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PCB Stackup Basics
Blog
PCB Stackup Basics

In comparison to the build-up of a PCB, the stackup is more concerned with the electrical type of each layer, that is are we working with signals, power, or ground. Continue reading to learn how you can optimize your layer stack.

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How-To's
Draftsman Document: Snapping

Snapping using the grids and snapping tools in Altium Designer’s Draftsman Editor gives you a lot of control over how you create and annotate primitives and components. We’ll show you how easy it is to use snapping in the Drafstman Editor.

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How-To's
High Speed: XSignals

You can create, configure, and utilize xSignals in Altium Designer to make your design process more efficient and effective. We’ll show you how to do it manually, using the more comprehensive Create xSignals command, and using the xSignal wizard.

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How-To's
DFM and fab cost/time constraints: What is annular ring and how to configure it

The minimum dimension from the wall of the aperture to the edge of the pad is called an annular ring, and we can configure it with Altium Designer. We’ll show you how to get started and manage the annular ring in your design rules.

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How-To's
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.

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Working with Polygons
Polygon Pours

Polygon pours are used to create copper geometries on your board. You can prioritize polygon pour order, hide them to make it easier to work on your board, and repour them to resolve design rule conflicts.

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How-To's
How to Use the MCAD CoDesigner?

This video shows how the ECAD and MCAD engineers now can communicate directly while staying within their own design environment. The MCAD engineer is able to push design information directly from their design software straight into Altium Designer. Any changes can be reviewed, accepted, or denied by the receiving party. This process of pushing and reviewing design changes is bi-directional, meaning that both the MCAD or ECAD engineer can push and review changes to the other. 

chip with neon illumination
Blog
How Does the Package PDN Impact Power Integrity?

Whenever we say something to the effect of “components can’t work without a correctly designed PCB,” we only have to look at component packaging for evidence. It is true that component packages come with parasitics that affect signal integrity, but there is one area that we don’t often look at in terms of component packaging: power integrity.

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How to use Snapping
Creating Additional Snap Points Using a 3D Model

Demonstration of using snap points with 3D models and how they can assist in the placement of said models.

electrical circuit with microcontroller
Blog
Designing Custom Hardware with Microcontrollers

In this article, we’ll look at all that is required to start creating your own custom microcontroller-based hardware designs. You’ll see that there actually isn’t too much to this, as microcontroller manufacturers over the years have tried to make the learning curve less steep and their devices more, and more accessible. This is both from an electrical point of view but also – equally importantly – from a programming point of view.

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Working with Polygons
Polygon Connect Styles

Define how vias and pads connect to polygons with a design rule. Customize the thermal relief width, number, and rotation as well as the air gap width.

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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. 

high-speed printed circuit board
Blog
Guide to Low-Dk PCB Materials

If you’ve taken time to learn about PCB material options and layer constructions, you have probably seen the wide range of materials that are available on the market. Materials companies produce laminates with varying Dk values, Tg values, weave styles, CTI values, and mechanical properties to target various applications in the electronics industry.

printed circuit board, photo by the author
On-Demand Webinar
Learn to Collaborate Like a Pro with Altium Designer 23

Get ready to speed up your design process with new Altium Designer collaboration capabilities. Designing a PCB is a team effort. Engineers must work with customers, manufacturers, and other stakeholders to get the best results. You need help to bring your design to life, even if you're a one-person team.

freeway in the background of the city
Blog
Designing for V2X Communication: Wireless Protocols and Standards

If you’re waiting for truly connected cars on a grand scale, there is still a massive amount of work to be done, both on the hardware and software sides. Connected cars can only become a widespread reality once the automotive industry and telecom carriers can decide which protocol will work best for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. PCB designers will then need to step in to create these systems and fit them into a vehicular environment.

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.

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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.

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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. 

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Blog
Pi.MX8 Project - Board Layout Part 3

We continue our exploration of the Pi.MX8 open-source computer module project. In this new installment, we focus on routing planning and then cover all the layers' routing with all the details you need to know if you want to prepare a similar project.

Blog
Mastering Blind and Buried Vias

Check our compilation of essential resources you'll need to use blind and buried vias successfully in an HDI PCB. In our brand new article, we present the main and most valuable information about this technology, which may not be new but is still highly useful in High-Density Interconnect projects.

Blog
Make Sure to Clean Your No-Clean Flux

No-clean flux has become popular due to its convenience. Learn more about why this solution is used, why cleaning might still be necessary, and how to remove no-clean flux residues. We will try to dispel all these doubts in this brand new article.

Blog
How to Design a Thermal Prototype PCB

Thermal problems in PCBs often go unnoticed until prototyping, which can be costly. Design teams can't afford endless iterations, but they can conduct lower-cost thermal prototypes. Learn more about this approach in our new article.

Blog
DC-Aware Return Current in Mixed Signal PCBs

In this article, we will examine specific cases involving these types of components, where a very low-frequency signal or a DC signal needs to be measured, and the return path must be tracked to ensure the current loop is tight.

Blog
PCB Layout Replication: The Perfect Tool for Test Jigs

Replicate your circuits across multiple blocks with just a few clicks using a flawless preview pane, ensuring consistent, perfect results without the need for trial and error. Check out our new article on the PCB Layout Replication feature.

Altium 365 GovCloud Why We Chose AWS GovCloud (US) Cover
Blog
4 Reasons Why We Chose AWS GovCloud (US) for Altium 365 GovCloud

In this blog, we explain the reasons behind our decision to operate Altium 365 GovCloud within AWS GovCloud (US). This partnership is guided by a clear vision: to provide our users with a secure, compliant, and reliable platform for sensitive electronics design data.

Blog
3D MID Design Whitepaper

Dive into a dynamic design experience where you can visualize and edit your circuits in true 3D, offering unparalleled precision. Altium Designer's 3D-MID (Mechatronic Integrated Device) Design tool revolutionizes the design process, providing a fresh perspective. Explore the capabilities and benefits of this feature in our comprehensive guide.

Blog
Types of Wiring Harnesses for Electronics

In today's world, many products utilize multiple PCBs interconnected with each other, often leading to a complex network of cables within an enclosure. The most effective way to manage these wires and cables is by constructing a wiring harness. This article explores the various types of harnesses used in electronics.

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Embedded thumbnail for Allowing Permanent Display of Some Layers
How-To's
Allowing Permanent Display of Some Layers

This video demonstrates how to permanently display some layers in the PCB using the View configuration panel.

Embedded thumbnail for Creating Rooms in the PCB
How to work with Rooms
Creating Rooms in the PCB

If you want to create a room manually in the PCB or have them generated for the Schematic, Altium Designer allows you to create custom rooms. We’ll show you how to hand draw different rooms, how to create rooms by defining them through the room definition, and how to have them generated for the schematic and pushed through to the PCB by the Engineering Change Order.

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How to create a Schematic Symbol
Creating a Schematic Symbol - Placing Designators and Comments

Placing your designator or comments can be done automatically, but that doesn’t mean they’re visible. We’ll walk you through how to make them visible and position them correctly no matter what orientation your symbol is with automatic positioning.

Embedded thumbnail for Creating a Schematic Symbol: Adding Additional Parts
How to create a Schematic Symbol
Creating a Schematic Symbol: Adding Additional Parts

Altium Designer makes it easy to add additional parts to your schematic library. We’ll show you how through copying and configuring your new components through the Pin Editor and the properties panel.

Embedded thumbnail for Component Placement Control Using Rooms
How to work with Rooms
Component Placement Control Using Rooms

Rooms give you more control over how and where your components are placed in your PCB. We’ll show you how to use room properties to limit what is allowed in and out of a room using the room definition and custom queries.

Embedded thumbnail for How to work with Differential Pair Classes?
How to Work with Differential Pairs
How to work with Differential Pair Classes?

Modern boards can contain a large number of differential pairs. For convenience, they are combined into differential pairs classes. In this video, we'll walk you through how to create and apply a differential pair class. 

Embedded thumbnail for Adding Rooms from the Schematic
How to work with Rooms
Adding Rooms from the Schematic

Rooms can be added directly from the schematic sheet. From the schematic sheet they are pushed to the PCB. Here we'll look at the rooms and component classes generated by default in the schematic, how to add and configure rooms manually, and how to push them to the PCB.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Draw a Board Outline Using Coordinates
How-To's
How to Draw a Board Outline Using Coordinates

In this video, we cover how to draw a curve by using coordinates. This can be very helpful when creating a board outline.

Embedded thumbnail for Creating a Schematic Symbol: Mapping out the Component
How to create a Schematic Symbol
Creating a Schematic Symbol: Mapping out the Component

When creating a schematic symbol, one of your first tasks will be creating a component symbol. We’ll show you how to map out a component in the Schematic Library Editor by creating and configuring the component, adding pins, and creating graphics.

Embedded thumbnail for How and When to Use Rooms
How to work with Rooms
How and When to Use Rooms

Rooms are an extremely valuable tool within the Altium Designer PCB environment, but how and when do you use rooms? If you need to control component placement and layout, assign a specific design rule to a group of items, or if you have repeated channels that need similar layouts in your multichannel design, rooms can make it much easier.

22.5-2_Custom_Diff_Pair_Suffixes
What's New in 22.5
Custom Diff Pair Suffixes

Even more possibilities for creating differential pairs. Now you can use any postfixes to designate positive and negative net of a differential pair.

22.5-2_Custom_Diff_Pair_Suffixes
What's New in 22.5
自定义差分对后缀

更加有利于进行差分对创建。您现在可以使用任何后缀来指定差分对的正网络和负网络。

22.5-3_PCB_Health_Check_Monitor
What's New in 22.5
PCB Health Check Monitor

The condition of the PCB is under your control. A new intelligent feature that gives you confidence that your PCB is okay and complies with design rules.

22.5-3_PCB_Health_Check_Monitor
What's New in 22.5
PCB健康状况检查显示器

PCB的状况将由您控制。您可以通过此项全新智能化功能,确认PCB正常运行且符合设计规则。

Embedded thumbnail for MCAD CoDesigner Quick Start: Autodesk Fusion 360
Working with MCAD CoDesigner extension
MCAD CoDesigner Quick Start: Autodesk Fusion 360

MCAD CoDesigner is built to address the challenges of electronic product design by enabling seamless collaboration between your electrical and mechanical engineers. This video will show you how to start collaborate between Altium Designer and Autodesk Fusion 360. 

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DFM and Fabrication Cost/Time Constraints
Component Placement Control for DFM

Component placement is a crucial part of making sure your design is manufacturable, so you need to be able to control placement. We’ll show you how, through rules and courtyard layers to maintain accessibility and manufacturability in your entire design through component placement control.

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