Install Altium Designer
Introduction to Altium Designer
Basic Introduction
Altium Designer is a professional software for designing schematic diagrams and PCBs. It is very powerful and easy to use. Its predecessor was Protel. Many engineers still use Protel to design PCBs, and Altium Designer is an upgraded version of Protel.
Briefly introduce the process, usually a project is a PCB project, a workgroup can contain multiple projects, and a project can contain multiple schematics and PCBs.
Altium Designer design overall process
1. Program analysis
For the specific project faced, the engineer firstly designs the overall principle of different schemes, then compares and confirms the scheme, and selects the components.
2. Circuit Simulation
To do circuit simulation for the whole circuit or partial circuit determined in the scheme, to estimate the circuit parameters, and to modify the defects in the design scheme with reference to the simulation results.
3 Design schematic
The schematic design part also needs to do the design of the schematic library. Although Altium Designer software comes with a part of the library, it does not contain all the components on the market, especially the latest ones.
In the process of schematic drawing, the complexity of the overall schematic determines the design method of the structure. The so-called hierarchical schematic design provides convenience for engineers to make complex circuit boards.
In the later stage of schematic design, use ERC (Electrical Rules Check) to check the error, find out the cause of the error and modify the schematic.
4 Packages of Design Components
For the package design of the device, mainly check the device manual. The actual tool of the device can also be measured directly with the measurement tool, and then packaged.
5 PCB board design
After determining the mechanical dimensions of the PCB, the engineer will import the original circuit diagram that passed the ERC test into the PCB board, and set the rules of the PCB, the number of layers of the board, etc. according to the actual requirements of the project.
Layout occupies most of the time in PCB design, and a good hardware engineer has strict requirements on layout, especially electromagnetic compatibility issues. After the layout is completed, the wiring, teardrops, copper plating, and DRC (Designer Rule Check) tests are performed.
6 Proofreading Review
After the engineer completes the PCB design, he needs to proofread the circuit he designed to make sure that the hardware circuit designed in the scheme has not been modified by mistake due to special reasons.
For complex circuit boards, multiple people work together, and the final wiring is completed by the PCB engineer. It is even more necessary for multiple people to proofread the circuit diagram and PCB part of their own design, and finally the project engineer does the overall review.
7 Documentation
This part is mainly divided into three parts: exporting the GERBER documents required for the board, BOM) production, exporting the schematic files, and printing out.
Wonderful PCB You can send us your requirements first. Click here to contact us.
You can click our component store. Please click here to contact us.
English