Manufacturing Documentation with Duane Benson

Compare PCB fabrication outputs between releases or before sending your board data to manufacture with the free, browser-based Altium 365 Gerber Compare viewer. This article explains how to upload two Gerber datasets, explore color-coded differences by layer, and measure distances in the comparison or individual source views, without downloads, installation, or registration. Keep reading to learn…

See what has changed in your design before sending product data to manufacturing. This article explains how to access and use fabrication, schematic, PCB and BOM comparison tools in an Altium 365 Workspace, from reviewing Gerber and ODB++ differences layer by layer to tracing component and net changes between schematic revisions, layout changes between PCB revisions, and component data changes…

Altium Designer’s CAM editor preferences let you customize settings for viewing, editing, importing, and exporting CAM data. This article outlines the available controls, from layer colors and drawing modes to thermal clearance checks, Quick Load options, and film box settings. Keep reading to find the preferences that fit your CAM workflow. - Learn how to adjust display settings, grids, object…

Learn how to place and edit CAM objects in Altium Designer’s CAMtastic editor, from cutting and copying between documents to creating multiple copies, clearing, mirroring, moving, and rotating objects. This guide explains the selection tools, reference points, and clipboard restrictions that govern these operations. Keep reading to put these techniques to work with greater confidence. -…

Get familiar with the keyboard shortcuts and drag-and-drop actions available in Altium Designer’s Output Job editor. This quick reference covers editing outputs, configuring their settings, linking them to output containers or print jobs, and generating enabled outputs. Read on to put these shortcuts to work in your next Output Job file. - Learn how to cut, copy, paste, delete, and duplicate…

Altium Designer’s CAMtastic editor includes reports for fabrication quotations, drill tools, Dcode and layer usage, design rule violations, netlists, routing and milling paths, and selected objects’ XY coordinates. This article explains how to access these reports from the Reports menu, configure the required options, and understand key prerequisites and file-saving behavior. Keep reading to…

Explore the Analysis tools in Altium Designer’s CAMtastic editor for checking and working with your CAM document. This article explains how to configure design rule checks, review violations and apply available fixes, locate invalid polygons, create fabrication drawings from drill layers, and fill, clean, or generate boundaries. It also introduces query commands for inspecting CAM objects. Keep…

Get familiar with the tools for viewing and navigating a CAM document in Altium Designer. This article explains how to zoom and pan, control layer visibility and drawing order, compare layers, and adjust the display of document elements using menu commands and keyboard shortcuts. Keep reading to take more confident control of your CAM document view. - Learn navigation commands for focusing on…

Altium Designer’s CAMtastic editor provides tools to import PCB fabrication data, check layer assignments and stack-up, extract a netlist, and run design rule checks to identify potential fabrication issues. This article walks you through the verification workflow, including reviewing violations, investigating affected objects, and applying Auto Fix where available. Read on to put these tools to…

Learn how to manage layers in an Altium Designer CAM document, from adding and aligning layers to copying objects, moving layer data, merging layers, and adjusting X and Y scaling. This article also explains how to create composite layers, control their polarity and compilation order, and explode them for layer-level editing. Keep reading to put these layer-management commands to work in your CAM…