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Cadence OrCAD Migration Guide This guide is intended for users switching from OrCAD/Allegro PCB Designer to Altium Designer. Even if you have never used Altium Designer, this guide will allow you to speed up learning the basic features significantly. Highly experienced experts wrote this guide for OrCAD/Allegro PCB Designer and Altium Designer with years of experience. With your experience, you can easily switch to Altium Designer, which has significant advantages over other Download PDF
Why Altium Designer Will Give You Better Results Over OrCAD Why Altium Designer Will Give You Better Results Over OrCAD A free download of software and a fancy demo can make PCB design tools seem very attractive. You owe it to yourself to do your research before you purchase so that you get the design features you need for success. Altium Designer delivers on its promise of an easy-to-learn, professional set of PCB design tools. When you switch to Altium Designer, you’ll have the same set of design features you’ll find in OrCAD and much more. You can also Read Article
Printed Circuit Board Design Software that is Productive and Painless to Use Printed Circuit Board Design Software that is Productive and Painless to Use When I was young, a new hospital was built in my community. It was easy to get to and provided a great service. Over the years however, the hospital has grown and added more clinics and services. To accommodate this growth the property has been drastically altered for the construction of buildings and parking lots. Now there are narrow driveways, reduced parking, and areas blocked off by cement barricades. If new equipment is being delivered as Read Article
9:39 Five Reasons to Switch to Altium Designer Chris Carlson provides 5 compelling reasons to consider switching from your current EDA solution to Altium Designer. Watch Video
AutoRouter and Massive Potential for Routing Ease AutoRouter and Massive Potential for Routing Ease I once owned a little pop-up tent trailer, and hooking it up to my car was a very involved process. My wife would use a combination of hand signals and shouted instructions to guide me in as I moved the car back and forth in order to position the hitch perfectly under the trailer coupler. One day my father in-law-was helping me and I started my lengthy explanation to him of the hitching process. Without saying a word he simply reached down Read Article
Looking Forward What to Expect After Switching from OrCAD Looking Forward What to Expect After Switching from OrCAD In my collection of tools out in the garage, I have a pair of tin snips that are far older than I am. I inherited this tool from my father, and it may be 80 years old for all I know. These tin snips are difficult to use because they’ve become dull and loose due to their age, but it was hard for me to make a change because they had belonged to my dad. The tin snips frustrated me to no end, so I would find ways to work around them. Finally, after Read Article
43:36 Speed Up your Routing Phase with Altium Designer with David Marrakchi Watch Video
50:25 Altium Designer 19 Key Features We are pleased to announce the release of Altium Designer 19.0! An exciting new era of Altium Designer is here Watch Video
Make Sure the PCB Layout Software You Use has All the Tools You Need Make Sure the PCB Layout Software You Use has All the Tools You Need When I was learning to fly part of my training included a long cross-country trip to practice the fine art of aerial navigation. Being a student pilot I, unfortunately, got a little lost, and before I got myself headed in the right direction again it was much later in the day than it should have been. Here I was; a student pilot that was lost flying an airplane and it was getting dark. I have never felt so alone in all of my life. Since I’m Read Article
1:45 How to Switch Layers During Routing in Altium Designer 19 Learn how you can quickly change and switch between layers during interactive routing. To learn more about Altium Designer 19 Watch Video
Don’t Let Unmanageable Tools Deny You the Joy of Designing a PCB Don’t Let Unmanageable Tools Deny You the Joy of Designing a PCB There are a lot of “firsts” in our lives; the first time we drove alone after getting our driver’s license, going out on our first real date, buying our first home. These moments, and millions of others like them, are supposed to bring a feeling of joy when we remember them. Another moment of joy for me was that first PCB design that I worked on. I remember routing traces on a design that a co-worker opened up for me the first time I sat in front Read Article
Team Design Support Makes Rapid Prototyping a Breeze Team Design Support Makes Rapid Prototyping a Breeze If you’re looking to document features and changes in your next PCB, word processing software and email chains simply won’t do the trick. Keeping information consistent over time and across an organization takes design software that enforces a consistent data format that is accessible by everyone on your team. If you’re using design modules with different workflows and data formats, you might as well be creating documentation using pen and paper Read Article
28 Rigid-Flex Support for Multi-Board Designs Watch Video
Integration of Schematic Capture, Layout, and Databases Improves Efficiency Integration of Schematic Capture, Layout, and Databases Improves Efficiency Do you like seeing old classic cars in movies and on TV? So do I. Would slipping behind the wheel of a vintage Model T Ford for a test drive be the highlight of your bucket list? Mine too. Would it be as simple and easy as they show on TV? Absolutely not. Of the three pedals on the floor of the Model T, the left controls first gear, neutral, and second gear depending on if you push it in all the way, half way or not at all. The middle pedal is Read Article
Don't Undervalue Ease of User Interface Don't Undervalue Ease of User Interface You know how cooking can get complicated when you aren’t in your own kitchen? Since they aren’t “right where you left them”, you have to hunt for a pan or utensil that will work for what you are doing. It takes more time and possibly burning some eggs while you are looking for a spatula. And that’s just cooking something simple for breakfast; imagine trying to prepare a complicated meal. Situations like this are what help the restaurant business Read Article
Homegrown PCB Professionals, BOM Management and Subject Matter Expertise - September 2018 Homegrown PCB Professionals, BOM Management and Subject Matter Expertise - September 2018 OnTrack Newsletter September 2018 VOL. 2 No 6 ARE ENGINEERS AND PCB TECHNOLOGISTS HOMEGROWN? Highlighting Multi-Generational Technologists Over the past year, I’ve noticed a subtle trend in the designers and technologists we’ve interviewed for this newsletter. Have you noticed it? There have been a number of times people cited their parents as the ones who inspired them to pursue an electronics career. (Think...Rick Hartley, Nicole Creeden, Bill Read Article
Why Constantly Updating Component Libraries are Boons Why Constantly Updating Component Libraries are Boons If you’re my age or older, you might remember looking through the card catalog at your local library. Lacking any digitized system, thumbing through a list of information on paper was the only way to find the book you were looking for. This might be fine for finding books in a hurry, but it is a terrible system for locating the components you need for your PCB. Within the potential production environments, PCB layout is only one piece of an ever Read Article