Results

Traditionally, a PCB power plane is designed as a negative, that is, the objects placed on a power plane layer become voids in the copper when the board is fabricated. This approach is used because it is more efficient to generate the output data this way, as the bulk of a plane layer is normally copper; voids in the copper are only needed in specific locations such as around non-connected pads, or as separation voids when the plane is divided into different voltage regions.

Component placement is one of the main steps in board design. And in specific boards of a circular shape, it is convenient to use a polar grid for the location of components. Altium Designer 21 brings several improvements to the polar grid. Now, when a component is positioned in a polar grid, its properties additionally display location coordinates relative to this grid. Using them, you can quickly arrange the components in the right places. And moving the component off the grid, polar coordinates are automatically disabled.

Length matching is a critical element of high-speed design, usually solved by carefully tuning the lengths of critical routes. This release sees extensive improvements to both single-sided and differential pair length tuning capabilities. Length tuning now supports all three popular tuning patterns: Trombone, Sawtooth, and Accordion. If you are working with lower speed or lower frequency signals, you can get away with trombone tuning. For the Trombone patterns, the polygonal area that the pattern is constructed within can be thought of as a sleeve.

When working with design rules, we often use different scopes of the rules. To simplify the repetitive process of creating advanced type rules, the new Altium Designer 21 Rule Editor has the ability to save query-based object mapping scopes in a scoped library. To do this, it is enough to export the request by clicking on it with RMB. The library is presented through the Properties panel, where custom scopes can be edited, new ones added, and later reused in other custom constraint rules.

Enabled design constraint rules are applied to the current board design through a range of mechanisms, such as live Online Design Rule Checking, the batch Design Rule Checker or selectively run from the PCB Rules and Violations panel. Violations of those constraint Rules – where the specified and scoped limits are exceeded – are indicated through board graphics, panel entries and reports. With the introduction of a new Rules Editor in Altium Designer 21, violations of these rules are now displayed in the Rules Editor itself.

Define and assign a specific list of rules and constraints to all critical design elements, such as components, nets, and LVDS.

Having accurate SPICE models is critical to the success of your simulation. Altium Designer now supports analog PSpice, LTspice, and more including generic component SPICE models for when you can’t find company models. Generic components contain Spice model parameters to simplify simulation. When you are done with simulation, quickly replace your generic components with an existing component to finish your design.

0:00 Simulation Dashboard Panel Following on from the recent introduction of an advanced new SPICE Simulation engine for Altium Designer, the latest round of Simulation updates focuses on user interface. A major component of the Altium Designer Simulation user interface updates is the introduction of the Simulation Dashboard panel. The panel offers a greatly simplified approach to checking, configuring, running and reviewing simulations.

This new release of Altium Designer 21 includes significant improvements to the Rigid-Flex board designs. Along with many bug fixes and enhancements, the next phase of Altium Rigid-Flex technology development is providing functional improvements. It is now possible to create new board regions by primitives using the appropriate command from the Design » Board Shape menu. The properties of all created regions are now displayed in the Properties panel where you can edit the name of each region and define the previously created stacks for each region of the board.

This release introduces flexible pin to pad mapping capabilities for managed components. Enhancements to the Single Component Editor and the introduction of a new Pins panel allow component symbol pins to be mapped to any component footprint pad, or any number of footprint pads. The Pins panel, opened from the editor's button, allows the default one-to-one pin-pad mapping to be changed to a custom relationship, such as one pin being connected to multiple footprint pads – or any other non-aligned pin to pad number relationship.

Altium Designer 21 brings many improvements to the schematic editor aimed at visualizing circuits and improving navigation through them in multi-sheet and hierarchical designs. By holding Alt and clicking on the net, All schematic instances of the net are highlighted, while other objects are dimmed, to visibly indicate the signal/power propagation in the design using one simple action. The changes also affected the Identification of net names. Now logical and physical names of a net are displayed in the properties panel as well as when you hover over this wire.

Due to advances in the format and compilation of the Altium Designer data model, schematic Wire objects have now evolved from a simple graphical object to a more advanced form that can be directly associated with electrical parameters. As a result, the Wire mode of the Properties panel has been updated to provide an expanded set of options and a wider range of information. The new additions include a General section for net parameter options and information, and a Parameters section that lists the User Parameters, Rules and Net Classes associated with the Wire's assigned net.

It can be challenging to pick the right components when working on a new schematic. You have to consider availability, cost, and various parametric requirements. What if you could place a component to complete your design and quickly replace it when you are ready for layout? Introducing new Generic Components. Simply provide generic parameters, such as Value or Footprint, to greatly speed-up your capturing process while eliminating the need to search for specific Part Numbers or creating a needed component from scratch.