Easy PCB Drawings With Draftsman Webinar Recap

Easy PCB Drawings With  Draftsman^® Webinar Blog: 8/21/18

In case you missed our webinar on creating PCB drawings with Draftsman, don’t worry because you can find all that good information right here, including a recording of the webinar and also the presentation slides. For future webinars, if there’s something you’d like to see add it to the comments.

Key Takeaways

Professional

Draftsman is a professional tool within Altium Designer^® that allows you to create complete PCB fabrication and assembly drawings. One of the key points that makes so unique for our industry and such a powerful tool is that it was developed with both electrical and mechanical standards in mind. So users can do things like dimension, add graphics, and draw all within Draftsman. With you’re able to create professional, clean documentation for your fabrication and assembly drawings.

Quick

is not a big complicated tool, but that does not mean it isn’t extremely powerful. Because is a simple tool it allows users to move quickly. For the most part there are only two things that really make Draftsman. Place and the Properties Panel. Place is where you can select notes, isometric views, callouts, and more to place on your sheets. The properties panel, like in the schematic and PCB editor is your information hub where you can find and edit all pertinent information about the item you have selected.

PCB Driven

Altium is PCB driven, meaning that when a change is made to the board, that change is propagated to the fabrication and assembly drawings. This is due to being part of the Altium environment. And because its part of this environment there isn’t another tool to learn but most importantly there is no loss of data, no clutter, and no back and forth between other tools.

Automated

Templates in allow users to automate the creation of PCB drawings and notes. Think about the beauty of creating PCB assembly, drill, and fabrication templates once. Opening a template allows the document to be repointed to a different PCB source. The object views you’ve placed before are fixed and automatically updated based on the new source information. So there’s no need to redraw, replace, or update anything! You could literally get to a point where you have an of these PCB documentation templates to account for various product families, board shapes, and required fabrication/assembly specifications. This not only automates the creation of PCB documentation but ensures consistency and enforces necessary standards.

Questions & Answers

Q: What type of dimensioning and tolerancing is available in Draftsman?

A: has several types of dimensioning available including linear, radial, angular, and ordinate. Find out more about placing dimensioning and tolerances here in our documentation

Q: Is Included as part of Altium?

A: Yes! has been part of Altium since Altium version 16.

Q: Can I export my document as a DXF?

A: You can export a document as a PDF but unfortunately not as a DXF at this time. can however import DXF files. To do this select either the import or export option in the File menu.

Q: Can I break up my Bill Of Materials (BOM) across multiple sheets?

A: Yes. allows you to customize your BOM in various ways, one of those ways is by length. You can cut down your BOM into several sections with a length of your choosing. Find out how to do this here.

Q: How can you create drawings for PCB panels?

A: Support for panels in was introduced in Altium 18. Drawings for PCB panels can be brought in after you’ve created a PCB panel, learn more about that here in our documentation.

Q: Are changes in reverted back to the PCB?

A: No. Changes made in do not affect the PCB document. But changes in the PCB are reflected in a document.

Q: Can you edit and update templates after creation?

A: Yes. Sheet templates can be modified after creation. Just open the sheet template document like you would any other and edit. An applied template can not be modified, however.

Q: Can I use schematic sheet templates in ?

A: Unfortunately that is not possible at the moment. But we are constantly developing and updating.

Q: How do you add Mechanical hardware, like screws and nuts?

A: There are several ways but one way that works for many of our users is to create a separate for mechanical components. Mechanical components are not checked for electrical properties/errors or synchronized. This type is used to include additional mechanical objects, such as a mounting screw or a heatsink. They are included in the BOM. Come see our documentation here and also here to learn more about component types.

Q: Can you save standard release notes and distribution statements in a template?

A: Yes. Notes can be saved as part of a document template. More information about document templates can be found here.

Q: Can components be selectively hidden in the drawing?

A: Yes. This option is available and can be accessed through the properties panel.

1. Open the properties panel and select the assembly drawing
2. Select the Components button under the properties section

3. Check on and off the components you desire.

Q: Can a drawing be generated in an outjob job file?

A: Yes. The option to select your assembly and fabrication drawings is under the section “Assembly Outputs” and “Fabrication Outputs”.