Altium Designer PCB Layout Part 3

A speed up (x8) of actual PCB layout process done in Altium Designer Summer 09. This video has been recorded just to show a complete process of a PCB design and to demonstrate how much work an egineer does. More videos will follow as soon as i have more spare time. This is a audio board has quad audio inputs, dual audio outputs, serial connection to a pc by the means of usb, infra-red reciever, and a VFD display

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Altium
• Designer
• Layout
• PCB
• Electronics
• Router
• Audio
• ECAD

[tuivixautrai]

thank you so much for these videos! it's so usful for me. once more, wish you happy :) dear

[antoker]

@tuivixautrai you're welcome :)

[sztliu]

pro!

[X3zi]

@jaspers22 control - drag. Other options with shift-r.

[antoker]

@Riazan Nope, it does not work. In schematic you can do as you´ve described.

[Riazan]

@jaspers22: I'm pretty sure this will work. After selecting the component hold down both CTRL and left click of your mouse... you should be able to move the component without disconnecting the tracks. Same thing works in the schematic editor.

[antoker]

@jaspers22 no problem. I do not know if protel had this feature, because I've used to use Orcad/Proteus/Eagle before and all the implementations I've seen of "dragging a component with routes attached" were pretty crappy, I always had to re-route the whole thing from scratch, because the "smart router" screwed everything creating short-circuits and 90 deg angles between tracks :)

[jaspers22]

@antoker THANKS! One of my teachers told me that it used to be a feature in Protel, so I thought it would be here but anyway ... THANKS!!!

[antoker]

@jaspers22 : I have to disappoint you there, Altium does not have that option yet. So you have to un-route the connections between the components and re-arrange manually. Check out "Layout Part 2" video at about 2:08 I had to do the same thing.

[jaspers22]

Dude I am starting with Altium, I have a question, hope you can answer it, ¿Once you have routed a circuit, is there a way to drag a component and make the traces follow it? I finished a design but wanted to re-arrange the components but moving a component doesn't move it's connected tracks. Any way to do it? Thanks in advance.

[antoker]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by cheating. :) I've used vias to avoid getting trace loops and hence, improve EMC and noise performance of the circuit. I've also used vias to provide a low-inductance path to the ground for the decoupling caps.

The board has two layers (top/bottom) and the usual silk/mechanical layers and three separate isolated grounds for better audio performance (I've measured about 100dB SNR).