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Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Design Rule Sets
New in Altium's Software
Coming Soon: Design Rule Sets

Soon, PCB design rules in Altium will be organized into reusable Rule Sets within the PCB Rules and Constraints Editor. These rule sets can be created, duplicated, enabled or disabled, renamed, deleted, imported, and exported, making it easier to manage rules for specific interfaces, manufacturing requirements, or unique design constraints.

NEW
Embedded thumbnail for Decoupling Capacitor Routing: When to Use Vias vs Traces
How-To's
Decoupling Capacitor Routing: When to Use Vias vs Traces

Check out this video, a follow-up to the decoupling capacitor placement series, exploring the inductance tradeoffs between trace routing and via connections. Using real component examples from an Ethernet switch design in Altium, the video demonstrates how different routing choices can impact overall performance.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Interactive Dynamic Phase Tuning
New in Altium's Software
Coming Soon: Interactive Dynamic Phase Tuning

The Interactive Length Tuning tool allows you to manually tune a single net in a differential pair while maintaining equal pair length and phase alignment across the entire route. This enables more efficient differential signal transmission, greater control during manual tuning, and faster pattern creation within defined phase tolerance limits.

Blog
How to Use a Multicad Viewer for Seamless Collaboration

Because ECAD formats are typically incompatible, teams often struggle with versioning, conversions, and fragmented review processes. This article breaks down how multi-CAD viewers provide a unified, read-only environment that supports structured design reviews, comments, and task assignment across disciplines.

Embedded thumbnail for AI PCB Layout vs. Human Design: The Honest Truth
How-To's
AI PCB Layout vs. Human Design: The Honest Truth

The question is: Can AI really route a PCB as well as an experienced human designer? In this video, we set out to find the answer. Our expert, Zach Peterson, puts it to the test in a side-by-side layout review. The challenge is based on a LinkedIn post where viewers had to guess which board was AI-generated and which was designed by a human.

Embedded thumbnail for Improve Your 3D Wire Bonding Workflow
New in Altium's Software
Improve Your 3D Wire Bonding Workflow

Check out the video where we showcase enhanced wire bonding features, including precise bond wire shape definition, improved clearance checking, streamlined import and export workflows, and efficient management of wire bonding objects.

Blog
Rigid-Flex PCBs in Consumer Electronics

Rigid-flex PCBs help modern devices get smaller, lighter, and more compact by eliminating connectors and fitting into tight 3D spaces. This article explains how to design them properly to avoid common reliability issues.

Blog
From Design to First Assembly: Complete Your BOM & Plan Your Build

This webinar walks through the complete post-release workflow, from generating a managed BOM to sourcing components and assembling the first prototype. It demonstrates how integrated tools streamline data enrichment, supplier selection, and guided assembly to reduce delays and errors.

Blog
The Future of BOM Management: Trends and Innovations

BOM management is no longer just a checklist. It’s becoming a real-time engine for smarter decisions! Discover how AI, automation, and connected systems are transforming BOMs into powerful tools for navigating supply chain uncertainty.

Embedded thumbnail for Customize Your ODB++ Output for Each Partner
New in Altium's Software
Customize Your ODB++ Output for Each Partner

You can now precisely control what design data is included in your ODB++ outputs for different manufacturing recipients. Choose which signal layers to export, decide how the netlist is handled (included, disabled, or neutralized), and control whether component data is removed or shared without properties.

Embedded thumbnail for Proper Voltage Built a Universal Battery Platform with Altium
Altium Stories
Proper Voltage Built a Universal Battery Platform with Altium

Watch our latest customer success story to see how Proper Voltage partnered with Altium to accelerate high-power battery development for next-generation robotics. With our software, they streamlined collaboration, sped up design reviews, improved sourcing visibility, and reduced risk.

Embedded thumbnail for Improve Readability with Custom Pin Spacing
New in Altium's Software
Improve Readability with Custom Pin Spacing

You can now control the vertical spacing of a pin’s designator and name with a custom margin. This setting can be applied globally via Schematic Preferences or adjusted individually in the Pin properties.

Embedded thumbnail for Does Decoupling Capacitor Placement Actually Matter?
How-To's
Does Decoupling Capacitor Placement Actually Matter?

Our new video tackles common questions about capacitor placement on a PCB. Expert Zach Peterson explains why placement is often less critical on multilayer boards with well-designed power and ground planes and shares the key insights most application notes leave out.

Tag
Blog
7 Ways to Catch Rules & Constraints Early – Checklist

Discover seven actionable ways to spot and fix rules and constraint issues before they derail your PCB project. Using Altium Designer Agile, these tips help you build more manufacturable and reliable boards with fewer iterations.

Blog
Do You Need an IPC-D-356 Netlist?

If your output package is Gerber-based, adding an IPC-D-356 netlist can dramatically improve how your design is reviewed and validated for production. Here’s when it matters, what it contains, and how to generate it quickly in Altium.

Blog
Avoid These Top 3 Power Distribution Failures in PCB Design

Power distribution issues can silently undermine your PCB’s reliability. This article uncovers the top three failure modes and shows how Power Analyzer by Keysight helps you catch them early in the design phase and how Altium Agile Teams turns those checks into structured team action.

Blog
Wearable Electronics: Innovations, Challenges & Future Trends

This whitepaper examines how next-generation wearable electronics are evolving through advancements in flexible and rigid-flex design, smart materials, AI, energy innovations, and connectivity. Discover what’s required to transform early prototypes into scalable, reliable products across healthcare, sports, defense, fashion, and enterprise applications.

Blog
Streamlining Component Selection for Long Product Lifecycles

Electronic parts may now cycle from launch to end-of-life in just a few years, but many systems are expected to serve for 10–20+ years. Here’s how to build a component selection process that aligns engineering, procurement and design for longevity and stability.

Blog
Using ECAD Software to Track Part Availability During PCB Design

As component lead-times extend and obsolescence becomes a persistent threat, PCB projects demand more than schematic capture and layout tools alone. This article details how ECAD software with embedded supply-chain intelligence can: unify engineering and procurement teams; provide visibility into stock levels, lead times and alternates; and enable proactive risk mitigation within the design loop.

Blog
PCB Design Data Management Tips for Multi-Board Projects

In complex electronic systems, managing data from multiple printed circuit boards can quickly become a logistical challenge. This article outlines a structured workflow for handling both board-level and assembly-level design outputs, ensuring clarity and consistency across fabrication, assembly and product-level documentation.

Tag
Embedded thumbnail for Checking for Creepage in High Voltage Designs
How-To's
Checking for Creepage in High Voltage Designs

High voltage devices have leakage currents that propage over the surface of the board. In such devices, it's important to consider not only the standard gap between the two topological elements, but also the shortest possible path between them, taking into account cut-outs and holes. With Altium Designer 20, you can check for creepage using the new creepage distance rule.

Embedded thumbnail for Creating BGA Footprints with the Footprint Wizard
How to create a PCB Footprint
Creating BGA Footprints with the Footprint Wizard

Altium Designer makes it easy to create a BGA footprint using our IPC compliant footprint wizard. We'll show you how easily you can create and modify a BGA footprint using the footprint wizard.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Remove Unused Pad Shapes
How-To's
How to Remove Unused Pad Shapes

Unused pad shapes can cause distortion among other problems so it is best to exclude them from your designs. This video shows how to remove unused pad shapes.

Embedded thumbnail for Stackup Presets and Templates
How to work with Layer Stack Manager
Stackup Presets and Templates

In this video, we will learn how to apply predefined layer stacks to the board, as well as how to save the layer stack file as a template.

Embedded thumbnail for Creating a PCB Footprint Assembly Drawing
How to create a PCB Footprint
Creating a PCB Footprint Assembly Drawing

If you need to create an assembly drawing of your PCB Footprint for your outjob files we can show you how in Altium Designer. We’ll walk through all the different options for your assembly drawing in your Draftsman document, how to create your assembly drawing and assign it designators.

Embedded thumbnail for Using the ActiveBOM
How-To's
Using the ActiveBOM

Using the ActiveBOM: The Bill of Materials (BOM) contains a list of all the components with their designators, part numbers, values, and other parameters. An ActiveBOM manages the mapping from the design component (part) to the part that is purchased. This video describes how to use the ActiveBOM document to create an up-to-date list of components needed for your project.

Embedded thumbnail for Using Back Drills in your Stackup
How to work with Layer Stack Manager
Using Back Drills in your Stackup

In this video, we will learn about Back Drilling technology, how to set up back drilling using the layer stack manager, and how to set up the Stub Length sizes for back drilling by specifying applicable nets using the Design Rules Editor.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Customize The Properties Panel
How-To's
How to Customize The Properties Panel

How to Customize The Properties Panel: This video will go over how to customize the look and feel of the properties panel in Altium Designer. By being able to personalize your workspace you can greatly improve your efficiency

Embedded thumbnail for How to Create and Use Impedance Profiles
How to work with Layer Stack Manager
How to Create and Use Impedance Profiles

Using the Altium Designer Layer Stack Manager, we will show how to create impedance profiles for transmission lines and how to apply them to the circuit board using the PCB Rules and Constraints Editor.

Embedded thumbnail for Creating a PCB Footprint Courtyard
How to create a PCB Footprint
Creating a PCB Footprint Courtyard

The courtyard is an essential piece when you want to create a PCB Footprint in Altium Designer. We’ll talk about what a courtyard is, how to create a courtyard, and how to format a courtyard correctly for your PCB footprint.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Edit Existing Tracks in Altium Designer
How-To's
How to Edit Existing Tracks in Altium Designer

This new design rule flags a violation when the creepage distance across non-conductive surface and edge regions of the board, between the targeted signals, is equal to or less than the specified Creepage distance.

Embedded thumbnail for Creating a PCB Footprint Silkscreen Overlay
How to create a PCB Footprint
Creating a PCB Footprint Silkscreen Overlay

When creating a PCB footprint in Altium Designer creating a silkscreen overlay is an important requirement. We’ll go over the standards for creating a silkscreen overlay for a footprint and the steps to creating one, such as constructing lines and measuring distance of objects and primitives.

Tuning
What's New in 22.7
更改调节对象层属性功能

本次发布后,即可更加轻松地进行高速PCB设计。现在,当您需要将调节元件快速移动到其他层时,仅需单击一次即可从Properties面板中执行此操作。

Tuning
What's New in 22.7
Ability to Change Tuning Object Layer Properties

Design of high-speed PCBs becomes easier with this latest release. Now, when you need to quickly move tuning elements to a different layer, you can do so from the Properties panel with a single click.

Simulation models
What's New in 22.7
自动分配不含模型的元件仿真模型

最新版Altium Designer将确保您能够更加轻松地进行原理图仿真。系统智能自动识别 SPICE 模型并将其分配给可用来源的元件。

Simulation models
What's New in 22.7
Auto-assign Simulation Models for Components without Models

This latest version of Altium Designer makes schematic simulation even easier. System intelligence automatically recognizes SPICE models and assigns them to components from available sources.

Tag
Integrating Requirements June 2025 Webinar
On-Demand Webinar Mai 28, 2025
Integrating Requirements into Your PCB Design Workflow
Join our webinar where you will learn about integrated requirements tools who can help you eliminate late-stage design changes, AI support through system requirements and integration of design requirements directly in PCB Design. Don't miss it, register now!
Streamlining Team Collaboration
On-Demand Webinar Apr. 17, 2025
Streamlining Team Collaboration in Industrial PCB Projects
Join us for our upcoming webinar to discover how Altium Designer and Altium 365 can transform your team’s collaboration and take your PCB design projects to the next level. Attend for a chance to win free access to the Altium 365 Training Bundle.
PCB CoDesign Webinar
On-Demand Webinar Jan. 24, 2024
Discover How Altium Designer 24 Revolutionizes Team Dynamics in PCB Design
Expand your collaboration skills and stay ahead of the curve with PCB CoDesign. Design teams often grapple with prolonged design cycles and coordination issues, leading to delays and inefficiencies. In the current landscape, design processes are hindered by fragmented collaboration, resulting in increased layout times and difficulties in synchronizing design updates.