Guideline for PCB design using Altium Designer 6 – 10thOct, 2013
1)Open Altium designer in laboratory computers( RM114/RM102 and some of G16 Computers) and then FILE , NEW, PROJECT then PCB PROJECT to create a project directory and save in a convenient location by Right clicking on it (project folder *.PrjPCB)
2)Right click on the folder *.PrjPCB and ADD NEW TOPROJECT then click on PCB to crate a default empty pcb design document space. This is becoming your design file ( * .PcbDoc) to be saved as …
3)Within *.PcbDoc space, Go to the DESIGN menu and click RULES. You will find there are many rules that has to be set individually. But in your case there are only a few rules has to be set are as follows:
a)click on Electrical, clearance and then set it to 0.5mm as minimum clearance and then APPLY.
b)Click on SHORT CIRCUIT and ALLOW SHORT CIRCUIT and APPLY.
c)Under ROUTING click on ROUTING WIDTH (Routing track size) AND then under the CONSTRAINTS box, set the following:
Max width = 3.0mm, preferred width = 0.5mm,
Min. width = 0.4mm as the track width boundaries.
d)Under the MANUFACTURING, HOLE SIZE, set the minimum hole size to be 0.7mm and max. size to be around 3.0mm. APPLY and exit.
{Tips for design:
● Plan to have a small size (less than 8cm x 9cm)single sided or double sided unless the design is so complex to having a few hundreds of components.(Place your Students ID on one corner of PCB)
● Usually components are placed on Top layer side (Red layer) but soldered on the bottom
layer side(Blue color layer). Therefore your circuit layout design involving copper track etc. should be on the bottom layer (Blue layer) for single sided board.
The Minimum Specs are :
All track size - 0.5mm, Pad size Dia 1.8mm.
Pad hole size - 0.7mm(for normal Res, Cap and IC's).
All other connector holes could be 0.9mm or more depending on connector
Clearance between tracks – 0.5mm.
Note: Set the track minimum/preferred and maximum specs in Menu bar →DESIGN → RULES category before start placing tracks. The Pad and hole sizes have also to be correctly set for all the footprints that you will use in your design.
● Do your design by placing components & tracks etc manually on the pcb document page to
save your time. Auto routing of track is also possible if you are familiar with Altium designer, but properly drawn error free Schematic diagram is first required for this process.}
4)Now go to the pcb document and click on it. By pressing the Q key will toggle inches to mm system of measurement.
5)At the bottom of the document click onto keep-out Layer tab and then draw you pcb board boundaries as you wish but as smallest as possible to accommodate all of the components and the connecting copper tracks of the design. You could resize the boundaries if needed at any time by clicking on and drag them. .
6)Choose the bottom layer and start placing components and tracks according to your design. You may have to change the pad and hole size of IC’s, resistors and capacitors etc to the above said values becausedefault sizes of the components placed from COMPONENT LIBRARY may differ.
7)The default sized components are placed from the components library which can be accessed from the SYSTEM bar located at the bottom of the document.
8)Save the design and send *.PcbDoc file to me via email to produce PCB. (But first,you are required to fill the PCB requisition authority form , obtained from G15 )
Roy