Altium Designer Tutorial 4 - PCB Layout

In the previous tutorial, we have finished the circuit schematic. In this tutorial, I will continue to make the PCB layout. First, select menu Design → Update PCB Document to create PCB document from the schematic that has been made.

This dialog will be show, then click Execute Changes button.

You can move the component and place them on the right position. This is example of the component location.

Altium Designer Tutorial 3 - Circuit Schematic

In the previous tutorial, we have made the schematic symbol and component footprint. Now in this tutorial, I will continue to make circuit schematic. You can go to schematic file by double click on the project explorer.

The final schematic of the circuit is looks like this:

Altium Designer Tutorial 2 - Footprint Library

In the previous tutorial, we have created schematic component symbol. Now in this tutorial I will share how to make footprint for that component symbols.

First, go to the PCB library project. In this tutorial, I will make component footprint with wizard tools, but it is also possible to create component footprint without wizard. The advantage of wizard tools is you can make the component footprint more easy and fast. There are two type of component wizards, first is "IPC Compliant Footprint Wizard" and second is "Component Wizard". Both of them can be access from menu Tools.

For example, I will make SMD capacitor footprint using tool Component Wizard. This is the steps to do that:

• First, select the component that you want to make, in this case is capacitor.

Altium Designer Tutorial 1 - Schematic Library

In this tutorial, I will share how to use Altium Designer software to make a simple PCB layout. This tutorial will explain how to make the circuit schematic, PCB layout, schematic library, and PCB footprint library. This tutorial is suitable for beginner who never use Altium Designer to learn the basic function of this software.

For this tutorial, I will make PCB for simple 3.3V power supply module. After you start the Altium Designer software, go to Flie → New → Project to make a new Altium project. Then give name for that project, for example "power_supply_3_3_v".

On the Projects explorer, right click on the project that has been created and select Add New to Project → Schematic to add a schematic file to that project. Repeat this step for add PCB file, schematic library file, and PCB library file. To rename all the files that have been created can be done by menu File → Save All