Altium Designer is a professional level electronic design automation (EDA) software, meant for designing and producing printed circuit boards (PCBs). The software offers a comprehensive end-to-end process that transforms an idea into a production-ready PCB layout.
While similar to KiCAD and the processes it offers, Altium is widely accepted in the industry to be the more comprehensive PCB software. Altium Designer offers a more powerful industry-standard PCB design environment compared to KiCAD, making it more ideal for professional engineers who are tackling complex hardware projects.
The main drawback to Altium Designer is the price tag. The software costs a hefty amount—an annual license can cost up to $4,000. Compared to KiCAD's free license, this is a significant issue. Nevertheless, companies often shell out the cost and prepare licenses for their workers.
This module is for two sets of students. Those working on complex projects that would be made significantly easier with Altium, which will be the minority. More than likely this is for students interested in experimenting with industry standard software that can make your skillset/projects stand out.
Most of your time with PCBs at RPI will be spent using KiCAD, as it functions similarly to Altium for smaller projects and educational purposes. This guide, however, will provide you with Altium experience and explore its advantages over KiCAD.
Feel free to explore and experiment with projects beyond this module. There are bound to be valuable design techniques not covered here—in that case, contribute your own improvements!
For many college students, purchasing an Altium license out of pocket is simply out of reach. Fortunately, the Mercer X Lab has reserved licenses that they distribute to interested students! To get access, email [email protected] with your request, explaining why you want to work with Altium. After receiving approval, email [email protected], making sure to cc [email protected], and politely request access. Once your request is approved, you'll receive instructions on how to proceed via email.
Now that you have Altium installed, let's open the software and create a new project. To do this, click File → New → Project in the top menu bar. In the popup window, make sure you select "local" for the project location and give it a name you can recognize.
On the left sidebar, you will see your project. Next, we need to add both a schematic and PCB editor to work with. right-click on the project and select Add New to Project → Schematic. Then repeat the process: right-click the project again and select Add New to Project → PCB. Now you can access both the schematic and PCB editors.
Before we start drawing, however, it's good practice to save and rename both editors. To do this, press Ctrl+S when viewing the schematic. In the popup window, give the file a name related to your project. Now do the same for the PCB editor. As you'll notice on the side, you've now given your editors brand new names and saved them under the project you're working in.