Altium recently announced circuitmaker, their entry into the freelowcost pcb design tool market. By the way, i also changed that keep out to one mechanical layer also gm1 to maybe see any difference, but also it generates blank page for this also. Altium designer allows their electrical team to design custom printed circuit boards that aid in the wire management within their rover. Altium designer can help you create your 4 layer pcb prototype and so much more. Altium layout design cadcam circuit design electrical. Sep 30, 2014 learn about the methods used in altium designer 14 to create pcb board shapes. All customers with valid altium designer subscription will be receiving an email shortly, but if you cant wait for that and want to install now. Seeing is believing read more and watch demos of altium designer. Download a free trial to find out which altium software best suits your needs. However no matter what the pads of the of the part create an issue with the keepout and on all layers mid and bottom layers no tracks can go underneath it because apparently the keepout is for all layers. With the release of altium designer 20 comes with it many new and exciting features. Coming from a much simpler software such as eagle cad, some of them took me a while to figure out.
Sample project template for 2 and 4 layer board design in altium designer. Ad18 altium 18 problem with keepout layer page 1 eevblog electronics community forum. References getting started with pcb design, altium. This guide provides a list of shortcut keys available for use within altium designer, ranging from those used at the environment level, through to those associated with. Select layer, exportgerber select ok and give it the location of where to save the files. I usually make an outline that is 10mils wide with a rule of 5mil clearance to add up to a 10 mil pullback from the board edge.
You can also place layerspecific keepouts to prevent signals from being routed on a specific layer. Breaking out of the office with altium 365 a few years ago, i was working as a pcb design engineer for a company in the stunning italian countryside, designing power inverters for water pumps. Layer specific keepout objects have the color of that layer, with a thick outline shown in the. The three main features of altium designer we will discuss in following sections are 1 schematic capture 2 pcb layout 3 fabrication output files. Top layer bottom layer top overlay bottom overlay top paste bottom paste top solder mask bottom solder mask keep out layer.
Then select what layer you want to create the primitives on and how thick you want the outline to be. Contribute to hiberxenaltium libraries development by creating an account on github. I will keep updating this post periodically with new stuff. This industry needs to close the gap between the designer and the pcb production fab. I was wondering how others handle the concept of a keep out for components, but allowing traces. When i try to draw a line in the keep out layer in altium by clicking the tab for the keep out layer and placing a line, the layer suddenly changes to a different one and prevents me from adding to the keep out layer. As well as the standard region that is used for design tasks, there is a second type of region available, referred to as a region keepout.
Associate gerber keep out layer files with altium designer. Meanwhile, altium designer will check the information of each component and if errors take place, a hint window will be automatically popped. This region of the tab displays a listing of the following layers for the board. The core schematic and pcb design technology of altium nexus is identical to that of altium designer 18, sharing 100% of the design capabilities now and always. I can help you do the schematic entry and pcb layout i more. A region keepout can be placed as a layer specific keepout object or an all layer keepout to act, for example, as a placement or routing barrier.
Layer specific keepout place a layer specific keepout object on a signal layer. The altium designer gives you a complete platform where you can give your imaginationideas the shape of reality. Additionally, when i try to place a line and press. The keepout layer applies the keepout limitation to all layers. Altium s democenter gives you the opportunity to walk through the extensive design capabilities of altium designer featured as individual demos, each only taking a couple of minutes, making this a quick and easy way for you to browse the areas of most importance to you.
It used to be i could keep one file in my office drawer to collect bills for the month. Altium designer create keepout based on board outline. I used to convert keep out layer to another mechanical layer, but now i cant do that, i. Create design rules and run mixedsignal simulations. I dont have access to altium at the moment so this is from memory.
Link to the download site where you can get the latest software. A track keepout can be placed as a layerspecific keepout object or an alllayer keepout to act, for example, as a placement or routing. The mechanical layers are used to keep track of additional information needed for you to work with your design. Hello, i want to generate gerber files in altium designer, but i dont know why it doesnt generate outline or keep out. The benefit of a board outline on the keep out layer is that id will also allow you to set a rule for the required pullback from the board edge the manufacturer often specifies. Electronics technology moves fast and your design systems need to keep up. Aug 21, 2018 altium techdocs are online documentation for altium products, providing the basic information you need to get the most out of our tools. Board layers and colors online documentation for altium. We spend countless hours researching various file formats and software that can open, convert, create or otherwise work with those files.
Download free altium libraries for millions of electronic. Search millions of altium libraries by part number or keyword. Adjust your keep out layer to be a little smaller than the board so that you can use it up without any traces landing. Dear sir, i am an experienced board designer who has over 17 years experience on complex pcb design. Quick and tothepoint video tutorials to get you started with altium designer. When i try to draw a line in the keepout layer in altium by clicking the tab for the keepout layer and placing a line, the layer suddenly changes to a different one and prevents me from adding to the keepout layer. Later on when the board is finished and when you are configuring the options for gerber files generation, select this layer as the board outline. Color displays the color currently assigned to the layer. Altium keep out strategies for components but not traces for instance, if some mechanical part of the housing comes down and touches or nearly touches the pcb, i want to be able to route traces there but not place components. Altium techdocs are online documentation for altium products, providing the basic information you need to get the most out of our tools.
Special layers these include the top and bottom silkscreen layers, the solder and paste mask layers, drill layers, the keepout layer used to define. Altium supports s of parts from many different manufacturers. Learn about the methods used in altium designer 14 to create pcb board shapes. I also downgrade to ad17 but ad17 did the same thing to keep out layer too. A region keepout can be placed as a layerspecific keepout object or an alllayer keepout to act, for example, as a placement or routing barrier. See why altium designer is the best choice for pcb designers. Discover features you didnt know existed and get the most out of those you already know about. Previous releases of altium designer prior to version 17. Legacy documentation refer to the altium wiki for current. The schematic and pcb capabilities and user interface of altium nexus and altium designer 18. After installing altium designer the most recent version make sure that it is set as the default application to open gko files. Altium is led by a team of highly passionate industry experts. Click on the system box in the lower right hand corner of the designer and then click files and projects to make the tabs appear these will both accomplish the same goal of making the files tab and the projects tabs visible.
All of the file formats that were handled just fine by the previous versions of given program should be also possible to open using altium designer. In altium, rightclick on a projects entry in the projects panel. As well as the standard track that is used for design tasks, there is a second type of track available, referred to as a track keepout. For instance, if some mechanical part of the housing comes down and touches or nearly touches the pcb, i want to be able to route traces there but not place components. Drill guide, keepout layer, drill drawing and multilayer. The work was as intricate as it was commensurately fulfilling, with every board presenting an extremely sharp didt and stringent emc and reliability.
Gko in gerber files correctly and always its blank. Jump to location, press intro after introducing the coordinates. Aug 14, 2018 this region of the tab displays a listing of the following layers for the board. You can also place layer specific keepouts to prevent signals from being routed on a specific layer. Sep 24, 2014 altium recently announced circuitmaker, their entry into the freelowcost pcb design tool market. Ok so ive got a part that i want to have a keepout see attached image. First, download the altium example scripts and extract it. Locate and use your existing altium designer license. If you are new to altium designer, you will undoubtedly have designs in some other file format either from an older altium desi. Currently, theyre using altium designer to make boards for their new robotic arm and scientific analysis systems. Download the output job file here or at the bottom of this page. Snapeda is a free online altium cad library of symbols, footprints, and 3d models for millions of electronic components. File fabrication outputs gerber files, general inch, 2. Mechanical 1, keep out layer, top overlay, and all system colors select apply and then ok.
Altium designer defining the pcb board shape youtube. Keepout objects are simply standard design objects with the keepout checkbox enabled in the objects properties dialog. How do i keep out components from my pcb in altium. Contribute to ceceomeraltium designertutorial development by creating an account on github. Drill guide, keep out layer, drill drawing and multi layer. Altium using mechanical layers and keep out layers. A guideline from schematic to pcb design based on altium. Altium keep out strategies for components but not traces. Theyre entering a big industry, with the likes of eagle, kicad, geda, and a host of other tool. A guideline from schematic to pcb design based on altium designer. Restricted for layer use the dropdown to select the layer on which the region keepout is located locked properties panel only enable to lock the region keepout outline vertices properties panel onlythis region is used to modify the individual vertices of the currently selected region object. Click on the system box in the lower right hand corner of the designer and then click files and projects to make the tabs appear. Even with design rule checks, the fab usually has to call the designer or engineer to clarify issues that affect manufacturability and yield.