Basic Altium Workshop

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Basic Altium Workshop

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

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

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Part 1 The Basics

• Thursday, September 23rd, 2009
• HKN

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• 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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Open Altium and open a PCB Project File -gt New
-gt Project -gt PCB Project
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Add a Schematic file to the PCB Project Right
click PCB Project in left column -gt Add New to
Project -gt Schematic
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• Add Atmel Library
• Place -gt Part -gt -gt -gt Install -gt Atmel
• -gt Atmel Microcontroller 8-bit AVR.IntLib

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• Add Atmel Library Cont

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• Add Atmel AVR (ATmega128-16AC)

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• Rename Atmel AVR (ATmega128-16AC)
• Double click on schematic symbol.
• Change Designator

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• Schematic Add Power
• Place -gt Power Port po
• Place VCC terminal and then double click to bring
  up properties and rotate device 90 degrees
• Wire Power Terminals together (Place -gt Wire) pw

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• Schematic Add Ground
• Click Ground symbol in top tool ribbon
• Wire Gnd together (Place -gt Wire) pw

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• Schematic Add Decoupling Capacitors
• Place -gt Part -gt pp
• 1) Select Miscellaneous Devices.IntLib from pull
  down menu
• 2) Select Cap Semi Folder
• 3) Select 16080603 capacitor and click OK
• 4) From Place Part Menu, change Designator. Click
  OK

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

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• Schematic Power Header
• Add power header
• Place -gt Part -gt pp
• Select Miscellaneous Connectors.IntLib then
  Header 2
• Rename designator
• Apply VCC to pin 2 and GND to pin 1

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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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• PCB Creation
• Click on schematic in left column to go back to
  schematic view
• Click Design -gt Update PCB Document du

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• PCB Creation
• Validate and then execute changes
• PCB is now created

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• PCB Arranging Components

Click and hold -gt use space bar to rotate
components while clicking on them
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• PCB Routing Parts Together

Place -gt Interactive Routing to get routing tool
pt Click on pads to route together
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• Check Design Rules

Tools gt Design Rule Check
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• PCB No Errors! Yeah!

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• PCB Gerber File Generation

From PCB Document File gt Fabrication Outputs gt
Gerber Files
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• PCB Gerber File Generation

Make sure the important Layers are plotted - Do
not add Mechanical Layers to all Plots - Press
OK and CAM File is generated then Save it in
Projects Output folder
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• PCB NC Drill File Generation

Part 1 Back in PCB Document - File gt
Fabrication Outputs gt NC Drill - Press OK in new
window
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• PCB Submit to Advanced Circuits

1. Compress the Project Outputs file into a
.zip format - Weve included a zipped copy in
your start folder Project_Outputs_Basic.zip 2.
Go to freedfm.com, Upload the ZIP file
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• PCB Submit to Advanced Circuits

• Fill in the Form
• Replace Select One with Drawing Other

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• PCB Submit to Advanced Circuits

Make Solder Mask Sides -gt Both Sides Make
Silkscreen Sides -gt Both Sides Find Board Size
-gt Go Back to Project
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• Additional Questions?
• Ask about specific tasks you want to accomplish.

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Part 2 - Useful Tips and Tricks

• Thursday, September 23rd, 2009
• HKN

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• 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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• 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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• PCB Placing Vias Quickly

Must be placing trace Control-shift- scroll
wheel Manually scrolls between layers and
automatically places via from original layer to
selected layer
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• PCB Single Layer Viewing

Open the example PCB Start -gt Altium Designer 6
-gt Examples -gt Other PCB Projects -gt PCB
Auto-Routing example boards
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• PCB Single Layer Viewing

Press shifts to see a single layer of the
board Use ctrlshiftscroll-wheel to switch
between layers
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• PCB Net Highlighting

Hold ctrl and click on a trace to highlight the
entire connection path
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• 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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• Schematic Net Naming (wireless connections)

Place Net pn, then hit Tab to pull up Net
Properties
Notice auto-incrementing
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• 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
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• PCB Your Board in 3D

3 View Board in 3d 2 View Board in
2d vf Fit the board to the screen vb Flip
board around
View -gt Switch to 3D
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Part 3 Parts Libraries, Custom Parts

• Thursday, September 23rd, 2009
• HKN

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• Custom Schematic Symbols

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Place Pin pp The X goes towards the outside
http//www.national.com/ds/LM/LM2734.pdf
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Now draw the box pr Cut, paste the pins (hack
so that they are on top)
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Now add the footprint you need to use with it.
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Select Browse
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Hit the ellipsis (or search)
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Go to Project Adds to the project instead of
the machine Click Add Library
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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. This folder has
standardized footprints for most everything. Very
useful. Select .PCBLIB gives you the
footprints
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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. 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 A
nd select NSC Switcher. Now select the LM2734X or
Y. Thankyou Altium for doing all of this work for
us.
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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. Just copy down the specs from
the data sheet Into the wizard.
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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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Oh wait, you say you cant make your part with
these tools. Liar! Anyways, you can still do it
by hand.
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Okay, I made a bunch of parts, how do I find
them?
Double Click
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• Additional Questions?
• Ask about specific tasks you want to accomplish.

Additional Altium Awesomeness
http//www.altium.com/Evaluate/DEMOcenter/AltiumDe
signeroverview/Componentmodels/