As well as the standard track that is used for design tasks, there is a second type of track available, referred to as a track keepout. The 3d display capabilities of altium designer allow design teams to view the overall board layout and mitigate problems such as split grounds. Drill guide, keepout layer, drill drawing and multilayer. Pcb designing tutorial altium designer for your maker needs. This document outlines some of the most important constraints and how to implement. A gerber file is a standard file format used by printed circuit board pcb fabrication houses that contains information necessary for computer controlled machines to draw exact patterns for circuit boards. Altium designer create keepout based on board outline. Top 5 pcb design guidelines every pcb designer needs.
Aug 14, 2018 this region of the tab displays a listing of the following layers for the board. But students can still use altium designer trail version for 30 days. The difference between a standard region and a keepout region is that layerspecific keepouttype fills are not included in output generation, such. Altium designer offers 32 general purpose mechanical layers for defining the board layout, placing dimensions on, including fabrication details on, or any. A region keepout can be placed as a layerspecific keepout object or an alllayer keepout to act, for example, as a placement or routing barrier. The keepout layer applies the keepout limitation to all layers. A track keepout can be placed as a layer specific keepout object or an all layer keepout to act, for example, as a placement or routing. Download a free trial to find out which altium software best suits your needs.
Make sure that this is well defined and drawn in the keep out layer. Altium using mechanical layers and keep out layers. By the way, i also changed that keep out to one mechanical layer also gm1 to maybe see any difference, but also it generates blank page for this also. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. References getting started with pcb design, altium. These layers can be included in printouts or in fabrication outputs, as required.
Altium is the worlds leading provider of pcb design software, pcb component and data management software and the host of altiumlive the industrys fastestgrowing conference for pcb designers and engineers. Altiums guidebooks provide indepth insights and education for pcb design. Eagle vs altiumwhat is the features and differences. Board layers and colors online documentation for altium. Color displays the color currently assigned to the layer. But other methods of pcb mounting are also acceptable. A practical guide to highspeed printedcircuitboard layout. Thats what we are going to focus on in this webinar how to navigate altium.
How to change layers while routing in altium on laptop. Aug 21, 2018 altium techdocs are online documentation for altium products, providing the basic information you need to get the most out of our tools. Drill guide, keep out layer, drill drawing and multi layer. Finally press ok and you can select where to put your gerber files for each layer. Altium powered by kayako fusion help desk software. Pcb api layer interfaces online documentation for altium. Altium designer is an electronic design automation software package for printed circuit board, fpga and embedded software design, and associated library and release management automation. Fpga schematic design vhdlverilog compilers casm compilers scripting simulation 2d field solver simulation engine library management database and advanced query language. To be safe, you can output all of them and if anything is not used, the file will not be created when you export the gerber files. When i try to draw a line in the keep out layer in altium by clicking the tab for the keep out layer and placing a line, the layer suddenly changes to a different one and prevents me from adding to the keep out layer. Additionally, when i try to place a line and press. Electronics technology moves fast and your design systems need to keep up.
Foreword sierra protoexpress amit bahl sierra protoexpress december 20 the past year or two have been very challenging in the printed circuit board industry. Click on the system box in the lower right hand corner of the designer and then click files and projects to make the tabs appear these will both accomplish the same goal of making the files tab and the projects tabs visible. Layerspecific keepout place a layerspecific keepout object on a signal layer, it creates a keepout on just that signal layer. For best results, place the outline by itself on the keep out, or on a mechanical layer normally 1 or 2. Working on learning altium, i came across a similar issue. By using color codes, the layer stack manager easily shows design elements and the organization of the board. Submit ideas and vote for new features you want in altium tools.
But for many others the process of designing and laying out a pcb can. For additional questions, the help files are ok, but the support forum is fantastic. This guide provides a list of shortcut keys available for use within altium designer, ranging from those used at the environment level, through to those associated with particular document editors. Alllayer keepout place an object, such as a fill, track or region, on the keepout layer, these objects then create a keepout on all signal layers. Altium emphasizes hierarchical design with altium designer. Altium designer setup and using layer pairs duration. Apr 27, 2012 6 altium tutorials for newbies robertferanec altium, hardware design april 27, 2012 if you have never worked in altium designer and you would like to start, or you are beginner just starting, this selection of video tutorials is right for you. Altium s democenter gives you the opportunity to walk through the extensive design capabilities of altium designer featured as individual demos, each only taking a couple of minutes, making this a quick and easy way for you to browse the areas of most importance to you.
Then select what layer you want to create the primitives on and how thick you want the outline to be. Altium designer is very popular pcb designing software in among industrial people. The book details the software altium designer schematic design. Get on the fast track to efficient, scalable growth and become an expert pcb designer. A printed circuit board pcb mechanically supports and electrically connects electric components using conductive tracks, pads and other features. Choose options current keepout to set the style and layer for the keepout. This may be by way of mounting holes use sizes of 3mm or 4mm typically. An altium vault is designed to store all of your readytouse electronic product data data that completely defines every component, through to all of the data needed to fabricate, load and assemble the boards. That being said, there are three pcb design packages that tend to be the most popular and considered the best. Discover features you didnt know existed and get the most out of those you already know about. Make sure that this is well defined and drawn in the keep out layer pcb mounting requirements you need to give careful thought as to how your pcb will be mounted and factor this into your design. Jan 06, 2016 what about the rest of us who need to look at the handy work of our colleagues in altium designer.
Read 15288 times 0 members and 1 guest are viewing this topic. Altium pcb design tools start each iteration with ultimate productivity in mind and that includes features that make the most of modular design. Where altium users and enthusiasts can interact with each other. But in this article, i will write about altium designer only. Altium designer pcb designing tutorial step by step guide. Lt journal archive technical articles technical books faqs videos. From our membership agreement lulu is a place where people of all ages, backgrounds, experience, and professions can publish, sell, or buy creative content such as novels, memoirs, poetry, cookbooks, technical manuals, articles, photography books, childrens books, calendars, and a host of other content that defies easy categorization.
Click the pdf above to read more about pcb design careers in this ebook. Ad18 altium 18 problem with keepout layer read 5761 times 0 members and 1 guest are viewing this topic. The calculations to figure out a required track width based on the current and the. Exporting your drill settings go back to your design pcbdoc file by pressing the design page in top of your window figure 18 exporting drills go to the menu. Legacy documentation refer to the altium wiki for current. I also downgrade to ad17 but ad17 did the same thing to keep out layer too. I used to convert keep out layer to another mechanical layer, but now i cant do that, i want. This way you can easily define which eurocircuits service is most suited for you board, and avoid documentation problems after you place your order. I dont have access to altium at the moment so this is from memory. The pcb api layer interfaces reference covers the following interfaces and content. Use this plugin to generate a report of all single pin nets detected in the schematic project. Altium designer templates pcbdoc help to check your layout against the eurocircuits technology classification 6c and 8d. You can reposition all of the altium panels, windows, etc.
Altium designer is one of the powerful and commonly used pcb design software. Altium is led by a team of highly passionate industry experts. A track keepout can be placed as a layerspecific keepout object or an alllayer keepout to act, for example, as a placement or routing barrier. They also can be placed on the keepout layer where they will apply to all signal layers. Among other highend design software, altium designer is gaining popularity at a high rate. Using the place wire tool add wires between the components just like the image shown belo w d. File fabrication outputs and choose nc drill files. Creating and modifying a project with altium designer. Learn how altiums pcb design software has helped a wide range of companies succeed in designing nextgeneration electronic. Altium designer pcb object and layer transparency youtube. You cant see the function of pin 20 because the image is zoomed out.
As to the op there is a tutorial included with altium designer thatll have you up and running very quickly. You can also place layerspecific keepouts to prevent signals from being routed on a specific layer. Each component will be assigned a status as described in the following table. Eel3923eel4924 design 1 and 2 university of florida, electrical and computer eng. Tu01 performing signal integrity analyses version v1. When i try to draw a line in the keepout layer in altium by clicking the tab for the keepout layer and placing a line, the layer suddenly changes to a different one and prevents me from adding to the keepout layer. Our blog about things that interest us and hopefully you too. Quick and tothepoint video tutorials to get you started with altium designer. Altium designer this is based off the current version of altium designer, 6. Altium designer is an electronic design automation software package for printed circuit board, fpga and embedded software design, and.
What about the rest of us who need to look at the handy work of our colleagues in altium designer. Mechanical layers are added, edited and removed in the view configuration panel. Comparing altium and cadence pcb layout tools hackaday. Altium techdocs are online documentation for altium products, providing the basic information you need to get the most out of our tools. Gko in gerber files correctly and always its blank. Learn more about modular pcb design and get an inside look at what has made altium designer the designer s eda tool right from the very start. Previous releases of altium designer prior to version 17. Hello, i want to generate gerber files in altium designer, but i dont know why it doesnt generate outline or keep out. Become an expert pcb designer when you use altium designer software.
To be classified as a single pin net, the net must include only one pin that is conn. Due to its expensive price, it is not so much popular among students. The dimensions of the board will be on a generic, information layer. Altium designer pcb object and layer transparency intelligent cadcam technology ltd. The thicker copper layers are useful for high current, high reliability designs. Designer 18 and later are for users who do not have a vault. Altium designer templates with eurocircuits design rules. Altium designer tutorial by glenn mercier ebook lulu. I succeed in changing the mapping window shows the new mapping in the shortcut keys list however, the keys still dont work or only one of them does. The designer will allow you to choose a name and where to save each individual. You can also place layer specific keepouts to prevent signals from being routed on a specific layer.
Seeing is believing read more and watch demos of altium designer. Here we have a collection of pcb design articles related specifically to pcb designers. You will only be able to use altium while on the ru network. The mechanical layers are used to keep track of additional information needed for you to work with your design. The difference between a standard arc and a keepout arc. As well as the standard region that is used for design tasks, there is a second type of region available, referred to as a region keepout. Select layer, senior pcb designer at legrand north america on altium nexus jun 19th, 2018 john watson and his team of 50 pcb designers at legrand are beta partners in using altium nexus, the new altium solution that takes altium designer and pumps it up with a. Designer and associate designer are trademarks of altium limited. In altium designer, this type of additional information is detailed on mechanical layers.
Its important because it will keep your components neat and. So lets start with altium designer by seeing how to create. Nexus is for realtime collaboration and vault integration. Jul 19, 2012 35 thoughts on comparing altium and cadence pcb layout. A region keepout can be placed as a layer specific keepout object or an all layer keepout to act, for example, as a placement or routing barrier.
Despite its critical nature in highspeed circuitry, printedcircuitboard pcb layout is often. This region of the tab displays a listing of the following layers for the board. Help make the software better by submitting bugs and voting on whats important. Their display state is also configured in the panel. I succeed in changing the mapping window shows the new mapping in the shortcut keys list however, the keys still dont work or. I was trying to remap the numical pad keys for next layer and previous layer to the characters. The program is available with a price tag on it but a free package is available for the purpose of trials. This guide provides a list of shortcut keys available for use within altium designer, ranging from those used at the environment level, through to those associated with. I still maintain that a book should not be necessary for properly written software. How to create keepout objects circuitstudio altium. How to export gerber files from altium designer protel. This can bea straight trace inverted f, type trace, meandered trace, circular trace, or a curve withwiggles depending on the antenna type and space constraints.