Project Management

Why Version Control Should Be Implemented in Your PCB Design Software

Why Version Control Should Be Implemented in Your PCB Design Software Everyone’s worst nightmare - the blue screen of death! Getting back into the flow after a business trip is never easy, but my return this week has been particularly challenging. We have a time critical contract with our client, so everyone on the project is operating at >100%. I was staying on track until I opened my Board design software and saw that someone had made changes to my layout. They removed two of the four tines from my smart fork Read Article

Structuring Your Design Data Management to Avoid Design Missteps

Structuring Your Design Data Management to Avoid Design Missteps When it comes to PCB design, one very important aspect of the overall process is proper data management and documentation. While the immediate consequences may not be as apparent, mismanagement of your data can have both a direct and indirect effect on your project and design. Proper implementation of data management and documentation ensures the organization, traceability, accountability and reproducibility of your design data. Read on to learn Read Article

Design Prep: Centralizing Your Design Data

Design Prep: Centralizing Your Design Data Electronics design, like cooking, requires having the right ingredients in place to complete your creations. What if all that information was located in a single, centralized location so that everyone in the organization had access to pre-defined, pre-approved design ingredients to speed the process? Read on to learn more. I really like cooking. The satisfaction of tinkering with a recipe, and getting the flavors and balance just right. The Read Article

6 Things for Your PCB Design Library

6 Things to Have in Your Team’s PCB Design Library Components form the building blocks of our Printed Board designs, and making the right component selections can make or break a project’s budget. Are you doing everything you can to ensure that your design is both maintained and updated on a regular basis? More importantly, how are you ensuring that only approved, ready-to-use components are being used in your current PCB designs? Read on as we reveal the 6 things you need to have in your team’s Read Article

Migrating from Altium Vault Server 1.2 to Altium Vault 2.0

Migrating from Altium Vault Server 1.2 to Altium Vault 2.0 Yesterday we released Altium Vault^® 2.0. As Nikolay mentioned, organizations using the Altium Server with Subscription are eligible to upgrade to Altium 2.0. After you’ve contacted your Sales & Support Center, the next thing you’ll wonder about is just how do you go about migrating your data to the new Altium 2.0. It’s pretty easy actually; I did it for myself in about an hour yesterday afternoon and documented the process, which I’d like to Read Article

Putting managed content to the test

Putting managed content to the test The release of Altium Live along with the Shanghai and Hobart managed content services marks a significant shift in the way electronic product development should be done. The concept of managed content services using cloud publishing is new to our industry - I mean, it has been sort-of tried before by others but never successfully executed. I believe we now have the right solution. At this time, as more and more users connect to AltiumLive and Read Article

Altium Vault Technology - A Foundation for the Management of Design Data

Altium Vault Technology - A Foundation for the Management of Design Data A look at Altium's new Technology from the perspective of a tech writer in the trenches! A standalone solution, this technology provides a key foundation element, arguably the backbone, of Altium’s Design Data Management System. As a technical writer at Altium, my job entails its fair share of exciting new challenges. Having to keep abreast of cutting edge new features and functionality is, as the saying goes, my ‘bread and butter’. To say that Read Article

Safeguard designs with source control

Safeguard designs with source control In this Blog entry I'll show you how to get started with version control by installing the popular and free Subversion version control engine, and setting up Altium Designer^® to work with it. In this Blog entry I’ll show you how to get started with version control by installing the popular and free Subversion version control engine, and setting up Altium to work with it. Altium is one of the first electronics design systems to tap into the Read Article

Altium Vault 2.5 Now Available

Altium Vault 2.5 Now Available We’re excited to announce the release of Altium Vault^® 2.5, with a number of new features for component management, data management, project collaboration, and infrastructure management. Read on to explore all of the new features! We’re excited to announce the release of Altium 2.5, available now exclusively for all Altium Subscription customers. Altium 2.5 gives you more precise control over your data management process, with a number of new Read Article

Announcements: Altium Vault 2.0

Announcements: Altium Vault 2.0 We’re very pleased to announce the release of Altium Vault^® 2.0. This release represents a big step forward for our collaboration and ECAD data management product family. Considerable effort has been placed on streamlining the experience as much as possible to make daily work with it more efficient and productive. Integrated SVN services with the . Design repositories can be hosted by server itself, using the to manage access control and Read Article

What's the best way to make a library searchable? Parameters - Component Development Part 3

What's the best way to make a library searchable? Parameters - Component Development Part 3 It's one thing to make great components, but it's quite another to make them easy to find. With reusable components, ui component, software engineering and various component based development, things can be complicated to hunt down. In this blog I explain how we handle component parameters, why they are important, and how we kick off our component development process. Looking at the discussion spawned from my first two blogs, I’ve a feeling this Read Article

Taking Vaults forward together

Taking Vaults forward together Following the recent initial release of Altium Vaults our efforts are now concentrated on fostering large scale adoption. Enhancements will focus on technology maturity, efficiency improvements, and adaptability to a wider range of organization profiles. The next update initiates this second phase by delivering key improvements in the domains of supply chain management, design reuse and enterprise systems integration. Community contribution is Read Article

The Real Costs of Failed Design Collaboration

The Real Costs of Failed Design Collaboration Our design processes have failed us. All over the world, engineers are struggling every day with the simple process of communication between electrical and mechanical design teams. What plagues us is not the lack of power in our tools, but their inability to adapt to what is an entirely different product design workflow than what was required a decade ago. Our design processes have failed us. All over the world, engineers are struggling every day Read Article

New PDN Analysis Extension Now Available for Altium Designer

New PDN Analysis Extension Now Available for Altium Designer Read about a new extension for Altium Designer^® that allows you to efficiently optimize your at design time. With digital designs continuing to increase in density and complexity, it’s more difficult and critical than ever to fully understand the impact of design decisions on your Power Distribution Network () voltage and current performance. Rather than treating issues as a post-design afterthought in a physical prototype, you need a way to Read Article

DC Analysis of a PDN: Essential for the Digital Designer

DC Analysis of a PDN: Essential for the Digital Designer As PCBs become increasingly miniaturized, engineers are commonly faced with incorporating multiple power planes on the same layer. While this design practice introduces coupling issues, the real question is whether they can be resolved without a dedicated PDN analysis tool. Read on to find out. DC Analysis of a PDN: Essential for the Digital Designer Is there enough copper? DC analysis of a power delivery network (“PDN”), commonly referred to as Read Article

Altium Vault Primer Part 1: Making the Case for Centralized Data Management

Altium Vault Primer Part 1: Making the Case for Centralized Data Management Altium Vault^® is an invaluable resource to PCB designers, allowing your teams to store and share a vast array of projects and components and access them instantly whenever needed. But before we dive into the specifics of the Altium in our Primer series, we need to look at how your design team can benefit from a centralized data management solution. Altium is an invaluable resource to PCB designers, allowing your teams to store and share a vast Read Article

Altium Vault Primer - Data Management from 10,000 Feet

Altium Vault Primer - At 10,000 Feet: Project and Data Management Does the prospect of managing all of your design data overwhelm you? If so, you aren’t alone. The real question is what you can do about it. Read on to learn how to take the guesswork out of your data management workflow. Altium Vault^® Primer - Data Management from 10,000 Feet Does the prospect of managing all of your design data overwhelm you? That’s how I felt every day back in my engineering days. I had a great team of designers, all solid Read Article