Altium Develop Customer Onboarding Guide

Created: September 16, 2025
Updated: September 17, 2025

Welcome to Altium Develop

This onboarding guide is designed to give your team the tools and collaboration capabilities you need to modernize your electronics design workflow. After completing the steps in this onboarding guide, you will be able to:

Provide access to best-in-class design technology for up to 5 team members
Enable seamless global collaboration across ECAD, MCAD, and supply chain specialists with Altium Develop's cloud-based applications.

How to Get Help

Your bundle also provides access to real-time support, user communities, comprehensive product documentation, training videos, and a knowledge base of targeted solutions for common user experiences.

Your Support Resources:

Getting Started

We recommend following the steps below to get started with Altium Designer and Altium Develop's cloud-based applications that are included in your platform. Each step builds on the one prior to ensure a smooth onboarding experience for you and your team members.

You can also explore these two Getting Started Guides to supplement your learning:

Connections

The following tools are part of your Altium Develop Platform. Click on the links below to learn about each one:

Step 1: Account Activation & Downloads

In this step we will cover creating your Altium Account, installing Altium Designer, and activating your team’s Altium Workspace.

Onboarding Objectives	Resources
Create your Altium Account	📝Register here
Download and install Altium Designer*	📥Download here
Activate your team’s Altium Workspace	✅Activate here

*Note: You sign in to the Altium Account created above during the installation process.

Step 2: Environment & Access Setup

Now that you have access to Altium Designer and Altium Develop, you can invite your team members and get familiar with both the desktop and web interfaces. (Also covers importing existing component libraries.)

Onboarding Objectives	Resources
Invite team members to your Altium Workspace and learn how to manage content access	📄Documentation: Managing Workspace Membership 🎬Project File Permissions
Get familiar with your Altium Designer environment & system preferences	📄Documentation: Elements of the Environment; 📄Documentation: Accessing, Defining & Managing System Preferences
Get familiar with your Altium Workspace	📄Documentation: Altium Platform Interface
Define and manage lifecycle definitions for your Workspace	📄Documentation: Lifecycle Management 🎬 Component Lifecycle States
Configure part sources for your Workspace	📄Documentation: Part Source Configuration
Configure global operation permissions for your Workspace	📄Documentation: Setting Global Operation Permissions for a Workspace
Learn how to use version control in Altium Designer & Altium Develop	📄Documentation: Using Version Control 🎬 Version Control System

Step 3: Importing Libraries & Using Cloud Libraries

Onboarding Objectives

Resources

Import existing libraries to your Workspace

📄Documentation: Importing Existing Libraries to Your Connected Workspace

🎬Create and Import a Library

🎬Library Health

Learn how to create new components in Altium Designer

🔗Getting Started Guide: Creating a New Component

🎬Place a Generic Component

🎬Acquire a Component from a Manufacturer Part Search

Step 4: Creating & Managing Projects

Once your team members have been invited and component libraries have been imported, you can begin working on your projects with commenting and task management.

Onboarding Objectives	Resources
Learn how to create a new project or upload existing projects to your Workspace	📄Documentation: Workspace Projects 🎬Import Project Library 🎬Move a Project and Components to Altium 365
Learn how to create Project Templates	📄Documentation: Creating a Project Template 🎬Create a Project Template
Learn how to create Schematic Templates	📄Documentation: Creating a Schematic Template
Learn how to share a design with team members and modify existing access rights	📄Documentation: Sharing a Design; 📄Documentation: Modifying Access Rights for Existing People 🎬Project File Permissions
Learn how to create and manage comments in your project documents	📄Documentation: Document Commenting
Learn how to create and manage tasks in your Workspace	📄Documentation: Working with Tasks
Learn how to use project history to see a complete view of a project’s development journey	📄Documentation: Project History 🎬Component History 🎬Revert to a Previous Project Version

Step 5: Improving Cross-Team Collaboration

Extend your electronics design workflow to collaborate with MCAD, procurement/supply chain, project management, and simulation specialists.

Onboarding Objectives	Resources
Learn how to collaborate with mechanical engineers using MCAD CoDesigner	🔗Getting Started Guide: Introduction to Altium MCAD CoDesigner
Learn how to collaborate with Ansys simulation specialists using Ansys CoDesigner	📄Documentation: Ansys CoDesigner
Learn how to enhance your BOM management workflow with BOM Portal	📄Documentation: BOM Portal 🎬Managing BOMs and Selecting an Alternate Part

Closing Thoughts

After completing all the steps in this onboarding guide, your team should be well-equipped to design electronics using a modern workflow in Altium. We hope this journey continues to be transformative for your team and that you discover new ways to save valuable engineering time.

If you need any help at any time, please contact your Altium Support Team.