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Embedded thumbnail for Working as One for What Matters Most | How Benchmark Unifies Engineering Teams
Altium Stories
Working as One for What Matters Most | How Benchmark Unifies Engineering Teams

See how Benchmark Electronics uses Altium’s collaborative hardware development platform to unify its electrical, mechanical, and software engineering teams. By replacing manual processes, disconnected tools, and siloed workflows with a shared workspace, Benchmark unlocked a new way of working.

NEW
Blog
Are Your ECAD Tools Holding Back Engineers’ Productivity?

The article highlights that productivity issues often stem from tool limitations rather than engineer effort, especially as project complexity grows. ECAD tools that offer clear version control, cross-discipline integration, and workflow awareness are key to sustaining efficiency.

NEW
Embedded thumbnail for PCB Design Tips to Improve RF Power Amplifier Layout
How-To's
PCB Design Tips to Improve RF Power Amplifier Layout

Take a deeper look at RF power amplifier PCB design as we expand on our original 6 GHz RF signal generator tutorial with an in-depth design review. Discover essential layout optimization techniques such as switching regulator routing, feedback loop placement, stitching via implementation, and effective copper balancing.

Embedded thumbnail for How Altium's Assembly Assistant unifies Quantum Systems' Dev Process
Altium Stories
How Altium's Assembly Assistant unifies Quantum Systems' Dev Process

Quantum Systems develops unmanned drone systems for aerial intelligence and rapid, field-ready innovation. With the Assembly Assistant, their team streamlined a once tedious prototype build process, eliminating manual exports, file conversions, and unnecessary guesswork.

Embedded thumbnail for Creating Stacking Stripes for PCB Fabrication: Altium Tutorial
How-To's
Creating Stacking Stripes for PCB Fabrication: Altium Tutorial

Watch our new tutorial where we demonstrate how to place stacking stripes along the edge of a PCB and configure design rules to control clearances. In this video, you’ll learn how to create a dummy net, use the query system to apply rules specifically to stacking stripes, and leverage split planes on internal layers.

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How-To's
Empower Your Designs with Advanced Power Analysis

Power Analyzer brings clarity. Agile Teams brings control. Combined, they help teams deliver reliable hardware with confidence.

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.

Embedded thumbnail for Component Selection Process Tips for PCB Design
How-To's
Component Selection Process Tips for PCB Design

Explore our new component selection tutorial and learn Zach Peterson’s proven approach to finding and choosing parts that take your electronic designs from good to exceptional.

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.

Embedded thumbnail for Signal Analyzer by Keysight Promo Video
How-To's
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Promo Video

Design faster, collaborate smarter, and catch signal integrity issues early with Altium Agile Teams and the Signal Integrity Analyzer by Keysight — both integrated directly into Altium Designer Agile. Check out our new promo video to learn more.

Embedded thumbnail for NFC Reader Testing: Flashing and Validating the Project
How-To's
NFC Reader Testing: Flashing and Validating the Project

Join Zach Peterson as we build and test an NFC reader board from start to finish. You’ll see how a custom NFC reader goes from manufacturing to working hardware, with step-by-step guidance on firmware flashing, power checks, and RFID tag detection.

Embedded thumbnail for Power Analyzer by Keysight Promo Video
How-To's
Power Analyzer by Keysight Promo Video

Unlock faster, more reliable PCB design with Altium Designer Agile Teams and Power Analyzer by Keysight. Integrated directly inside Altium Designer, this powerful combination enables fast, secure, and adaptive collaboration helping engineering teams move quickly, stay aligned, and scale confidently. Watch this short video to see how this software improves your PCB design process.

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.

Embedded thumbnail for Do 90-Degree Bends Destroy Signal Integrity? The Surprising Answer
How-To's
Do 90-Degree Bends Destroy Signal Integrity? The Surprising Answer

Discover why the long-held belief about 90-degree PCB traces may be more myth than reality. This video explains key signal integrity principles and uncovers insights that can help you make more informed design decisions.

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Blog
How to Maximize Copper in Your PCB Design: The Pros and Cons of Copper Pouring Versus Placing

There is a saying in copper pour PCB design, “Copper is free.” It means a PCB editor designer must think in reverse. A board starts off as solid copper, and the copper you don’t want is removed. It is faster to build, less consumptive, and less expensive to make a board that is mostly copper as compared to the same size board that is mostly bare. Picking the correct technique will make the difference between an effortless or frustrating experience.

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Blog May 14, 2020
How to Highlight Nets in Altium Designer to Simplify Schematic and PCB Designs

Highlighting nets will help you simplify your schematic and PCB design. In Altium , there are multiple options that enable you to leverage this capability to simplify the verification of connections and circuit paths and make sure that the design you send to your manufacturer accurately reflects the printed circuit board you need built.

Routed tracks
Blog May 5, 2020
Helpful Tips for Interactive Routing in Altium Designer

Before you jump into the software, you should know the types of things you’re going to want to look out for. Traces, connection lines, differential pair routing, and route paths can all affect the routing process of your board. Make sure that you’re equipped knowing, ultimately, what you want your board design to accomplish and furthermore, where you anticipate potential problem areas to be.

Blog Apr 22, 2020
Any Angle Routing: When Should You Use It?

EDA tools have come a long way since the advent of personal computing. Now advanced routing features like auto-routers, interactive routing, length tuning, and pin-swapping are helping designers stay productive, especially as device and trace densities increase. Read full article in our blog:

Blog Mar 20, 2020
A Message from Altium on COVID-19

We understand that many of you, like ourselves, have transitioned to working remotely. This process comes with its challenges and we would like to offer all and any help we can to minimize disruptions for your teams and business.

Blog Mar 2, 2020
About Altium Designer Home Page

With the new Altium Designer Home page, we are aiming to help users stay up to date with the latest features and productivity tricks available in Altium Designer. Learn more about the Home page in this documentation article.

altium-community-forum
Blog Feb 25, 2020
Getting Connected: Altium’s User Community Forums

The Altium design environment is a complex and sophisticated set of software tools. Not surprisingly, becoming proficient with these tools will take some time, and you’ll need to practice every step of the design process from beginning to end. So what happens if you get stuck along the way?

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Embedded thumbnail for Schematic Dynamic Data Model
New in Altium Designer 20 Feb 26, 2020
Schematic Dynamic Data Model

Recompiling large schematics can take up a lot of time. This is why Altium Designer uses a new dynamic data model, which incrementally and continuously compiles in the background eliminating the need to perform a full design compile.

Embedded thumbnail for Time Based Matched Lengths
New in Altium Designer 20 Feb 26, 2020
Time Based Matched Lengths

High-speed digital circuits depend on signals and data arriving on time. If traces are improperly tuned, flight times vary and data errors can be abundant. Altium Designer 20 introduces the calculation of the propagation time on traces and provides synchronized flight time for high-speed digital signals.

Embedded thumbnail for Schematic Rendering
New in Altium Designer 20 Feb 25, 2020
Schematic Rendering

A smooth and fast schematic experience awaits thanks to DirectX in Altium Designer. This new implementation smoothes out zooming and panning, and also dramatically speeds up copy and paste functionality.

Embedded thumbnail for Properties Panel for Schematics
New in Altium Designer 20 Feb 24, 2020
Properties Panel for Schematics

In Altium Designer version 20.0, the Interactive Properties panel for schematics includes several functional improvements as well as productivity enhancements. The entire layout has been refined to optimize efficiency, icons and graphical previews have been improved, and there is now a smart parameters filter both for schematic lists and components. Dialogs for schematic properties, so beloved by our seasoned users, have returned stronger and better than ever.

Embedded thumbnail for Return Path Design Rule
New in Altium Designer 20 Feb 24, 2020
Return Path Design Rule

High-speed signals create electromagnetic fields that can cause cross-talk or data errors unless proper return paths are provided. Proper return paths allow noise currents to return to ground through a very low impedance, eliminating any problems. The new Return Path design rule monitors return paths and checks for a continuous signal return path on the designated reference layer above or below the signals targeted by the rule.

Embedded thumbnail for Sliding
New in Altium Designer 20 Feb 24, 2020
Sliding

Editing traces to improve signal integrity can be time consuming, especially when you have to edit individual arcs and serpentine tunings. Altium Designer 20 incorporates a new gloss engine and advanced push and shove capabilities to help speed up this process. which improves your productivity.

Embedded thumbnail for Creepage Distance Rule
New in Altium Designer 20 Feb 24, 2020
Creepage Distance Rule

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 How to Place Lines on the Keepout Layer
How-To's Feb 24, 2020
How to Place Lines on the Keepout Layer

This video demonstrates how to place lines on the keepout layer.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Check for Missing Project Files
How-To's Feb 24, 2020
How to Check for Missing Project Files

This video shows how to check for files that are missing from a project. Many times users link to files, such as libraries or outputs, outside of their project folder. This becomes a problem when it's time to zip up and send out project files, as linked files cannot be accessed by others.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Calculate the Area of a Polygon
Working with Polygons Feb 24, 2020
How to Calculate the Area of a Polygon

This video demonstrates how to calculate the area of a polygon or region.

Embedded thumbnail for Overview of Altium Designer 20
New in Altium Designer 20 Feb 21, 2020
Overview of Altium Designer 20

With the release of Altium Designer 20 comes with it many new and exciting features. See why Altium Designer is the best choice for PCB designers.

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Integrating Requirements June 2025 Webinar
On-Demand Webinar May 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.