HKN

Altium Workshop

9.23.09

Basic Altium Workshop

Friday, September 23th, 2009 Prepared by HKN CU Boulder Chapter

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Altium Workshop

9.23.09

Why do a PCB? PCBs are pretty cheap

$33 for 2-layer boards from www.4pcb.com

Compact and Robust Signal speed and reduced noise. Why not? Design is constantly being modified.
Wire wraps

Harder to rework.

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Altium Workshop

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Board Makeup 1/16th inch FR4 epoxy substrate. 1 oz copper traces and plated Vias.

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Altium Workshop

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Part 1 The Basics

Thursday, September 23rd, 2009 HKN

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Altium Workshop

9.23.09

Project Makeup? Schematic Design

Label and connect parts.

PCB Layout
Arrange physical components. Lay down the tracks.

Gerber Files
Convention on how manufacturer will render your design.

Advanced Techniques:
Signal Integrity Analysis. Spice simulations.

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Altium Workshop

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Open Altium and open a PCB Project File -> New -> Project -> PCB Project

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Altium Workshop

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Add a Schematic file to the PCB Project Right click PCB Project in left column -> Add New to Project -> Schematic

HKN Altium Workshop Add Atmel Library

Place -> Part -> -> -> Install -> Atmel -> Atmel Microcontroller 8-bit AVR.IntLib

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HKN Altium Workshop Add Atmel Library Cont

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HKN Altium Workshop Add Atmel AVR (ATmega128-16AC)

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HKN Altium Workshop Rename Atmel AVR (ATmega128-16AC)

Double click on schematic symbol. Change Designator

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HKN Altium Workshop Schematic: Add Power

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Place -> Power Port [po] Place VCC terminal and then double click to bring up properties and rotate device 90 degrees Wire Power Terminals together (Place -> Wire) [pw]

HKN Altium Workshop Schematic: Add Ground

Click Ground symbol in top tool ribbon Wire Gnd together (Place -> Wire) [pw]

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HKN Altium Workshop Schematic: Add Decoupling Capacitors

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Place -> Part -> [pp] 1) Select Miscellaneous Devices.IntLib from pull down menu 2) Select Cap Semi Folder 3) Select 1608[0603] capacitor and click OK 4) From Place Part Menu, change Designator. Click OK
1

HKN Altium Workshop Schematic: Decoupling Capacitors Cont

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Place 3 Capacitors, C1, C2, C3 Wire top terminal of caps to VCC and bottom terminals to GND using previous power and ground techniques.

HKN Altium Workshop Schematic: Power Header

Add power header Place -> Part -> [pp] Select Miscellaneous Connectors.IntLib then Header 2 Rename designator Apply VCC to pin 2 and GND to pin 1

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Altium Workshop

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PCB Creation
Right click Project name in left column and add new PCB to project Save Project

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Altium Workshop

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PCB Creation
Click on schematic in left column to go back to schematic view Click Design -> Update PCB Document [du]

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Altium Workshop

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PCB Creation
Validate and then execute changes PCB is now created

HKN Altium Workshop PCB Arranging Components

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Click and hold -> use space bar to rotate components while clicking on them

HKN Altium Workshop PCB Routing Parts Together

Place -> Interactive Routing to get routing tool [pt] Click on pads to route together

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HKN Altium Workshop Check Design Rules

Tools > Design Rule Check

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HKN Altium Workshop PCB No Errors! Yeah!

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HKN Altium Workshop PCB Gerber File Generation

From PCB Document: File > Fabrication Outputs > Gerber Files

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HKN Altium Workshop PCB Gerber File Generation

Make sure the important Layers are plotted - Do not add Mechanical Layers to all Plots

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- Press OK and CAM File is generated then Save it in Projects Output folder

HKN Altium Workshop PCB NC Drill File Generation

Part 1: Back in PCB Document: - File > Fabrication Outputs > NC Drill - Press OK in new window

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HKN Altium Workshop PCB Submit to Advanced Circuits

1. Compress the Project Outputs file into a .zip format 2. Go to freedfm.com, Upload the ZIP file

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- Weve included a zipped copy in your start folder: Project_Outputs_Basic.zip

HKN Altium Workshop PCB Submit to Advanced Circuits

3. Fill in the Form Replace Select One with Drawing Other

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HKN Altium Workshop PCB Submit to Advanced Circuits

Make Solder Mask Sides -> Both Sides Make Silkscreen Sides -> Both Sides Find Board Size -> Go Back to Project

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Altium Workshop

9.23.09

Additional Questions?
Ask about specific tasks you want to accomplish.

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Altium Workshop

9.23.09

Part 2 - Useful Tips and Tricks

Thursday, September 23rd, 2009 HKN

HKN Altium Workshop PCB Ground and Power Pours

Place Polygon Pour (pg) Define the Net + Layer Define the Vertices It will automatically connect the Net

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HKN Altium Workshop PCB Placing Traces

Place Tracks [pt] Change Start Angle (Space) Change Style (Shift-Space) Remove Last Placement (Backspace) Escape Action (Right Click) Unroute connection [tuc]

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HKN Altium Workshop PCB Placing Vias Quickly

Must be placing trace Control-shift- scroll wheel

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Manually scrolls between layers and automatically places via from original layer to selected layer

HKN Altium Workshop PCB Single Layer Viewing

Open the example PCB

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Start -> Altium Designer 6 -> Examples -> Other PCB Projects -> PCB Auto-Routing example boards

HKN Altium Workshop PCB Single Layer Viewing

Press shift+s to see a single layer of the board Use ctrl+shift+scroll-wheel to switch between layers

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HKN Altium Workshop PCB Net Highlighting

Hold ctrl and click on a trace to highlight the entire connection path

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HKN Altium Workshop Schematic Part Placing Tricks

Place part using your favorite method [pp] Hit tab before placing the part in location to edit part properties

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HKN 9.23.09 Altium Workshop Schematic Net Naming (wireless connections)

Place Net [pn], then hit Tab to pull up Net Properties

Notice auto-incrementing

HKN 9.23.09 Altium Workshop Schematic Net Naming (wireless connections)

Add Net names to both parts Highlight all Net names on the right, ctrl-click and drag to move Nets

HKN 9.23.09 Altium Workshop PCB Your Board in 3D [3] View Board in 3d
View -> Switch to 3D [2] View Board in 2d [vf] Fit the board to the screen [vb] Flip board around

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Altium Workshop

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Part 3 Parts Libraries, Custom Parts

Thursday, September 23rd, 2009 HKN

HKN Altium Workshop Custom Schematic Symbols

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Place Pin [pp]

Altium Workshop

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The X goes towards the outside

http://www.national.com/ds/LM/LM2734.pdf

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Now draw the box [pr]

Altium Workshop

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Cut, paste the pins (hack so that they are on top)

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Altium Workshop

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Now add the footprint you need to use with it.

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Select Browse

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Altium Workshop
Hit the ellipsis (or search)

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Click Add Library

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Go to Project Adds to the project instead of the machine

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Altium has extensive libraries There are always parts you need to make though

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Open the PCB folder. Very useful.

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This folder has standardized footprints for most everything. Select *.PCBLIB gives you the footprints

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Altium Workshop

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Altium Workshop

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Wow, that was a lot of parts. Select the SOT23_5-6Lead_M.PcbLib part library, choose the part with correct-ish dimensions. Note that often the exact dimensions are not available. L,M,N stand for the density prototype, medium density, high-density production (not in that order)

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Now the easy way.

Altium Workshop

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No longer pretending that this part didnt already exist in Altium. Back in the schematic, place part [pp], hit the ellipsis, hit another ellipsis, hit Add Library. Go to National Semiconductor under Program Files/Altium/Library And select NSC Switcher. Now select the LM2734X or Y. Thankyou Altium for doing all of this work for us.

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Altium Workshop

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Okay, so what if the footprint does not exist? Altium makes this easy too.

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Man this is easy. Into the wizard.

Altium Workshop

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Just copy down the specs from the data sheet

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Altium Workshop

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Is your part not that simple? Okay, Altium has you covered again. Anything you would ever want to create, simple

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Liar!

Altium Workshop

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Oh wait, you say you cant make your part with these tools.

Anyways, you can still do it by hand.

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Altium Workshop

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Okay, I made a bunch of parts, how do I find them?

Double Click

HKN

Altium Workshop

9.23.09

HKN

Altium Workshop

9.23.09

Additional Questions?
Ask about specific tasks you want to accomplish.

Additional Altium Awesomeness: http://www.altium.com/Evaluate/DEMOcenter/AltiumDesigneroverview/Componentmodels/