn how easy it can be to design a PCB with a unified design environment in Altium Designer®. That’s a trick question, it only takes one. But for many engineers, designing a PCB often involves learning multiple sets of software just to accomplish one final goal. And even then, there's no guarantee that a multi-tool chain approach will Read Article New Features You’ll Only See in Altium Designer 16 We’ve packed many new features in Altium Designer®, allowing you to get your designs done faster than ever. Check out our top 3, and register now for a free webinar to see them all! It’s that time of the year again, and we’ve got a major update planned for Altium . Our focus has always been on providing you with the most productive and efficient design tool that allows you to tap into your true design potential. This release is no exception to Read Article Enhanced Documentation Options in Altium Designer 15.1 We all know the importance of accurate and detailed documentation in the design process. Has your fabricator ever called with questions about design intent or missing documentation? The newest features being added in Altium Designer® are going to make your design to fabrication process even simpler and clearer with expanded documentation output and editing options. New Documentation Features in Altium 15.1 3D PDF Outputs 3D views of your PCB Read Article 5 (More) Productivity-Boosting Features in Altium Designer You Need to Start Using Now We’re back with another series of productivity-boosting features for you to take advantage of in Altium Designer®. If you missed us last week, check out our first blog post for the other 5 productivity enhancers we’ve covered. I’ve included some great time saving and workflow enhancement features in this article that will help to automate many of those tedious, repetitive tasks that we have to perform in our designs. Read on to learn more! Cross Read Article 5 PCB Designer Productivity Features in Altium Designer You Need to Be Using Now Are you getting the most efficiency out of your Altium Designer® workflow? Use these 5 time-saving features to enhance your PCB design productivity. I sat down to talk with some of our best and brightest at Altium Designer, those who have poured countless hours and effort into learning, using, and developing Altium Designer. Why? I wanted to extract the top 5 productivity features they use day in and day out that shave hours off of their design Read Article Collaborative Design Part 4: True ECAD/MCAD Collaboration with IDX True ECAD MCAD collaboration is more than just preserving details when moving between design environments. Visibility into design changes, comparing and merging capabilities, revision tracking and commenting are all key elements of collaborative design as well. In the final part of this blog series, I look at how IDX might be the best solution yet. In the last part of this blog series, I dove into ECAD MCAD collaboration market, and why it’s so Read Article Open Source OLED Watch It's a great time to be an engineer and a designer. In keeping with the theme of Petr Tosovsky's Open Source Projects in our Altium Designer blog, we found another Open Source Hardware (OSHW) project which was so cool we wanted to share it with the community. In this blog, Ben Jordan interviews 4th year computer engineering student Jared Sanson about his awesome OLED watch (smart watch), which he designed the electronics for in Altium Designer® Read Article Pagination First page « First Previous page ‹‹ Page211 Current page212 Page213 Page214 Page215 Page216 Next page ›› Last page Last » Load More
