In this video you will learn everything what you need to know to make a simple project in Altium Designer.
You will learn how to create schematic symbols in schematic library,
how to create footprints in footprint library,
how to generate your PCB file
and
how to generate outputs
for PCB manufacturer
and print some
outputs into PDF.
Let's start a new project.
File -> New -> Project -> PCB Project
Add Schematic,
add PCB.
Add Schematic library,
add PCB library,
save project as ...
Now we are going to create schematic symbols.
Place pin, press TAB
press space bar
you can change color press TAB
I will hide the
pin names
Double click
"R", question mark
OK
New
LED
place pin
space bar
hide the numbers
place line
space bar
change
grids and draw the small arrows
change the grid back
Double click
Tools. Connector
Place
and name them
place
connector body
Double click
and delete this.
Now I am going to create footprints
which are physical interpretation of the component.
I always use
component wizard
I know this number, because I checked it before
This is component outline what I am doing now what I am moving
these are physical pads where the component will be soldered down
I can delete this
I'll create LED
the LED is similar
to the resistor, it is an SMD LED
I know
the pin number 1 is cathode
in the schematic symbol
CTRL+C
CTRL+V
I'll just mark it like this
and now connector
It's good to always
hit pin number 1 or plus
sign
CTRL+C
CTRL+V
Now save the library
compile the library
go to schematic library
and we will add footprints
which we just
have created.
Go to the schematic
first save
then compile
We can now draw the schematic.
Here, select the library
rotate press space bar
now I'll connect the components
I will name the nets
press TAB
you don't need to name all the nets
this is just for demonstration
I'll annotate
the schematic, replace the question mark with a number
and
I'll disable this I never use it.
Now we can
import
all our components into PCB.
I'll change grid
Here are our components
select
I'll move them
rotate press space bar
place them as you like
I will
redefine
board shape
Now we have to set a few rules
few basic rules
maximum width, track width used in the design
this
parameters for VIAs
and
here are some errors
it's
this, I'll change it to 4
and they are gone.
Now we can
draw the track
press TAB we can define new size
of the track new width of the track
connect all the pins.
For demonstration, I'll use a VIA here
double click on the VIA
I'll define new
size of the VIA
and also again for demonstration I will place
on the bottom layer
I'll place
a ground plane
now I move these
we can add a text
on the top layer
you can place it there
and then change it here
on top overlay
or you can
click on the top overlay and then place the text.
Now
I'll go to mechanical 1 layer
and
draw
the board outline.
To check if your PCB is ok, go to Design rule check
and run it.
Now check, you see there are no errors.
The most important are
unrouted nets - zero
clearance constraints - zero
short circuit - zero
We will now generate outputs
File -> New
Output job file
I'll delete these
I'll make some changes here
I'll set scale 1:1
black color only.
Also, we need only
for assembly drawing we need only top overlay
and
board outline
we don't have the
bottom overlay
I'll add one more with top and
bottom layer.
You can use this to print
and make the PCB by yourself at home.
I'll leave here only the top layer
and mechanical
with board outline
now mirror, I will print the holes
and everything
ok
On the schematic
schematic you can have in color
it's nice
and delete these
I'll leave gerber files and configure them in milimeters and highest resolution
drill file in highest resolution
from this I delete
everything and leave only the BOM.
I set usually this
as you can see here
and then .. now we can generate the files. The files will be located
in project output directory
as you can see it's now empty.
You can generate each file separately
or you can generate one file with everything.
This will be the
first
second, third, fourth.
As you see
schematic in color
this is our
assembly drawing
this is the top layer with holes in the middle
bottom layer
and
BOM
is
Top, bottom layer assembly drawing are
in the scale 1:1
and you can use them
to make your PCB at home.
If you are going to send your PCB to a manufacture
then go to generate files
select these two
generate the files
go to your output directory
and you will see two directories in there
when you and you will see two directories in there
when you
send these two directories to your PCB manufacturer
they will be able to make
your PCB
Here as you can see is also the
there is located the file what we have printed
with the schematic and everything in it
It was only a very very simple Altium Designer tutorial
and I would recommend you to go on my Welldone Blog
and read more
post about Altium Designer
and look at more videos.
I believe you will find them useful and thank you for watching.