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Blog •
Best Tools For PCB DFM Checks

Want to catch manufacturability issues before they turn into expensive delays? Discover the essential DFM tools from real-time checks to post-layout analysis that help you get your PCB right the first time.

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NEW
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New in Altium's Software •
Create IPC-Aligned Footprints with Less Effort

The default value for the Solder Mask Expansion rule has been updated to improve consistency across design environments. In both PCB documents and rule-driven solder mask expansion within PCB library documents, the default setting is now 0 mil, replacing the previous default of 4 mil.

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NEW
Blog •
Eliminate Your Design Friction with Agile Teams

Design friction from scattered data and disconnected tools slows down PCB development and leads to rework. This webinar shows how Agile Teams streamlines collaboration, aligns domains, and helps teams deliver faster with fewer errors.

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NEW
Embedded thumbnail for Via Dispersion: Why Propagation Delay Changes with Frequency
How-To's •
Via Dispersion: Why Propagation Delay Changes with Frequency

Explore the concept of via dispersion and how it impacts propagation delay across frequencies. This tutorial walks through the math behind extracting delay from insertion loss and return loss S-parameters and explains why results can vary depending on your operating range.

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New in Altium's Software •
Make Via Rule Configuration More Intuitive

Set precise control over your routing via styles with new rule settings in the Physical View. Define minimum, maximum, and preferred values for both diameter and hole size, and easily switch between constraint ranges or template-based definitions for faster, more flexible design.

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Blog •
What is the Best Cloud PCB Design Software?

Not all cloud PCB tools are created equal, especially when design complexity increases. This article breaks down key differences between cloud-native and hybrid solutions, helping engineers choose the right approach for performance and scalability.

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Blog •
From Rework to Revenue: Digital PCB DFMA

This article explores how traditional, manual DFMA workflows lead to costly rework, delays, and poor collaboration across engineering teams. It shows how a connected, digital approach enables better data integrity, faster design cycles, and improved manufacturing outcomes.

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How-To's •
Coplanar Ground Done Right: PCB Design Best Practices

When is coplanar ground actually useful and when does it provide no benefit at all? If you’ve ever wondered about this, check out our brand-new video where we tackle one of the most common questions in PCB design.

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New in Altium's Software •
Import and Export with Modern Mechanical Models

We have expanded mechanical integration by adding support for SOLIDWORKS 2024 and SOLIDWORKS 2025 part models when importing 3D bodies into the design environment. This enhancement allows designers to work with the latest mechanical models created in SOLIDWORKS without the need for additional conversions or workarounds.

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Embedded thumbnail for How to Input Via Delay in Altium for DDR Routing
How-To's •
How to Input Via Delay in Altium for DDR Routing

In this video, we tackle a real viewer question about DDR3 routing across multiple PCB layers and show how via delay can silently eat into your skew margin before you’ve even finished routing, using Altium’s default 10-layer stackup as a reference.

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Blog •
How to Choose the Right Components for Your BOM

A strong BOM can make the difference between smooth production and costly delays. Discover a practical approach to choosing components that stay available, meet compliance requirements, and keep your project on schedule.

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New in Altium's Software •
Clearly Show Jumper Wires in Your Harness Designs

Support has been improved so that jumper wires connecting two cavities within the same connector are now properly shown in Layout Drawings, making the connector wiring easier to understand during documentation and review.

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Blog •
From Scattered Requirements to Confident Product Development

See how the Requirements Portal transforms disconnected requirements into a single, live source of truth that engineers can trust at every stage of a project! Real customer stories in the article prove it’s already helping teams cut down on rework and bring products to market faster.

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How-To's •
Why Datasheet PCB Guidelines Are Often Wrong

Watch our brand-new video where we tackle the persistent issue of outdated PCB design guidelines still found in datasheets and application notes from major semiconductor manufacturers. Drawing on viewer comments, real-world datasheet examples, and insights from industry experts, we examine why recommendations such as splitting analog and digital ground planes (an approach rooted in the 1980s) continue to circulate despite their potential to cause EMC failures, signal integrity problems, and costly redesigns.

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Blog •
What is the Best PCB Design Tool For Students?

Students need PCB software that’s intuitive, affordable, and useful for building real skills. This article compares the strengths and weaknesses of leading design tools, from hobbyist platforms to industry-standard software.

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New in Altium's Software •
Keep Your Harness Designs in Sync with Library Updates

The "Update From Libraries" feature has been enhanced to provide broader support for harness-related objects across both Wiring Diagrams and Layout Drawings. With this expansion, a wider range of harness components such as connectors, wires, splices, and associated attributes can now be synchronized directly with their corresponding library definitions.

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Blog •
What Is Collaborative Engineering?

Collaborative engineering is all about breaking down silos so electrical, mechanical, and sourcing teams can work as one with shared data and real-time updates. This article shows how that approach helps you spot issues early, reduce rework, and get products out the door with fewer surprises.

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How-To's •
How to Set Up Flex PCB Materials in Altium

Discover how to set up flex and rigid-flex PCB materials in Altium with the Layer Stack Manager. In this tutorial, you’ll follow the key steps for defining polyimide cores, adhesive layers, coverlay, and stiffeners helping you build accurate, production-ready rigid-flex PCB designs.

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Blog •
Optimize PCB Design with Integrated BOM and CAD Systems

Discover how integrating BOM management and CAD systems can streamline your PCB design process in this insightful article. Learn how combining these tools enables smoother collaboration, reduces errors, and improves design efficiency, helping you optimize your workflows from concept to manufacturing.

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Blog •
The Essential Guide to Through-Hole Resistors

Resistors are fundamental components in electronic circuits, essential for controlling current and voltage. This article explores their basic principles, types, and key applications, helping you understand their crucial role in electronics.

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Blog •
Avoiding Costly Delays: Essential Tips for PCB Designers

Efficient PCB design is crucial for avoiding costly delays in product development. This article offers practical tips and best practices for PCB designers to streamline their workflows, minimize errors, and ensure timely project completion.

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Blog •
Mastering EMI Control in PCB Design: Component Placement for EMC

In the second article of the "Mastering EMI Control in PCB Design" series Dario Fresu explores how effective component placement can reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI) in printed circuit boards. He highlights strategies such as board segregation and careful management of high-speed signals and their harmonics to ensure signal integrity and minimize emissions.

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Blog •
Signal Integrity Principles based on Altium Designer 24

Check out this article where Rafał Stępień dives into the essentials of maintaining signal integrity in high-speed digital systems. Discover key techniques like controlling signal reflections, reducing crosstalk, and designing differential pairs in Altium Designer 24 to ensure reliable and efficient PCB performance.

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RSP Launch Cover
Blog •
Launch of Requirements & Systems Portal in Altium 365

The Requirements & Systems Portal is now live in Altium 365! Engineers can write, manage, and verify requirements within the Altium 365 workspace. You can link your requirements directly to schematics and PCB designs to ensure all engineers are working with the latest data. Request access today!

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Blog •
Favorite Tools for BOM Review

Check out our article, where Lawrence Romine shares his top tools for conducting efficient Bill of Materials (BOM) reviews in PCB design. It highlights key features in Altium 365, Octopart, and ActiveBOM that help engineers avoid unsourceable components and streamline procurement.

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Blog •
Simple Strategies to Reach 10% PCB Cost Reduction

Our new article outlines strategies to achieve a 10% reduction in PCB costs by optimizing design and material choices, such as adjusting stack-up materials and hole sizes, using lower-cost parts, and considering single-sided assembly. These techniques help reduce expenses without sacrificing quality.

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How-To's •
How to control net propagation delay

When dealing with high-frequency boards it's necessary to match the timing of certain nets and differential pairs. In this video, we’ll go over how to use the tuning tool to match trace lengths based on design rules. 

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How-To's •
How to Edit or Manage Board Shape

Board shapes can be edited and managed several different ways in Altium Designer. We’ll show you how using 2D and 3D modes and models as well as importing from DXF or DWG.

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Embedded thumbnail for How to define The Impedance Profile For a Coplanar Stripline
How to Work with Differential Pairs •
How to define The Impedance Profile For a Coplanar Stripline

In this video, we show how to determine the impedance of a coplanar stripline. The impedance is configured on the Impedance tab of the Layer Stack Manager. When calculating the impedance, the Layer Stack Manager takes into account the material parameters and the distance to the return conductors.

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How-To's •
How to Create Complex Keepout Shapes

Keepout regions are easy to create in Altium Designer, but they can be complex. We’ll show you a few ways to make creating your more complex keepout shapes easier and more efficient.

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How-To's •
How to Use a Courtyard Layer for the Component Boundary

In this video, you will see how to use the courtyard layer as a component boundary.

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How To Work with High-Speed Projects •
Creating High-speed Signal Classes with 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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Working with MCAD CoDesigner extension •
MCAD CoDesigner Overview

The MCAD CoDesigner in Altium Designer allows for seamless design transfer between the Electrical and Mechanical designers. In this overview, we’ll show you how to transfer from Altium Designer to your CAD tool of choice, then how to resize the board, add mounting holes, add a new connector, and update the board design in Altium Designer.

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Working with MCAD CoDesigner extension •
Bringing an MCAD Enclosure to ECAD

The Altium Designer MCAD CoDesigner panel and extension make it easy to move a 3D enclosure model from your MCAD tool to Altium Designer. We'll show you how and what to watch out for while your transferring your enclosure model to Altium Designer.

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Embedded thumbnail for How to Perform a Component Search in Concord Pro - Altium Academy
How-To's •
How to Perform a Component Search in Concord Pro - Altium Academy

In this video, I'll show you how to perform a component search in the Components Panel. Learn how to perform a component search in the Components Panel while using Altium Concord Pro to effectively host all your component libraries from Altium Designer. You can always locate any particular component using this library navigation and place it on your schematic with pricing information from global suppliers. This availability and pricing information gets updated daily directly from the suppliers so you will always get fresh, up to date information. 

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How to use Snapping •
Snapping When Creating Polygons

When creating polygons you can use snap points to form fit your polygons to the exact size and shape you need. We’ll show you how to set your snap points, which ones are most helpful for creating polygons, and how to use the same techniques to create keep out and solder mask areas.

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Library Managment •
Automatic Symbol Creation in Altium 365

In order to design your projects, you’ll need a set of components to work with. Although the integration of Octopart with Altium Designer gives us a large repertoire of components, you simply can’t have access to every component model in the world. We’re going to create a component in the Altium 365 workspace with the Symbol Creation Wizard.

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How to Work with Differential Pairs •
Creating Differential Pairs in the PCB

Learn how to create differential pairs in the PCB.

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Success Stories •
From The Beatles to the PCB - VOX Story

Dave Clarke, R&D manager for VOX, walks us through his story of designing VOX amplifiers for electronic instruments as well as his love for music and electronics design. Be sure to subscribe to the Altium Stories channel to stay updated on new videos. Altium LLC is accelerating the pace of innovation through electronics. From individual inventors to multinational corporations, more PCB designers and engineers choose Altium software to design and realize their ideas. 

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Creating PCB Mounting Holes

Our PCB must somehow be assembled into the final drone assembly. This will be achieved by attaching our PCB to the motherboard connector and by special mounting racks, which requires precise positioning of the two mounting holes on the PCB.

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Working with PCB Keepouts

When working in the PCB, there may be specific areas that you would want to prevent the presence of certain objects, such as vias, tracks or copper regions. All of this can be realized in Altium Designer by using the Keepouts feature.

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Discovering Altium 365 •
Design Review Use Case

Design reviews are critical to being successful. Capture design discussions through contextual commenting in the web browser or in Altium Designer to ensure feedback is recorded and actioned effectively.

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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.