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Schematic Capture and Schematic Entry

Browse our library of resources to learn more about PCB design, Schematic Capture, and Schematic Entry. We cover topics ranging from wiring symbols and electronic diagram to best practices for your next PCB design project.

How to Create a PCB Schematic Schematic Capture Editor (Video) Convert a Schematic to a PCB Layout

Perfect Boards Every Time (With Free Templates) Gone are the days of obsessing over the formatting of schematics. Draftsman®, embedded within Altium Designer®, could radically change your workflow for the better. Read Article

PCB Design Guide for Engineers: Part 1 The Team INTRODUCTION What people are involved in the PCB design process? Surely all of the tasks of creating a PCB layout don’t just fall on single pair of shoulders. There are many engineering and scientific disciplines that must be harnessed and managed to bring your vision to life. As the project engineer, your first task is identifying your team. TOPICS IN THIS SOLUTION The Team In-House Assembly Advanced Testing PCB Design Guide for Engineers Part 1 Download PDF

Utilizing a PCB Transmission Line Calculator Makes Design Easier Calculators are impressively helpful with your PCB designs; however, having these calculations built into your PCB design software user interface is beyond fantastic. ALTIUM DESIGNERDesign software tools that can augment your circuit board calculations. Power supply designers understand the complex technical details and functional requirements involved with a switched mode power supply PCB layout. The layout establishes the functional and thermal Read Article

Upgrade from AutoCAD PCB to Altium Designer's Unified Environment Most designers are familiar with AutoCAD for mechanical or construction drafting, and for making important engineering diagrams. Although AutoCAD is great for many tasks involved in electrical or mechanical engineering, PCB designers need more than mechanical drafting tools to make advanced electronics. To get your designs to the next level, you need the best set of ECAD tools on the market, rather than using the AutoCAD PCB package.If you’re not Read Article

Step Up Into Altium Designer from PCAD The original goal of PCAD, to give PCB designers the best tools possible, lives on today in Altium. Altium Designer is made for designers like you, and will import your legacy PCAD designs so you can continue your work. ALTIUM DESIGNERCAD software that will continue through the years. Back in 1982 an innovative new PCB design software CAD tool called P-CAD was introduced to the world. This PCAD PCB design tool quickly outgrew its competition and Read Article

Protel PCB Design Software has Rebranded to Altium Designer Protel PCB isn’t gone, it has been rebranded and enhanced as Altium Designer. ALTIUM DESIGNERThe most powerful, modern and easy-to-use PCB design tool for professional use. You don’t have to look very hard to find software such as Protel PCB design software or Diptrace still in use. Since the mid-1980’s, Protel has been used for PCB design in companies all over the world as well as in universities for teaching circuit design and in homes for the Read Article

The Best EDA Software for PCB Design You don’t have time for underperforming tools that are difficult to learn and use, you need the best EDA software for PCB design that you can get; Altium Designer. ALTIUM DESIGNERThe most powerful, modern and easy-to-use PCB design tool for professional use.You’ve got a job that needs to be done and that means the printed circuit board design is your responsibility. You don’t have time for PCB design tools that are underpowered and second rate Read Article

Designing and Placing Silkscreen on your PCB with Altium Designer Planning for manufacturing and assembly of your next printed circuit board requires drafting a number of deliverables for your manufacturer. One of the important aspects of planning for assembly is ensuring that your assembler has the instructions they need to place components in the right locations and with the right orientation. When you use the right PCB editor with top-quality CAD tools, you can place silkscreen directly in your PCB layout Read Article

Designing and Simulating a Photodiode Circuit for Your PCB Your design tools should give you an easy way to create circuit diagrams, simulate electrical behavior, and start a new PCB layout. A photodiode circuit is important in many applications, ranging from simple ON/OFF light detection to receiving digital data in an optical fiber. These semiconductor devices are similar to a regular diode, but they can be difficult to simulate without the right component models and circuit design tools.With Altium Read Article

Altium Designer’s Free PCB Viewer Download Allows You to Explore Your BRD Files Today, it almost seems if there are as many PCB design file formats as there are PCB manufacturers. Using a custom file format is advantageous when working with the originating company’s program. However, there are many times when you need the capability to view or use non-native files. This can be a challenge when working with most PCB software companies, but not Altium. Altium offers a freeonline BRD viewer powered by the Altium 365 platform Read Article

Design Your Small Circuit Board in Altium Designer Large circuit boards, small circuit boards, and anything in between might seem like they need separate sets of PCB layout features. In reality, your PCB design software shouldn’t delineate your PCB design based on size. Whether you need to design a large or small circuit board, a design application with high quality CAD tools will help you get the job done quickly and prepare your board for production. Small circuit board designs are much easier Read Article

Quickly Replicate Circuits with a Connection Room in Your PCB Layout Modern PCB designs can get very complex, and designers need tools to help them stay organized. Schematic sheets are a great start, but simply organizing different circuit blocks into different schematics is not enough to ensure your designs are organized. Altium Designer unifies your schematic design and PCB layout tasks into a single program, and it includes a PCB connection rooms feature to keep your circuit blocks synchronized. Here’s how you Read Article

The Anatomy of Your Schematic Netlist, Ports, and Net Names Your schematic netlist will create the link between components as you build your schematic sheets. See how your schematic sheets enable usage of net names and ports to help you stay organized. Read Article

What is Schematic Capture? All designs start with creating schematic sheets for your circuits. Learn more about what is schematic capture in our guide for new engineers. Read Article

Designing for the FPGA Pin Mapper It is a well-known fact that FPGA IO names must meet specific syntax requirements in Verilog or VHDL. The naming convention used in Altium Designer schematics doesn’t always meet these criteria specified by the hardware description languages (HDL). As a result, there can often be a mismatch between PCB net names and the actual FPGA signal names. As more users experiment with the FPGA Pin Mapper tool in Altium Designer, they will discover that the Read Article

Use the Best RF Design Software for High Frequency PCBs Designing radio frequency systems to support high frequencies and digital interfaces is challenging and requires the best RF design software tools. RF engineering in a high GHz band takes the best RF design software to ensure accurate PCB trace routing, layer stack design, and circuit design. Use Altium Designer for your RF design process and to take your next GHz band system to manufacturing. ALTIUM DESIGNER A unified PCB design application with Read Article

Get the Most From Your Power Supply Design Software Power supplies can be difficult to design and layout as they require attention to safety and efficiency. Everything from isolation to thermal management needs to be considered in these systems, and designers need to have a complete set of design features to create reliable power supplies. In addition, power supplies tend to have mechanical constraints imposed by the enclosure, and these need to be considered when creating a PCB layout for a power Read Article