“A place for everything, everything in its place” are profound words by the incomparable Benjamin Franklin that are especially applicable when applied to component placement on PCBs. Let’s see how to use Altium Designer to put these words into action for your PCB design. Placing Components Directly with no Schematic Whether you are creating a relatively simple PCB or adding to an existing design, you can save time by adding components directly to the board layout. The following describes how to use Altium Designer to place a component are as follows: Step 1: Open the PCB where you will be placing the part. If using an existing board, locate the correct.PcbDoc in your file tree.
Aug 02, 2014 SparkFun Electronics. Start Something. Skip to content. Location: Lincoln, NE. Re: Altium Libraries. You can place basic 3D shapes in Altium, but if you want photo-realistic models, you'll have to get them from outside.
If creating a new board, select New PCB on the File drop-down menu. Step 2: Locate the component library for your part. A few ways to access the libraries are:. Click on the Panels tab in the lower right corner. Click on Component under the Place drop-down menu. And click on the Place Component icon on the toolbar at the top center of the window. Step 3: Place the part on the board in the desired location.
Click on the desired part and move the component over the board with the mouse. Left click to component the part (continue this for multiple parts). And right click to stop placing components. Placing Components Starting from a Schematic For most PCB designs, it is advisable to begin by creating a schematic. The schematic serves as an easy to follow circuit diagram where you can verify your interconnections or netlist. The schematic can also serve as a sort of sketchpad of your PCB layout and help you determine.
Although, is a longer process to arrive at your PCB layout there are some advantages that may make the actual placement of components faster. Chief among these is that you begin with all components placed, albeit probably not in their final locations on the board. However, Altium Designer provides tools that allow you to easily lay out the board as desired. The process of placing components when you start from the schematic begins with converting your schematic to a PCB layout.
This will provide you with a board outline that contains your components. From here, you need to arrange your components within the board outline.
Your component designators may be hidden for easier viewing during placement Altium Designer provides you with the flexibility of placing individual components (as shown in the video above) in a desired location within the board layout or having them arranged automatically by the program. Automatically or manual arranging of components can be done for a single component, select group or the entire board.
In most situations, you may want to use a combination of these options to optimally place your components. Selecting multiple components (highlighted) for rearrangement Beginning with a schematic component placement can be fast since each component does not have to be added to the board individually. The capability to select and move groups of components simultaneously makes this rearrangement even easier and quicker. In most cases, group movement will need to be combined with individual placement to ensure that your components are placed optimally for functionality, reliability, and even manufacturability. Tips for Component Placement The art of how to place components on PCB designs is quick and easy using Altium Designer. The determination of the best location to place components requires some consideration. Where your component is located on the board can impact the board’s functionality, reliability, and manufacturability.
For example, placing analog and digital components close together can, loading an area of the Printed Circuit Boards with parts that generate high temperatures as opposed to evenly distributing them over the board area make it difficult to adequately remove heat and placing components too close to other surface elements may prevent your manufacturer from performing essential fabrication tasks, such as solder masking, or assembly tasks, such as soldering, without first redesigning the Printed Circuit Board layout. To help you mitigate these potential problems, you can apply the following guidelines as you place your components:. Separate digital and analog signal components. Adhere to board edge clearance rules (from your manufacturer). Follow component spacing rules (from your manufacturer).
Do not concentrate high-temperature components in the same area of the board. Orient polarized components in the same direction, if possible. Minimize trace length between components.
The above list provides you with a good set of guidelines for placing your components that if followed will help you minimize signal integrity problems on your traces, make it easier to remove heat from your board and minimize the likelihood that you will need to make any changes to have your PCB manufactured. Whether you are starting from a schematic or directly from, component placement can be quick and easy using. The wide range of capabilities and advanced functionality of Altium Designer offers you several ways to orderly layout your board. For more information on component placement for your PCB layers,. About the Author PCB Design Tools for Electronics Design and DFM. Information for EDA Leaders.
The Installed Libraries list is reflected in and is also affected by changes made through the Installed tab of the dialog. This dialog is accessed by clicking the Libraries button at the top of the panel. Access The Data Management – Installed Libraries page is part of the main Preferences dialog ( File ) and is accessed by clicking the Installed Libraries entry under the Data Management folder in the left hand pane of the dialog. Options/Controls Installed Libraries This region presents a list of installed libraries that are available to your design projects in CircuitStudio. The following supported library types can be added to the list:. Integrated Library. Schematic Library.
PCB 2D/3D Component Model Library For each entry in the list, the following information is presented:. Installed Libraries - the name of the library with extension. Activated - use this control to determine whether the library is activated, and therefore, available for use (enabled) or deactivated, and therefore, not available for use (disabled). A deactivated library is treated as though it had been uninstalled but remains in the installed library so it can be quickly re-activated. Path - where the library resides. This is the path to the library relative to the nominated path specified in the Library Path Relative To field.
Type - the library's type. Additional Controls. Library Path Relative To - any libraries added to the Installed Libraries list are installed relative to the folder specified in this field. Click on the browse folder icon to browse to the required folder or enter the path to it directly. For a default installation of CircuitStudio, library paths are relative to the following folder: Users Public Documents Altium CS Library. The order of the libraries in the list will be the order they appear within the corresponding drop-down in the Libraries panel. Install - click this button to access a menu offering the following installation command:.
Install from file - choose this command to access a standard Open dialog, from where you can browse to and open the required standard, file-based library type (.IntLib,.SchLib,.PcbLib). Remove - click this button to remove the currently selected library(ies) from the list (select multiple libraries in the list using standard multi-select controls ( Ctrl+click, Shift+click)).