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Embedded thumbnail for PCB Library Management: One Library or Many?
How-To's
PCB Library Management: One Library or Many?

This detailed guide walks you through the pros and cons of each approach and offers proven strategies for managing component data, whether you're an independent designer or overseeing libraries for an entire organization.

Blog
Stack-Up to Success: Avoid the Pitfalls

"Stack‑Up to Success" highlights how a carefully planned PCB stack‑up is foundational to preventing warpage, managing impedance, and avoiding manufacturing delays by clearly communicating layer construction, materials, and tolerance requirements to fabricators.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Sawtooth Rounding Support for Length Tuning
New in Altium Designer 25
Coming Soon: Sawtooth Rounding Support for Length Tuning

Sawtooth Rounding for Length Tuning improves signal‑path accuracy by applying controlled corner‑rounding to sawtooth geometries during both Interactive Length Tuning and within‑pair matching in the Auto Tuning engine. Discover this capability and additional innovations on our Coming Soon page.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Z-Axis Clearance Rule
New in Altium Designer 25
Coming Soon: Z-Axis Clearance Rule

The Z-Axis Clearance Rule checks the shortest distance between copper features on different layers in a PCB design. It is available in both the Constraint Manager and the legacy PCB Rules Editor. Discover more new features in Altium on our Coming Soon Page.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Advanced Polygon Pour Engine
New in Altium Designer 25
Coming Soon: Advanced Polygon Pour Engine

Now supports true arcs instead of approximated curves in copper pours. This enhanced engine marks a major advancement in the polygon pour process in Altium Designer, delivering smoother and more accurate copper shapes. Native arc rendering improves visual quality and helps ensure cleaner, more professional PCB designs.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Design Rigid-Flex PCB Stackups from Scratch
How-To's
How to Design Rigid-Flex PCB Stackups from Scratch

Watch this tutorial to learn the fundamentals of Rigid-Flex design. We cover everything from understanding polyimide materials and adhesive layers to building complex, multi-layer Rigid-Flex constructions that are ready for manufacturing.

Blog
How to Effectively Use Jira for Hardware Development Projects

Originally built for software development, Jira has become a popular tool for agile project management across various industries. Our new article explores how hardware teams can leverage core Jira features and adapt agile principles to suit the unique needs of hardware development.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Draw Antipads - Complete Tutorial
How-To's
How to Draw Antipads - Complete Tutorial

Discover how to draw and define antipads in Altium with this complete tutorial. Learn three different methods for creating antipads around vias. From simple design rules to advanced polygon cutouts for both basic and complex PCB designs.

Embedded thumbnail for Do PCB Manufacturers Actually Look at Fabrication Drawings?
How-To's
Do PCB Manufacturers Actually Look at Fabrication Drawings?

Explore this in-depth tutorial featuring real fabrication drawings, stackup specifications, and drill tables - all created using Altium Designer’s Draftsman tool. Learn essential insights into PCB data management and manufacturing requirements from an industry perspective.

Embedded thumbnail for Compensating Transmission Line Losses in a PCB Calculator
How-To's
Compensating Transmission Line Losses in a PCB Calculator

This tutorial uncovers the key difference between ideal, lossless impedance calculations and real-world signal behavior giving you practical techniques to design controlled impedance PCBs that deliver reliable performance.

Blog
How to Make Your PCB Layout AOI and X-Ray Friendly

Designing for inspection is key to reliable manufacturing. This article covers practical PCB layout tips to optimize your board for AOI and X-ray inspection helping you reduce defects, false positives, and production delays.

Embedded thumbnail for How Close Can You Bring a Reference Plane?
How-To's
How Close Can You Bring a Reference Plane?

Explore our in-depth investigation into practical simulations using both Altium Designer and Polar Si9000. We demonstrate impedance sensitivity analysis and reveal the real limitations of optimizing reference plane proximity for improved signal shielding.

Blog
Understanding Systems Engineering

Read our brand-new article where we explore the key areas of an engineering project and the different stages of electronic product development from a project execution perspective. From initiation and planning to design, development, validation, testing, and certification, we walk you through each phase to help you understand how successful electronic products are brought to life.

Embedded thumbnail for Do PCB Thermal Vias Actually Work?
How-To's
Do PCB Thermal Vias Actually Work?

Are thermal vias really helping your PCB’s heat management? Tech Consultant Zach Peterson dives into simulation data, research, and a controversial article to uncover the truth. Learn why via count and spacing matter more than sheer quantity.

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Blog
Simple Documentation for Hand PCB Assembly

Creating documentation for hand PCB assembly does not prevent the same documentation from being utilized to assist in automated PCB assembly. Learn more about the optimal format for this data to enhance both your hand PCB assembly and overall assembly processes.

Blog
Constraint Manager: Precision in Every Detail

Explore the powerful features of Altium Designer 24! Experience Constraint Manager and revolutionize your PCB design with reusable constraint sets, schematic-to-board rule transition, easy class and differential pair grouping, and more.

Blog
Explore New Possibilities with True 3D-MID Design

3D-MID technology seamlessly integrates electrical circuits with three-dimensional mechanical parts. This unique fusion of functionality unlocks a myriad of possibilities across various application areas. Explore more about this innovative feature, available in Altium Designer 24, to delve into the fascinating world of the 3D design process.

Blog
Strategies to Minimize PCB Damage

The PCB design process is always an exciting journey for a designer or the founder of a project. The first run of it can be breathtaking. In this article, we delve into strategies for minimizing PCB damage in the case of an exemplary circuit.

Blog
PCB CoDesign: Design Faster Together

Experience accelerated design collaboration with PCB CoDesign, exclusively available on Altium Designer starting from December 13th. This innovative feature adopts a collaborative approach by seamlessly integrating schematic and PCB design, enabling multiple engineers to work on the same project. Explore this cutting-edge feature on our newly launched page dedicated to its functionalities.

Blog
45V-5A Adjustable Half-Bridge DC to DC Converter

DC-to-DC buck converters are extensively employed in electronic devices. In this article, we will introduce you to one of our new projects—a DC-to-DC converter designed to serve as a power supply as well.

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Embedded thumbnail for How to work with Component Classes?
How to Work with Classes
How to work with Component Classes?

Modern printed circuit boards can contain a large number of components, which makes them difficult to work with. In this video we will show what component classes can be on a PCB, how to create custom component classes and how they can be useful for us. 

Embedded thumbnail for Create and Snap to a Circular Grid (Polar Grid)
How to use Snapping
Create and Snap to a Circular Grid (Polar Grid)

Instructional on how to create polar grids, how to snap to them, and why you might want to use them.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Connect Polygons to Nets
Working with Polygons
How to Connect Polygons to Nets

This video covers how to easily connect a polygon to a net using just two clicks. With the Properties panel open and a polygon selected, click the "Assign net" button in the Properties panel.

Embedded thumbnail for Altium 365 Getting Started: Gerber Compare
Getting Started with A365
Altium 365 Getting Started: Gerber Compare

The task of comparing different versions of manufacturing files usually arises when the electrical engineer needs to check and confirm the manufacturer's edits or clarify details of changes before starting production. In Altium 365 you can perform an automatic comparison of Gerber files. 

Embedded thumbnail for Altium 365 Getting Started: Schematic Compare
Getting Started with A365
Altium 365 Getting Started: Schematic Compare

The schematic sheets in a project are subject to change over time, and sometimes it may be necessary to compare several different versions and detect differences between them. In Altium Designer you can easily perform an automatic comparison of any revisions of schematic documents. 

Embedded thumbnail for Altium 365 Getting Started: Migrate to Altium 365 from other VCS
Getting Started with A365
Altium 365 Getting Started: Migrate to Altium 365 from other VCS

The development of electronic devices always involves the release of many different types of files. And these files are not static - they change as the project progresses. Traditionally, one way to manage data is to use a version control system such as Git or SVN. Unlike other VCSs, Altium 365 is the system designed specifically for managing project data.

Embedded thumbnail for How to get a BOM for a Multi-board Design
How-To's
How to get a BOM for a Multi-board Design

When designing a multi-board project, an up-to-date and accurate BOM for the entire device is a necessity. Watch this video to learn how to properly create a BOM for your multi-board project.

Embedded thumbnail for Remove Unused Pad Shapes
Working with Polygons
Remove Unused Pad Shapes

Unused pad shapes create holes in your copper geometries. You can quickly examine all pads in the design to remove unused pad shapes and restore previously removed pads. 

Embedded thumbnail for Effective use of "Objects for snapping" when creating a Footprint
How to use Snapping
Effective use of "Objects for snapping" when creating a Footprint

Learn how to effectively use snaps that allow you to create a component footprint quickly and conveniently

Embedded thumbnail for How to Control Routing in Altium Designer
How-To's
How to Control Routing in Altium Designer

The routing functionality in Altium Designer is constantly evolving. Check out this video to learn the basics of routing in Altium Designer. 

Embedded thumbnail for Polygon Creation
Working with Polygons
Polygon Creation

Learn how to create polygon pours to ensure proper copper distribution on your board.

Embedded thumbnail for Creating Guide Lines and Snap Points
How to use Snapping
Creating Guide Lines and Snap Points

Explanation of guides and snap points and how to create and use them.

Embedded thumbnail for Polygon Types and Parameters
Working with Polygons
Polygon Types and Parameters

Each board requires different copper geometries. Polygon types make sure you can create the perfect copper geometry for every need.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Define Different Clearance for Internal and External Layers
How-To's
How to Define Different Clearance for Internal and External Layers

If you need to define difference clearance values for your external and internal layers, the answer is with design rules. We’ll walk you through it in this short video. 

Embedded thumbnail for Setting Snap Distance and Axis Snap Range
How to use Snapping
Setting Snap Distance and Axis Snap Range

Learn more about what snap distance and axis snap range are and how to use them.

Embedded thumbnail for Polygon Editing
Working with Polygons
Polygon Editing

Editing existing polygons is crucial for optimizing your design. You can easily select polygons to edit, resize, combine, and more.

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