Project Management

Browse our library of resources to learn more about project management in pcb design.

Am I Big Enough for Data Management? In this episode of the OnTrack Podcast we echo the style of “Ask me Anything” and feature Ben Jordan and Judy Warner who will mine the AltiumLive forum for questions. Ben will answer your questions about Engineering and PCB Design and Judy will respond to topics related to manufacturing and supply chain. Join us today as we tackle the question: If we have only one or two EEs, do we really need data management? For future episodes, you can submit Read Article

Adding Fabrication Tolerance Options to Your Manufacturer Deliverables Much as we would like, no manufacturing process is perfect. Every process produces slight errors in part sizes or placement, and PCBs are no different. Since some PCB applications have very tight tolerances, you’ll need to specify your tolerance requirements for your manufacturer. Let alone maintaining secure understandings of solder mask and solder placement, material thickness specifications, or any surface mount components - designating your Read Article

Keep Track of Your Components with Electronic Component Database Software Believe it or not, everyone eventually finds themselves in a situation where they can’t find something they need. You make a list of things you need to get from the grocery store, only to find that your favorite brand is out of stock. Thankfully, grocery stores give you plenty of options right there on the shelves, but you can run into long production delays if this happens when you go to manufacture your next PCB. Sourcing electronic components Read Article

Building Your Next Multi-Level Bill of Materials My wife and I always argue about what goes on the grocery list each week. I’m a total carnivore, while she prefers I get everything we need from local farmers. Planning out our shopping trips in multiple lists does more than just allow us to plan our Saturdays coherently, it helps ensure marital bliss. Any PCB that you intend to manufacture will need an associated bill of materials. If you’re building a complex product that includes multiple sub Read Article

1:34 How to Set Up Custom Grouping in Components Panel in Altium Designer 19 To learn more about Altium Designer 19, listen to Altium Engineer David Marrakchi discuss this latest Altium Designer release with Watch Video

2:49 How to set up and use microvias in your design Watch Video

1:03 How to Use Altium Content Vault in Altium Designer 19 To learn more about Altium Designer 19, listen to Altium Engineer David Marrakchi discuss this latest Altium Designer release with Watch Video

How Integrated Libraries Help You Manage Your PCB Supply Chain If only sourcing PCB components worked like e-commerce. Recommendation engines are great in that they can help you decide what to buy when your preferred item is not available. Most PCB design packages don’t have this type of functionality, which would save a massive amount of time when planning a manufacturing run. Whether you’re sourcing electronic components or some other parts for your next product, you’ll need access to updates supply chain Read Article

Project Release Management within PCB Design Software You’ve worked night and day to get your PCB design done and finally, the last trace has been connected, the last silkscreen reference has been tweaked, and the final DRC has passed. It’s time to call it a weekend, right? Wrong. You’ve still got a boatload of work to do in order to get all of your output files created for your manufacturers. A lot of PCB design tool vendors provide different mechanisms for making the creation of output files Read Article

Free Bill of Materials Software vs. Integrated Design Software The first time I prepared functional requirements for a web platform, I thought the document was massively complex. I forget the number of youtube tutorials I watched on preparing this document. Now that I have prepared several of these documents for a number of startups, I could probably write functional requirements in my sleep. A bill of materials might also seem like a complex document if you have never prepared one in the past. When it comes Read Article

Team Design Support Makes Rapid Prototyping a Breeze If you’re looking to document features and changes in your next PCB, word processing software and email chains simply won’t do the trick. Keeping information consistent over time and across an organization takes design software that enforces a consistent data format that is accessible by everyone on your team. If you’re using design modules with different workflows and data formats, you might as well be creating documentation using pen and paper Read Article

How a Components Search Engine Helps You Choose Parts For Your PCB If you owned a computer during the 1990’s, then you remember when internet search engines became massively popular. Most homepages were likely set to one of the three or four major search engines. This made surfing the digital highway so much easier, and now search functionality is integrated in many different websites and applications. Anytime you need to quickly locate specific entries in a large database, using a search engine is the fastest Read Article

Build Your Next Engineering BOM With Integrated Design Software It’s easy to collaborate on a project with a small number of people. I’ve always found that two or three people can thoroughly hash out the details on a project in person and produce great results. But as a team grows in size, you’ll spend more time reading and writing documentation. This is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps formalize processes and products across an organization and ensures that everyone can stay on the same page. Any new Read Article

Electronic Parts Sourcing with Integrated Component Libraries The weekend is grocery time at our house, and we always make a thorough list of everything we need for the next two weeks and where we will be buying it. You may not be as meticulous as my wife and I when it comes to buying groceries, but it pays to be thorough when you need to build a bill of materials for your PCB. Once you’ve got your design complete, you need to ask yourself: where am I going to get all of these components I just placed in my Read Article

Integrated Design Software vs. Access Databases For Bills of Materials Building databases in programs like Access is easy enough. Access databases deserve a lot of credit for helping organize tons of information in one place. But adapting these programs to electronics design can be a real challenge. Any PCB that is intended for manufacturing must have a corresponding bill of materials. This document is critical as it lists all of information about your PCB in a standardized format. Your bill of materials contains a Read Article

Mitigating High Junction Temperature to Optimize PCB Performance I consider myself a great multitasker, especially when it comes to preparing meals for my son. I’ll have fish frying in one pan, soup boiling in the other, and potatoes in the oven. Things usually go as well as planned except on rare occasions when one of the dishes burns while I’m absorbed in other tasks. Fortunately, these temperature problems won’t cost me much more than a few dollars and some time. In electronics, your hardware can literally Read Article

Copper Choice and Copper Efficiency for High-Frequency PCB Design Expert woodworkers spend immeasurable amounts of time making sure that finished wood has an exceptionally smooth surface before staining and varnishing can occur. Although my dreams to become the popular host of a DIY woodworking show have diminished to simply attempting to produce a high-quality solid wood bookcase for my wife, I have retained my obsession with achieving a smooth surface. Sanding rough wood is a chore, to say the least. Whether Read Article