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PCB Design

How to Improve Your PCB Documentation Process How to Improve Your PCB Documentation Process Nearly every facet of electronics design has advanced with more effective and automated technology except for the documentation process - until now. Read on to learn how to eliminate the stress of manual PCB manufacturing design documentation with new technologies in Altium Designer®. The evolution of the PCB design has progressed considerably since the days of light tables, tape, and Mylar. The 80s introduced the first PCB design software Read Article
Supply Chain Visibility: Component Sourcing in the New Age Supply Chain Visibility: Component Sourcing in the New Age PCB manufacturers, designers, and OEMs can take a digital-first approach to building boards and designing new products. Supply chain tools in your design software give you the visibility you need. Read Article
How to Implement Capacitive Touch Sensor Technology Capacitive Touch Sensor Technology: How it Works and How it is Implemented Capacitive touch sensor technology offers an inexpensive and highly reliable alternative to the traditional mechanical switches that are used in electronics control interfaces. Manually creating or resizing a touch sensor’s complex vendor/technology-specific patterns can be both difficult and time-consuming. Fortunately, there is an automated solution, which enables the easy creation and modification of intricate touch sensor shapes. The Inner Read Article
pcb layout guidelines Top 5 PCB Design Rules You Need to Know We've compiled some of the essential PCB layout guidelines every designer should know to ensure your board will work as intended. Written by a leading industry expert. Read Article
To Take Training or Not to Take Training? There Is No Question PCB Creativity and Training: To Take A Training Class or Not? When it comes to learning a new PCB design software, how important is it to take a training class? Something I often ask new users, infrequent users, or prospects considering Altium, is if they thought about taking a training class. The answer predictably starts with a grimace, proceeds with a hesitant “yes, however…”, and typically concludes with multiple objections regarding time away from work, cost of the course, and other associated expenses Read Article
The Value of a Built-in 3D Measurement Tool The Value of a Built-in 3D Measurement Tool The built-in 3D measurement features in Altium Designer® has advantages that go above and beyond your average design tool. Read on to discover the true value of integrated 3D measurement capabilities. The Altium PCB layout editor gives designers the ability to display their board in glorious 3D. With the help of Microsoft® DirectX, the PCB editor allows the complete visualization of printed boards, completely loaded with all of their components Read Article
Standardize and Enhance Your Design Efficiency with Project Templates Standardize and Enhance Your Rapid Design Efficiency with Project Templates Are you unnecessarily repeating steps that are slowing your design workflow down? Starting to feel the pressure of a modern, fast-paced design environment that demands continuous product deliveries and rapid design cycles? Find out how Project Templates can help to speed up your project setup time by standardizing your initial setup goals. Today’s engineers are under constant pressure to finish projects on increasingly shorter product schedules Read Article
How to Easily Reverse Engineer PCB Project Libraries Reverse Engineering PCB Project Libraries Receiving PCB design files from clients isn’t always as smooth a process. Clients may send incomplete project files, project library files with unstandardized component libraries, or other files that don’t match what you actually need. When that happens, how do you proceed with the project? Outsourcing has become the de-facto solution for companies seeking to cut costs and increase their profit margins. Rather than consuming their own resources Read Article
How to Simplify Your Output Generation Workflow How to Simplify Your Output Generation Workflow Handing your design off to manufacturing can be a project in itself. Learn how to simplify your output generation workflow in Altium Designer® to create error-free and accurate PCB documentation for manufacturing. You’ve completed an exhausting PCB design. The project is done, right? Not at all; it simply is an intermediate point before the product enters fabrication and assembly into the final product. Handing the design to manufacturing can be Read Article
How to Utilize Queries to Save Time and Resources How to Utilize Queries to Save Time and Resources ​ Navigating your PCB boards and verifying their compliance to your project’s design rules is becoming ever more complex in today’s dense and elaborate designs. How can you maximize your time and leverage your design rules to their true potential? Read on to find out. Using Queries to Save on Time and Resources It’s becoming increasingly more complicated to navigate your boards and verify their compliance to your project rules in today’s Read Article
If All Else Fails, Read the Instructions... If All Else Fails, Read the Instructions... Remember that catchphrase when you were an engineering student: If all else fails, read the instructions… By our very nature, engineers just love sussing things out – how does that work? Why is it like that? What does that switch do? Engineers and designers actually thrive on the challenge of working it out, poking and prodding, testing, examining, and thinking about how this amazing thing is meant to work. But not every device/product Read Article
Expedite PCB Production with a Live Drill Table Expedite PCB Production with a Live Drill Table Having visibility over the number, size and symbols that represent each hole in a PCB design can reassure that no hiccups will delay production and increase costs down the road. Now you can expedite the production of your PCBs with access to the live drill table in Altium Designer®. Read on to learn more. One of the most important elements involved with manufacturing printed boards is the PCB drill table, also called the drill legend. This table Read Article
Isolate Objects on a Design with Custom PCB Queries Isolate Objects on a Design with Custom PCB Queries It can be a great challenge for engineers to make edits to specific objects on overpopulated boards. Leverage the global editing and custom query features in Altium Designer® to easily locate objects and maintain consistency in your designs. Read on to learn more. Every faces significant challenges once a board gets overpopulated with and traces. One of the greatest tasks of working with complex electronic designs is managing a large number of Read Article
Communicate Design Intent with the Right Output Job File Communicate Design Intent with the Right Output Job File Learn how to save hours of manual labor by automating your output job file creation process using the Project Releaser in Altium Designer®. In my previous blog post, I talked about the manual processes still being used to create professional PCB design documents like fab and assembly drawings, and how a tool like Altium Draftsman® can help automate that process. Unfortunately, creating your drawings is only part of the battle you face when Read Article
The PCB Design Guide for Engineers Part 2 - PCB Planning The PCB Design Guide for Engineers Part 2 - PCB Planning As a PCB designer, the planning of the development of a one or several printed circuit boards can be a daunting task. There will be a host of other software tools that will be used in the development of your project. From tools that can be used to track the progress of your human resources within your team to the software tools used by your internal and external resources to bring your project to life. What about high speed components, the solder Read Article
Experience a Completely Unified Design Environment Experience a Completely Unified Design Environment With today’s ever growing market expectations, strict project deadlines, and increasingly complex designs, what solutions exist to minimize the time spent switching between your design tools to complete projects? Now you can successfully deliver products on time and within budget in a completely unified design environment. Read on to find out how. Do you feel like your schematic and pcb tools are from different planets? Are you still using a Read Article
5 Tips for Specifying PCB Hole Size Tolerance 5 Tips for Specifying PCB Hole Size Tolerance in Pads and Vias One of the crucial yet often overlooked aspects of PCB design are the holes through which components are mounted. Specifying the tolerance of hole dimensions in PCB fabrication ensures proper fit of plated-through-hole (PTH) components. Just as important, those dimensions must be clearly communicated to the fabricator so that the boards are properly made. Now, Altium ® PCB design software allows you to add hole tolerance attributes for your pads Read Article