Mobile menu
PCB Design
Resources PCB Design Weekly Digest: Design Data Management

Weekly Digest: Design Data Management

Created: May 24, 2019
Updated: March 16, 2020

Dive deep into design data management this week with expert articles and VP of Marketing Lawrence Romine on the OnTrack Podcast. Learn all about the modern, streamlined experience that Concord Pro offers and the performance enhancements in Altium Designer 19.1 in this discussion between Romine and Judy Warner.  New this week we also have Mark Harris, creator of the Celestial Database library, joining on as expert contributor to share his wisdom and experience. John Watson shares more about Data Management and Cherie Litson has contributed a comprehensive list of ways to approach building a clean and consistent PCB data library. For an inspirational story, read about award-winning student Piotr Lazarek who shares his idea and inspiration behind an autonomous device that is changing the way soil conditions are monitored.

Articles from PCB Design Experts

Read the latest articles published this week by experts in the field:

For those who enjoy a little weekend reading, there’s never a shortage of informative articles on the PCB Design Blog. Click to explore and while you’re there please leave a comment with any questions or feedback.

The OnTrack Podcast with Judy Warner

The OnTrack Podcast dissects relevant topics and issues for pcb designers from schematic capture all the way to the manufacturing floor. On the design side, everyone has a need for a reliable library and component management tool. Learn about Concord Pro from Altium’s VP of Marketing Lawrence Romine in this episode of the OnTrack Podcast.

Did you miss last week’s episode? Find out what was covered with guest John Coonrod in these quick Youtube clips:

The OnTrack Podcast brings you tips, information and guidance from industry leaders such as John Watson, Lee Ritchey, Rick Hartley, Eric Bogatin and more. You can listen to or watch the podcast on all your favorite podcast apps including Podbean, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, Youtube, PlayerFM and if you can’t find us, let us know!

Altium Videos on YouTube

Stop by the Altium or Altium Designer Youtube Channels and keep up to date with videos and clips to help you in your PCB design career. While you’re there, please remember to subscribe!

New videos on the Altium Youtube Channel:

Lets Get Social on Altium Instagram - Follow Us

Have you seen the Altium Instagram account? Follow us to see the latest clips from the podcast, tips on how to use Altium Designer and more. Send us a DM or tag us if you have something to share related to electronics engineering.

If you’ve got burning questions, let us know, and remember to tag us on social media if you’d like to share your projects!

 
Altium Designer - PCB Design Software Altium 365 - PCB Design Platform Enterprise PCB Design Solutions FREE Trials

Related Resources

risk vs reward Risk Vs. Reward During the recent IPC APEX expo, there was a lot of discussion about SAP, or semi-additive PCB processes. As with any new technology in PCB manufacturing, there were people that are excited to jump right in and start designing with much finer feature sizes and work through the inevitable changes to the traditional thought process. Others are in a let’s wait and see mode and of course, there are a few skeptics there as well. There were a few stand Read Article
DDR4 routing guidelines PCB Routing Guidelines for DDR4 Memory Devices and Impedance Follow these DDR4 routing and PCB layout guidelines to ensure signal integrity and correct timing for high speed DDR buses. Read Article
How Parasitic Inductance Can Impact Your ESD Protection How Parasitic Inductance Can Impact Your ESD Protection When I was a kid, I was certain I was going to be a biologist. I collected all kinds of lizards, tadpoles, and insects, and spent most of my allowance on aquariums for my various creatures to live in. However, one thing really held me back. I am super grossed out by parasites. I will let a mantis or snake crawl all over me, but even looking at a tapeworm gives me dry heaves. Eventually, I went into engineering, where nothing needs weekend Read Article
Solder Bridge Jumper Best Practices in PCB Design What Is a Solder Bridge? Best Practices in PCB Design A PCB variant is often simply thought of as a new layout created from an old design. However, if you’re creative with your routing and layout, you can use a solder bridge jumper to configure portions of a single PCB layout for multiple variants. This lets you quickly create variants of a PCB layout without rerouting traces or changing your schematics. If you plan to use jumpers in your PCB layout, there are some important guidelines to follow to Read Article
Circuit Replication with Multi-Channel Design How to Simplify Your Circuit Replication with Multi-Channel Design Circuit replication, especially in flat designs, presents several unique challenges that occur when you copy PCB layout designs. You can't simply copy and paste footprints around your PCB layout and expect all of your design data to remain synchronized without errors. What about reverse engineering? Similarly, when you need to reuse schematic circuit blocks, taking the copy and paste approach simply takes too long and can make your schematics Read Article
Pros and Cons of Different High-Frequency Transmission Line Types Pros and Cons of Different High-Frequency Transmission Line Types You already know that dating is something I struggle with. After my failed attempts at blind dates and speed dating, I decided it was time to try online dating. I found a nice woman who said she was my age and set up a date. Upon arrival, I found out that I’d been catfished--that wasn’t actually her in the picture! Needless to say, it didn’t go well. It made me realize that I should have done a bit more research about my date and online Read Article
Considerations for Designing a High Voltage PCB Considerations for Designing a High Voltage PCB I used to think that high voltage applications were only used in power engineering. Since I had no desire to work at a power plant or transformer station, I was safe from having to learn high voltage PCB design considerations. Alas, my interest in space applications proved me wrong and forced me to confront my laziness. It turns out high voltage applications show up in almost every industry, from manufacturing and power plants to medical and Read Article
How to Connect Two PCB Boards With a Bus With a Bus: Do Not Pass When Flashing Yellow How to Connect Two PCB Boards With a Bus: Do Not Pass When Flashing Yellow During my school days, my favorite time of the day was when the bell rang and we were free to go home. While waiting for my school bus, I spent time messing around with my friends and would be so engrossed in playing that I’d occasionally miss my bus. Naturally, my mom wasn’t too thrilled about having to pick me up after a busy day of work. Missing the school bus, fun as it may have initially seemed, resulted in some serious grounding. Without Read Article
Auto-Interactive Routing to Overcome Obstacles and Other Polygons Auto-Interactive Routing to Overcome Obstacles and Other Polygons There’s no doubt about it, routing traces on a printed circuit board by hand can be a lot of fun. It’s an engaging challenge to make the routing as neat, tight, and correct as possible to give you the shortest routes with the best signal integrity. Once you are done you can take a lot of pride in knowing that your measured lines are perfect, you differential pairs are spot on, and everything looks great. The only problem is that level of manual Read Article
Determining Impedance with a Microstrip Line Calculator Determining Impedance with a Microstrip Line Calculator Whether you’re new to PCB design or you’ve made your career out of it, there are many times in RF and high speed design where you need to design microstrip and stripline traces to have a specific impedance. This is done by adjusting the width of the line until the desired impedance value is reached. It's important to understand where impedance calculators are applicable as different calculators include specific assumptions on dielectric Read Article
Back to Home

Table of Contents

Altium Designer Logo

Take advantage of the world's
most trusted PCB design system.

One interface. One data
model. Endless possibilities.

Effortlessly collaborate with
mechanical designers.

The world's most trusted
PCB design platform

Best in class interactive
routing

View License Options

Try Altium Designer

Get Altium Designer for free for 2 weeks

Get Altium Designer for free for 2 weeks

Thank you, you are now subscribed to updates.