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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Altium Stories
Teaching Power to Think - How Proper Voltage Accelerates Innovation with Altium

Watch the video where you can find how Proper Voltage centralized communication, synchronized ECAD–MCAD development, and gained early insight into supply chain risks using Altium’s connected design platform.

Blog
Types of Simulation Tools For PCBs

PCB simulation isn’t one-size-fits-all and that’s where it gets interesting! Discover the wide range of tools available, from quick circuit checks to advanced multiphysics simulations, and how they help you design with confidence.

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New in Altium's Software
Detect Z-Axis Clearance Issues Earlier

The Z-axis clearance rule enables accurate verification of minimum interlayer copper spacing. It supports targeted constraints between net classes, differential pairs, and schematic parameter directives for advanced rule definition.

Blog
Wiring the Future: The Shift to Unified Electromechanical Design

This article explores the shift from PCB-centric design to complex, system-level development where wiring and harnesses play a critical role in product performance. It highlights how unified electromechanical workflows and bi-directional ECAD–MCAD integration improve accuracy, reduce delays, and ensure reliable, production-ready designs.

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How-To's
Fix Inconsistent Part Parameters in Your PCB Schematic

Watch our latest video to learn what parameterization really means, why getting the manufacturer name and part number right is essential, and how to quickly identify inconsistencies across your schematic components using Altium’s Parameter Manager tool.

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 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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Blog
Behind the Scenes with AI Embedded Development

Forget one-shot AI hacks Ari Mahpour shows the thoughtful, sustainable way to integrate AI into embedded firmware development. Learn the core principles (planning gate, HAL abstraction, observability, timeout design) that can help you push your efficiency 5-10 times in real hardware projects.

Blog
We're heading to PCB West 2025!

Join Altium at PCB West 2025 in Santa Clara, CA, on October 1! Stop by Booth 300 for the official launch of the new Altium platform, built on the foundation of Altium Designer and Altium 365. Be sure to check out our live demos of Altium Develop and Altium Agile.

Blog
Peak Electrical Performance in Multi-Board Designs With Advanced Simulation and Compliance Tools

Moving from single-board to multi-board systems is a leap in complexity. You must manage not just routing, but power, signal integrity, mechanical fit, and regulatory requirements across boards. In this article, you’ll discover how Altium’s advanced simulation and compliance tools help engineering teams overcome these challenges and deliver reliable multi-board solutions.

Blog
Executive Insights Into Electronic Product Development Gaps You Need To Close

Electronics hardware development is falling behind broader product development disciplines due to fragmented workflows, poor collaboration, and limited compliance visibility. This gap introduces risk, delays, and missed opportunities but executives see real business value in modernizing electronics development through better integration, traceability, and lifecycle visibility.

Blog
Sourcing For High-Mix Low-Volume Electronics Manufacturing

High-mix, low-volume (HMLV) electronics manufacturing requires agile sourcing strategies to handle shifting BOMs, erratic lead times, and component volatility. All while controlling costs and ensuring compliance. Cloud-based tools like Altium provide real-time component visibility, BOM collaboration, and supplier integrations to help navigate HMLV complexities.

Blog
One Vision, Three Powerful Solutions: Introducing Octopart Discover, Altium Develop, and Altium Agile

We are excited to announce the launch of three new platform-based solutions that will transform the way electronic products are designed, built, and delivered: Octopart Discover, Altium Develop, and Altium Agile. These solutions are designed to simplify processes, accelerate innovation, and make collaboration seamless across the entire electronics lifecycle. Together, they realize the purpose of Altium and Renesas: To Make Our Lives Easier.

Blog
The Top 5 Workflow Bottlenecks Slowing Down Mechanical Engineering Teams

Mechanical engineering teams frequently encounter delays from fragmented communication, disconnected toolchains, and inefficient synchronization processes. This article examines five critical workflow bottlenecks and highlights how ECAD-MCAD integration with real-time, bidirectional updates can eliminate rework and accelerate design iterations.

Blog
Building a Model Context Protocol Server for Arduinos

This guide walks you through creating an MCP server that turns AI interactions with Arduino into a predictable, automated process handling tasks like board listing, compilation, and serial communication via a fast, menu‑driven interface. Skip the guesswork of prompt nudging and reduce the risk of unintended device issues.

Blog
Getting Started with the GreenPAK Introduction Kit

Take your first steps into mixed-signal design with the Renesas GreenPAK Introduction Kit. Ari Mahpour shows how to design, simulate, and validate a clock divider project, making it easy for beginners to start experimenting with programmable mixed-signal devices.

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Embedded thumbnail for Using Free (Any) Angle Routing
How-To's
Using Free (Any) Angle Routing

In this video, you will see how Altium Designer now makes it extremely easy to create curved corners in your designs. Previously, arc-in-corner routing was only supported during interactive routing, but not in Push&Shove mode or during track sliding. The new Push&Shove engine solves this by adding arcs during push and shove and also during track sliding, which is done by switching to any angle corner mode to perform snake routing.

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How to use Snapping
Snapping When Creating Routes

Learn how to effectively use snapping to facilitate routing.

Embedded thumbnail for How to edit or manage your board shape in Altium Designer | Rigid-flex
How to Work with Rigid-Flex PCBs
How to edit or manage your board shape in Altium Designer | Rigid-flex

Altium Designer 21 features many powerful tools for creating and editing your rigid-flex board shape. We’ll show you how to use to the board planning mode to create board shape and define regions as well as edit their properties for easy identification and functionality.

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Discovering Altium 365
How Breville Innovates 4x Faster with Altium

Learn how Breville, a consumer electronics company from Australia, was able to speed up its product development process by at least four times with Altium 365. 

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How-To's
How to use the Property Panel in Altium Designer

How to use the Property Panel in Altium Designer: The properties panel is your information hub for all objects in Altium Designer. Watch this video to learn how to best use the properties dialog in Altium Designer. 

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How-To's
How to Improve Routing Using Glossing

Routes for your design can get messy, leading to inefficiency and waste. Altium Designer’s Glossing features can help! We’ll show you how to clean up your interactive routing as you route, how to gloss tracks already routed, and some tips and tricks to clean them up exactly how you want them.

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How-To's
Tenting Vias in Altium Designer

This video shows how to tent vias in Altium Designer by using design rules. Since vias are often located very close to pads, during assembly, solder paste sometimes flows into vias, which, in turn, leads to poor soldering quality. To avoid this, cover vias with a solder mask layer.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Create and Validate Return Paths in Altium Designer
How-To's
How to Create and Validate Return Paths in Altium Designer

For high-speed projects where there are lines with a given impedance, it is important to maintain a consistent return signal path. For the return signal, reference planes are created in the form of polygons and the polygons must maintain integrity along the entire path of the signal. This video shows how consistent return paths are created and validated. 

Embedded thumbnail for How to Edit Component Directly on PCB
How-To's
How to Edit Component Directly on PCB

Once you’ve pulled your components with an ECO into the PCB you may need to edit them. We’ll show you how to edit your components in the PCB view.

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

When dealing with high frequency boards, it is 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 the design rules. Using the Interactive Length Tuning command, you will begin tuning and can then use the Properties panel to configure the properites of the tuning segment.

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How-To's
How to Use Text Justification

This video demonstrates how to use the justification function to align text on the PCB.

Embedded thumbnail for How to control net propagation delay
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. 

Embedded thumbnail for How to Edit or Manage Board Shape
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.

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.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Create Complex Keepout Shapes
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.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Use a Courtyard Layer for the Component Boundary
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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