Snippets, Device Sheets, & Design Reuse Blocks in Altium Designer

In 2017, we presented two circuit reuse methods (Snippets and Device Sheet Symbols) that Altium provided at the time. Recently, a third method that fulfills one of the vault's original objectives (now known as Altium 365) has been introduced. Have you ever wondered why the prefix for a footprint isn't FPT? Since the introduction of the vault in 2011, the PCC prefix was a vision for expanding the footprint beyond a single component. Altium's recent introduction of the Design Reuse Block brings this vision to life.

This video will review Snippets and Device Sheet Symbols and introduce Altium's new Reuse Block capability.

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A Revist - Draftsman - 6 Years Later

In 2018, Altium Inc. introduced the Draftsman editor into Altium Designer. Given that it looked and operated awfully familiar to Downstream Technologies' Blueprint, we were quick to dig in and present it as a webinar.

Draftsman was well received, and it fundamentally changed the way documentation is created in Altium Designer. It reduced the need for mechanical layers, which made library management more tedious. It also allowed traditionally separate documentation to be bundled into a single human-readable document.

Altium has added numerous improvements to the editor. Since it has been six years (yikes) since we first reported on it, it's time to revisit it.

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Making the Most of Draftsman (and Blueprint)

If you have ever had to create documentation for PCB fabrication and assembly, you know there is information that needs to be conveyed but not captured in the drawings or the formatted files such as Gerber, ODB++, or IPC-2581.

We depend on mechanical layers, e-mails, Mircosoft Office (Word and Excel), and phone conversations to capture this information. This is manually intensive, tedious, and done under project deadline pressures. Inevitably, something is forgotten or ill-defined, and it's another day of delay with an urgent flurry of phone calls and e-mails.

Draftsman was added to Altium Designer to reduce this effort and allow the 'templatizing' of this activity, providing consistent data.

We will show you how to use this tool and provide insights into the best features for your documentation.

These tool features work best when one understands the different types of documentation. We encourage you to look at our webinar on the topic "They want WHAT document?"

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Q&A from Webinar

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Outjob in Altium Designer

How important is creating correct and consistent documents for your PCB designs? Do you have a process and tools to perform the task of correct, consistent PCB documentation creation in an efficient and automated way?

Completing a board layout is simply a milestone; it does not mark the end of a project but rather the beginning of an effort to get everything documented. Documentation provides the information necessary to communicate the designer's intent to those who will fabricate, assemble, test, and in some cases, manufacture in high volume. It is also necessary to allow you and your colleagues to revisit, revise, and improve existing designs.

Altium Designer provides a batching capability called the Outjob file. This file allows a team or designer to set up their documentation configuration to generate all the PCB documentation precisely and consistently for each project. Bill of Material, Gerbers, ODB++, Pick and Place files, Drill files, 3D drawings, PCB layout drawings, and schematics can all be set up with the Outjob files to ensure consistent and professional documentation.

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Nine Dot Connects Project Template Set

Designs are one thing, but Templates are another.

Have you ever tried to pull together a schematic template in Altium Designer? How about an entire project template set? Designing a PCB and designing a template are two different creatures. When it comes to templates, it must encompass the company's flow of designs. Like your first PCB, you may feel overwhelmed, frustrated, and scattered at such an endeavor. The time it will take to develop your template may be days or weeks. You may be asking questions like:

• Where should one start?
  

• Where should the parameters be located?
  

• How should parameters be named?
  

• Should the schematic template overlay be used?
  

• What should be in the title block?
  

• What schematic symbols and/or footprints should be made available?
  

• What schematic sheet(s) need to be present upon the start of a new project?
  

• What mechanical layers should be employed for the footprint library and layout?
  

• How should the Outojb files be configured?
  

The list goes on.

Using both our Altium Designer design and support knowledge, we at Nine Dot Connects pulled together a template that encompasses the entire project, from the project parameters to Outjobs, and everything in between.

If you like what you see, click the button below to access the free template set download.

Why free? Because the template set is one of the many examples to convey our Altium Designer knowledge. You know who to contact when you need help with design, layout, training, or libraries!

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