Changes to BugCrunch and Dashboard and the introduction of Ideas!

At Altium we have a refreshed energy and refocus on our core technologies and as such I want a robust platform and system that supports our product development strategies.

Over the years, since the inception of AltiumLive and the introduction of BugCrunch many users have indicated that the system was cumbersome and that it should be split (at a minimum) into Bugs and Features. So we took this feedback on board and the fruits of our labour are being delivered in this update.

They say that timing is of the essence...

Coupled with my desire to have a robust community Bug and Ideas management system, about a week ago there was again a post in the Forums which alluded to some changes that member(s) of our community would like to see. In particular, were comments about our BugCrunch system and just generally turning AltiumLive into an ideas based forum.

As I mentioned, timing is of the essence because at the time that post was made, we were already in development of an Ideas based system, and improvements to Bugcrunch which were along the same lines as the enhancements suggested in the post.

There is also another notable change worth mentioning - this is the introduction of License Usage Statistics to the Dashboard.

1. Changes to BugCrunch

BugCrunch continues to be that place in our community that is designed to help you bring bugs to our attention and influence which ones get crunched first!

Based on community feedback we wanted to simplify the process that we have today and take points out of the equation. We’ve also removed the dependency of nominating and introduced a simple “me too” voting system. The process of logging a bug and submitting a “me too” vote will not require any points.

2. Introduction of Ideas

Ideas is a new section which provides you with a platform to suggest new enhancements and features as well as vote and comment on your favorite ideas. Product managers and other customers will also take part in Ideas discussions.

BugCrunch & Ideas have a number of steps:

1.    New - this is where you can report a new Bug or Idea. In this section you can also tell us what you think by commenting and voting on the items you think are important or cool. Voting for an Idea will cost you 20 points.

2.    In Development - is where you'll find bugs and ideas that are currently being implemented and fixed for an upcoming update. Issues or Ideas here are actively going through the development process.

3.    Crunched and Released - once our development teams have delivered a fix or implemented an Idea you will see it listed in this section.

Before you create a new Bug or Idea, it is advised that you search the system to see if the item is already listed. Searching will bring up archived items that are not visible in the other lists.

Things you also need to know:

1.    Use concise and specific report titles for easier searching and browsing

2.    Reports with clear, detailed and reproducible steps will result in greater community engagement and support.

3.    Bugs and Ideas that don’t get votes within a month of being listed will expire.

4.    Altium reserves the right to reject items such as not valid or relevant, not enough information or flagged as duplicates.

5.    Searching goes across both the BugCrunch and Ideas sections. Bugs and Ideas are clearly marked with Bug # or Idea # in the item title.

6.    The Private setting you see when you are adding attachments to items allows you to make the attachment Private between the originator and Altium only. People outside of Altium will not be able to see the attachment.

We have made the decision to rollback points that users contributed through the nomination and voting stages. This will be done in the coming days - to all people whose bug is still open (i.e has not been developed and/or implemented).

All AltiumLive members are welcome to engage in the debates around Bugs & Ideas!

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3. License Usage Statistic now available on the Dashboard

Most of you would have been users of our My Altium Account website - which managed users and licenses. We have just moved the last of the functionality from that site into the AltiumLive. You can now see your License Usage Statistics in the Dashboard. There is the ability to view the usage by any given time period - just change the date filters.

To see this information go to the Licenses tab in Dashboard and click to view the details of each of the licenses.

 

Announcement: Update 24 for Altium Designer (Platform 27009)

Announcement: Update 24 for Altium Designer (Platform 27009)

This release focuses on bringing new FPGA and Embedded device support, including some PCB improvements, with the key highlights being:

Support for Cortex-M3 Discrete Processors

NXP LPC1000 series, STMicroelectronics STM32 and Texas Instruments Stellaris Cortex-M3 devices are now supported.

Support for SEGGER J-Link

Debugger support for SEGGER J-Link debug probe for ARM processors is now available.

FPGA Device Support

Support for Altera Arria2GX FPGAs is now available.

Software Platform Enhancements

This update now includes HTTP client, HTTP server and JSON services in addition to enhancements in the Tasking toolchains.

Full details of this update can be found in the release notes.

Accessing the Update

To update your Altium Designer installation, first ensure you are using a license with valid Subscription. Proceed to the Plug-in page (DXP >> Plug-ins and Updates) and select “Update All”. If you don’t see the update, use the “Refresh” link in the top right hand corner of the Plugins page. If you have issues with patching make sure you check your antivirus program.

Installation of the updated modules will bring their revision up to 10.1377.27009. The Platform Build number will also update to 10.1377.27009 as the Altium Designer Base module is updated.

Note: If you are using a Private Server license or Standalone license and you have renewed your Subscription since activation, you will be required to reactivate your license to obtain this and future updates.

For those who installed directly from DVD, you can access the updates by changing a setting in preferences: System >> Installation Manager, change the Remote Repository Location to http://installation.altium.com

If you are wanting to install a new build containing this update, the Installer and Uninstaller can be downloaded from the Software page in AltiumLive - download the latest Installer/Uninstaller.

 

Design Secret 53 - Using 3D Mechanical Models for Precise Component Creation

I'm happy to let you all know a new Design Secret video just went out. In this video, we show how if you have an accurate 3D model (preferably a STEP file from the component manufacturer) you can use snap points on features of the 3D body to make the placement and alignment of pads, mounting holes, and other features of the footprint... a snap!

Please watch and enjoy this new Design Secret video here.

Announcement: New Micron & Linear Technology Board-Level Libraries

The Altium Content Team has released new updates to the Vault and Content Store for November.

We're happy to announce the addition of Micron and Linear Technology as supported manufacturers in the Altium content space with new 10 new libraries being released - over 5600 components.

For Micron we have released SCH/PCB components for Memory DRAM and NOR Flash devices - 1641 components in all. Check out the Micron content here: Micron Memory DRAM/NOR Flash

In Linear Technology, we have kicked off our support with 3990 Operational Amplifier components - covering the whole Op Amp product category from Linear. Linear Technology Op Amps

Announcement: Update 23 for Altium Designer (23 Nov 2012, platform 26514)

Announcement: Update 23 for Altium Designer (23 Nov 2012, platform 26514)

 

Hi everyone,

I'm pleased to announce the 23rd update for Altium Designer.

This release brings additional enhancements to Altium Designer, and includes a new command in the PCB editor and PCB library editor to deselect objects by touching rectangle or touching line, as well as Polygon pour order management and PCB Rules dialog improvements. More updates to the FPGA device and vendor tools support and the Importers. For further details, refer to my blog and to the release notes in Wiki.

To update your Altium Designer installation, ensure you are using a license with valid Subscription, then go to the Plug-in page (DXP >> Plug-ins and Updates) and select “Update All”.

 

Updated PADS netlister script

Although the true power of Altium Designer comes from utilizing the entire unified flow, there are a handful of customers who, for various reasons, use just the schematic editor as a point tool. There are a number of netlisters available from the Design menu in schematic, including one for PADS. While the format of the resulting outputs is technically correct, it’s a bit out of date and there is usually some manual editing that needs to be done for PADS to recognize the files. A customer of mine wanted a more elegant solution to make it easier for his engineers to work in Altium while the layout team makes a slower transition from PADS over to Altium.

I found a netlisting script as part of the legacy “Scripts” folders that used to get installed in the “Examples” folder. Those scripts, incidentally, are now available on AltiumLive here. The original netlisting script is for Protel (in Scripts\Delphiscript Scripts\WSM\Protel Netlister). I made some formatting changes to it and now have a script that outputs a correctly-formatted, single PADS netlist in the current format (V9).

There are two ways to run the script that need some explaining. The current PADS netlister in Altium uses only the footprint to populate *Part* section:

*PART*
U1 FG456
U2 SOT95P280-5
U3 TSOP80P1176-44

However, PADS does not need the name of the footprint (decal) first, it needs the name of the Part with the footprint name following an @ sign:

*PART*
U1 XC3S1000-4FG456C@FG456
U2 SN74LVC1G04DBV@SOT95P280-5
U3 SRAM-256Kx16@TSOP80P1176-44

This script populates the Part field by pulling either Altium’s “Comment” field or the “Design Item ID” field. This gives the user a choice of what to use as the equivalent Part in PADS. In addition, the Comment field can be populated using "indirection," which will use one of the user-defined parameters instead. This allows the user to have a separate parameter (e.g, "PadsPartType") dedicated to the PADS Part name. (**Keep in mind that spaces are not allowed in the parameter name when indirection is used.) When the script is run, the user can choose which method to use to populate the Part field.

Another change with this script is that unlike the current netlister which creates two files (one for the parts section of the netlist and another for the nets), this will create one file with the proper .asc extension for immediate import to PADS. Because Altium does not recognize .asc as a netlist file, however, it will be placed in the “Text Documents” section of the Project panel, rather than “Netlist Files.” The file itself gets placed in the default Output Path folder.

The file header is set for PADS V9 (“!PADS-POWERPCB-V9.0-MILS! NETLIST FILE FROM ALTIUM DESIGNER). If the user requires an older format, a simple text replace in the script file (“ScripterPadsNetlist.pas”) will do the trick. Feel free to make any other edits you require.

Hope this helps some of you!

Design Secret - number 52 - How to make custom copper Thieving Patterns

Design Secret - number 52 - in which Senior Applications Engineer Colby Siemer shows us how to make custom copper Thieving Patterns.

Of course, you can make thieving patterns in the CAM editor - this has been possible for a while. But using Stitching Vias to do it instead creates a whole lot of new possibilities:

• Addition of just about any shape thieves
• Rotation of the thieves
• One-Time generation of outputs (rather than re-export from the CAM editor after they were added).

Click the link below to watch the video and let Colby show you how to do it. You may even learn other Global Editing Techniques along the way ;-)

Click here to watch.