Starting with Altium Designer

Name: Starting with Altium Designer
Rating: 4.5 (3041 reviews)

Learn by designing a simple board. Step-by-Step tutorial.

Created byRobert Feranec

Last updated 11/2019

English

What you'll learn

During this course you will design a simple board. After you finish this course, you will be able to continue to explore Altium Designer by yourself or you can continue to learn through more advanced Altium Designer courses.

Course content

5 sections • 23 lectures • 3h 34m total length

Introduction5:13
Learn to design a board in Altium Designer from scratch with a step-by-step approach, covering schematics, libraries, footprints, variants, PCB layout, 3D model, outputs, assembly drawings, and bill of materials.
Starting a new project4:08
Creating 1x2 Header (Schematic Symbol)10:29
Creating 360R Resistor (Schematic Symbol)5:52
Creating LED (Schematic Symbol)7:32
Create a LED schematic symbol in Altium Designer by copying a Digi-Key pad, placing pins, setting designators, and configuring symbol geometry and cathode orientation.
Drawing Schematic10:32

Creating 0805 Resistor Footprint21:56
Create an 0805 resistor footprint in Altium Designer by setting metric units, defining 0.7 by 1.3 mm pads, and integrating 3D models from Digi-Key and assembly drawing layer for documentation.
Creating LED 0603 Footprint11:49
Learn to design an LED 0603 footprint in Altium Designer, from creating the footprint to aligning the Digi-Key recommended size, marking the cathode, and placing a 3D model.
Creating 1x2 Header Footprint14:15
Update & Annotate Schematic6:31
Update and annotate the schematic by refreshing the symbol library, assigning footprints to symbols, and using the notation tool to update designators, then save and check for errors.

Add, Place and Route the Second LED21:17
Add and rename a second LED in the schematic, propagate changes to the PCB, and route and place components using cross-probing and schematic-based placement.
Add Assembly Drawing Layers into PCB9:31
Create top and bottom assembly drawing layers in Altium designer by adding a component layer pad and update footprints in the PCB library so changes transfer to the PCB.
Variants & 3D View5:24

JOB File & PDF Schematics6:08
Create and save an output job file in Altium to generate schematic PDFs directly from the project. Configure schematic documentation sets and color print, then organize outputs into the directory.
3D PDF & 3D STEP Model6:39
Printing Layers6:08
Generate home PCB prints by selecting layers, naming them, and using composite prints to output the top and bottom layers with holes and the board outline.
Create Assembly Drawings13:26
Pick & Place, Gerbers, NC Drill Files9:04
Generate pick and place and drill files from your Altium design to create assembly and fabrication outputs, including Gerber files with component positions on the PCB.
Generating Bill of Material (BOM)11:25
Thank you for signing up1:00

Requirements

You will need Altium Designer software, ideally AD18 or higher. No previous Altium Designer knowledge is required.

Description

Altium Designer is one of the most popular and frequently used CAD software for schematic design and PCB Layout. If you are planning to become a professional hardware design engineer, if you are moving to Altium Designer from different software or if you have never designed any board before and you would like to learn it, this course will help you.

Go through complete design process of a simple board and learn

- Draw schematic
- Create schematic symbol and footprint libraries
- Route your PCB and do layout
- Generate the essential documents needed to manufacture your PCB

Goal of this course

The main goal of this course is to go through a complete board design process (Schematic + Libraries + PCB + Documentation), and this way to show, demonstrate and practice all the essential Altium Designer features which are also used to create more complex and advanced boards.

Content and Overview

You will start with creating schematic symbols. After all symbols are finished, you will learn how to draw schematic, modify it, how to update your schematic symbol library and how to create footprints. You will learn how to transfer your schematic into PCB, how to do layout and by the end of the course you will generate all the essential manufacturing documents.

In this course you will learn how to:

- Draw schematic, update schematic and annotate schematic
- Create components, draw schematic symbols and footprints
- Place components into your PCB
- Route simple PCB
- Create 3D model of your board
- Create board variants with different components fitted / not fitted
- Create Bill of Material (BOM)
- Create assembly drawings showing position of components on the board
- Generate Gerbers, Pick and Place, Drill file and other files needed for manufacturing

Who this course is for:

College / University students: In this course you will learn all the essential features of Altium Designer and you will be able to continue using this software by yourself.
Junior / Senior hardware design engineers who are new in Altium: This course will help you to speed up learning process. You will go through the complete design process of a board and after this course you will know all the most important features which you need to start using the software.
Beginners, Hobbyists: This is a step-by-step course. You can simply follow the videos even if you have never designed any boards before. Once you finish this course, you will be able to design your own simple boards.
Everyone moving from previous Altium Designer versions: This course helps you to find the old features located in new places and explains how some new changes in the Altium work.

Starting with Altium Designer

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Schematic6 lectures • 44min

Footprints4 lectures • 55min

PCB Layout3 lectures • 26min

More Advanced Features3 lectures • 36min

Generating Manufacturing Documentation7 lectures • 54min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: