Altium’s PCB Designer Tools Guide

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Altiums PCB designer Tools Guide
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• Altiums PCB designer Tools Guide(https//oxeltech
  .de/en/altium-pcb-designer-tools-guide/)
• AAltilutmiDuesmignesr is PconCsidBeredDthee
  espiitogmenoef ErDATtooolsofolrsharGdwaureiddeseig
  n engineers when it comes to professional
  schematic and PCB design. It is inclusive and
  encompassing as far as all
• the steps in the design and management process
  are concerned.
• This series of articles has been divided into
  three parts based on the design stage, i.e.,
  design process tools, project management tools,
  and collaboration tools.
• This article will cover tools that set Altium
  apart from other tools for the schematic and PCB
  design process.
• Table of Content
• Design Process Tools Shortcuts
• Quick Zoom
• Visibility
• 4. Repour Polygons
• 5. Wire
• 6. Highlighting a Net
• Parameter Manager
• Pin Mapping Visualization Tool
• Steps for Checking Pin Mapping

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3/9/23, 101 PM Altiums PCB designer Tools
Guide During part placement or polygon placement,
there is a requirement to have access to exact
coordinates for accuracy and aesthetics. This can
be done by pressing J for Jump and then L
for jumping to that location. A window will open
up for you to enter coordinates.
Oxeltech
Exact Coordinate Access in Altium Now when you
press Enter, your cursor will be at the entered
coordinates. Visibility During PCB design, you
often have to switch visibility to check your
placement routing with reference to other
layers. For this, you can use the ShiftS
command. Lets take an example to show how this
works. Here is a PCB cutout
Layout Visibility Across Different Layers in
Altium
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3/9/23, 101 PM Altiums PCB designer Tools
Guide When you press ShiftS once, this View
changes to the following View in which the top is
highlighted and the layers underneath are in the
faded form Oxeltech
Layout Visibility Across Different Layer in
Altium Now, if you press ShiftS again, the
visibility shifts to the selected layer (top
layer in this case), and the rest are switched
off
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Altiums PCB designer Tools Guide
Oxeltech

• Layout Visibility Across Different Layers in
  Altium oxeltech
• Repour Polygons
• During PCB design, we must shelve and re-pour
  polygons and planes from time to time. To re-
  pour all the polygons/planes, you can press T for
  Tools, G for Polygon Pours, and then A for re-
  pour All.
• Wire
• To toggle the Wire tool for connecting devices in
  Schematic or routing in PCB, the CtrlW shortcut
  can be used. The cursor will change to Cross upon
  using this shortcut.
• Highlighting A Net
• Keep pressing Shift and hovering over the net in
  question to highlight a net. The entire net can
  now be seen clearly because it has been
  highlighted for focus.
• Parameter Manager
• Parameter Manager is a feature using which we can
  add and modify parameters in the project.
  Parameter Manager can be accessed in the
  Schematic window by selecting the Tools tab and
  clicking Parameter Manager

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Altiums PCB designer Tools Guide
Oxeltech
Altium Parameter Manager We can edit individual
parameters and all the parameters based on their
category. Furthermore, new parameters can also
be added. To add a new parameter, you have to
click on the Add Column button, and the
following dialogue box opens up in which you add
the name, association, and value for that column
How to Add New Parameters in a Project in Altium
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Altiums PCB designer Tools Guide
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• Pin Mapping Visualization Tool
• Reviewing the pin mapping for microcontrollers
  and other ICs with multiple pins takes time to
  quickly check the mapping of the schematic symbol
  and the PCB footprint side by side.
• Steps For Checking Pin Mapping
• Open the integrated library you created for the
  project and the part you want to check. The
  window that opens up shows both symbol and
  footprint.
• Now, if you click on any pin in the symbol, the
  corresponding pin in the footprint will be
  highlighted. In this way, you can verify the pin
  connections using the datasheet.

How to Check Pin Mapping in Altium
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3/9/23, 101 PM PCB Filter
Altiums PCB designer Tools Guide
During the PCB design process, there comes a
situation when you have to perform a task on
several objects of the same type all at once. In
this case, peOrfoxrmeingltthee scamhe task
separately on each object becomes quite tedious.
Altiums PCB Filter is a huge help in this
scenario. You can add filters on different object
types, such as designators or component types,
such as vias or nets, etc., and then perform
the intended task on them all at once. Steps For
Setting Filter And Performing A Task 1. Select
PCB Filter from the bottom left.
PCB Filter in Altium 2. You can add specific
filter commands in the Filter section. For
instance, we want to change the size of all
designators on the board. Well write
isdesignator expression in the section and
check the Select check box.
PCB Filters in Altium Youll see that all the
designators have been highlighted.
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Altiums PCB designer Tools Guide
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• PCB Filter in Altium oxeltech
• Now you can go to the properties and change the
  required parameter. Another example for these
  types of tasks, is changing via size of all GND
  vias.
• Alternate Method Of Collective Editing
• You can perform the same collective action
  through another method.
• Now if you want to change designator size, you
  can go to the String Type Object for designators
  and change status from Any to Same.
• Right-click on the object that needs to be
  altered and click on Find Similar Objects.

Collective Editing in Altium The following
window should open up.
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Altiums PCB designer Tools Guide
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Collective Editings in Altium Now when OK is
pressed, we can see that all the designators are
selected and we can go to Properties tab and
perform changes as we did in PCB Filter
method. For any Altium or PCB layout
(https//oxeltech.de/en/pcb-layout-assembly/)
related issues, Firmware Development
(https//oxeltech.de/en/firmware-development/),
or any Hardware Design related challenge in
general, feel free to Contact Us
(https//oxeltech.de/en/contact-us/) for our
consultancy. You can check out our other
Technical Blogs (https//oxeltech.de/en/blog/) on
various topics or visit our new website
Oxeltech.de (https//oxeltech.de/) to find all
about our services and products. Team
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