Announcement: Altium Designer 13.3

We are pleased to provide you with the third update of Altium Designer 2013. You can choose to update your existing installation or use the AD13 Installer (download here).

This update brings a lot of general improvements and fixes based on recent feedback.

Some highlights of this release

ActiveBOM enhancements including currency selection, automatic ranking of solutions, Variant support through an OutJob file and improved supplier part choice searching.

Expressions can now be used to define the names of output folders in OutJob files.

PCB editor enhancements including the arc center point is now included as a movable hot spot and initiating the Differential Pair Routing command no longer highlights only differential pairs.

The Schematic Editors now support Unicode text, allowing any combination of characters, irrespective of current locale.

PADS and P-CAD schematic importer improvements including option to generate net labels for hidden net names.

Additional Schematic Power Object drawing styles to comply with GOST standards.

See the What's New and Release Notes for a comprehensive listing of all the fixes and enhancements.

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.

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 download the Vaults or install a new build of Altium Designer, the Installers can be downloaded from the Downloads page.

 

Announcement: Microchip, Texas Instruments and Content Requests

The Content Team has been busy developing new component libraries throughout May - in this announcement, we see the launch of TI Amplifiers & Linear support with a wide range of Op Amps, and we finally bring our Microchip 8-bit PIC coverage into line for 2013...

From Texas Instruments we have released the first Operational Amplifier libraries covering General Purpose Amplifiers (1448) and High Speed (1100). A total of 2548 new components, all available in the Altium Content Vault and as Design Content libraries available here. We have opted to release TI Op Amps as three main collections, General Purpose, High Speed and Precision Amplifiers. The 4500+ components from Precision will follow in the next release.

• Texas Instruments General Purpose Amplifiers

• Texas Instruments High Speed Amplifiers

For Microchip, we catch up on our coverage of PIC 8-bit microcontrollers, revising PIC10, PIC12, PIC16 and PIC18 collections. A total of 2620 new components released including most of the latest F devices - but please note, source data for this particular release was captured a couple months back, so there’s a follow up in the pipeline and we will address any recently released devices then. If there’s a particular new product that you want to see in the libraries sooner - we’d be happy to hear about it!

• Microchip PIC10

• Microchip PIC12

• Microchip PIC16

• Microchip PIC18

New Content Request Form

The new ‘Content Request Form’ went live during May, and we’ve already seen a flurry of requests. Thanks for taking the time! - we’re processing as many of them into our schedule as possible. You can find the new request form here.

We are also monitoring comments across the Design Content space, and aim to greatly improve the dialog there - please continue to leave your comments.

All component families from this release, along with the rest of our growing collection, can be found under Unified Components in the Design Content section of the website. You can also place these components directly from within Altium Designer via the Vault Explorer - where you will also find live supplier links and pricing information from suppliers such as Digi-Key, Farnell/Newark, Mouser and more - connect to the Altium Content Vault to explore further.

 

Altium will be at DAC for the first time in a long time!

If you are visiting DAC, or just in Austin during the conference, come by and see us, and ask the booth staff for a demo of the new features and tools with Altium Designer and the Altium Vault Server.

If you are attending the conference, make sure you visit our exhibitor page on the DAC web site at http://dac13.mapyourshow.com/5_0/exhibitor_details.cfm?exhid=ALTIUM and click the plus-sign to add Altium's booth to your show map.

Show Hours:
Monday, June 3 9:00am - 6:00pm

Tuesday, June 4 9:00am - 6:00pm

Wednesday, June 5 9:00am - 6:00pm

For more information about the Design Automation Conference visit http://www.DAC.com.

Design Secret 56 - Importing Outlined Logos and Shapes using DXF format.

I'm very pleased to introduce to you Max Clemons, one of our AE's on the US support team.

In this video Max shows us a neat and tidy process for bringing logos, RF geometries and other shapes, into the PCB editor and library editor, from vector imaging tools using the DXF file format.

This applies to RF shapes developed in field solvers such as CST or uWave Office and others, equally to logos and company graphics developed in AutoCAD or Adobe Illustrator - all these tools provide the ability to export vectored designs in DXF which Altium Designer can use to bring them into your designs, templates, or components.

Watch and enjoy this video here: http://altiumvideos.live.altium.com/#Detail/1223/True

Announcement: Altium Designer 13.2 available (10 May 2013)

We are pleased to provide you with the second update of Altium Designer 2013. You can choose to update your existing installation or use the AD13 Installer (download here).

This update includes some long awaited features, lots of enhancements and the continuation of performance and stability fixes.

Some highlights of this release

ActiveBOM

ActiveBOM is a new tool that facilitates real-time cost estimation and tracking for a board design, by giving the designer a clear picture of cost and availability of all items associated with that design. Also see ActiveBOM FAQ for detailed insights and answers to common questions.

Live Drill Drawing Table

A WYSIWYG live drill table that dynamically updates in real-time, as hole-containing objects such as pads and vias are placed on and removed from the PCB design.

PCB Design View

A specific, scalable view that allows the designer to place a snapshot of any rectangular shaped region of the current board, or another board, anywhere within the workspace.

Define Output Filenames using Expressions

Support for user-defined output filenames using a concatenation of special strings and user-defined project parameters.

Vault-based Simulation Models

Bringing support for defining and releasing simulation models to an Altium Vault. A simulation model is defined within a SimModel file (*.SimModel) on the design-side, and linked to a Simulation Model Item within a target vault.

Enhanced Vault Searching

The Vault search feature has been substantially upgraded, with the introduction of Grouping, Column-based filtering, and a powerful Filter panel.

A new Altium Vault Server and Personal Vault installation is also required to take advantage of these improvements. See Upgrading to Version 1.1 for important information about upgrading your existing AVS.

 

AD13 new update ?!

We are in the final stages of the 13.2 beta and planning the public release during the coming week. We have also made good progress with the runtime error 216 on exit and we are looking forward to getting this update into the hands of our of wider user community.

Showcase Reference Designs

Category :

http://contentstore.live.altium.com/#ReferenceDesignDetail/Scripting_System

 

Example Scripts

Description

Altium Designer contains a powerful scripting system which offers access to system components, user interface, Schematic and PCB objects and more, to allow users to add additional functionality and automate tasks which are uniqie to their designs and business processes. Altium Designer projects included in this download:

• DelphiScript Scripts

DXP Platform Scripts

• Client Server Interface Report
• DXP Version Unit
• Extract Files From IntLibs
• IntLib Search Demo
• Open A Document
• Report IntLib Data
• Report PCB Views
• Server Process Report
• Setting a Document to be "Dirty"

FPGA Scripts

• Pin Swap IDs Updater

General Scripts

• Hello World
• INI File Example
• Mandlebrot
• MultiMedia Player
• Using Modal Forms and Dialogs
• Sine wave
• Text File Convert
• Tic Tac Toe
• Update Time
• Zipper

PCB Scripts

• Board Outline Copier
• Create Regions From Bitmap
• Footprint Finder
• From-Tos Generator
• Hole Size Editor
• Mill Exporter
• PCB Class Generator
• PCB Iterators Example
• PCB Layers
• PCB Logo Creator
• PCB Objects Mover
• PCB Outputs
• PCB Rules
• PCBLIB Outputs
• Swap or Rotate Components
• Unique Object Checker
• Unroute Net Class
• Values Checker

Process Script Examples

• Circuit Wizard
• Clear Inside
• Clear Inside (with Confirmation)
• Import Waveforms
• PCB Color
• PCB Layer
• Place PCB Polygon
• Place Schematic Port
• Publish to PDF
• Quick Copy
• Run Command prompt Dialog
• Show Net List
• Simple Process Script Example

Schematic Scripts

• CirCAD Translator
• Replace a Component
• Connectivity
• Font Editor
• Import Pins
• Update Footprint Library Paths
• User Defined Parameters
• Add a Model to a Component
• Check Pins
• Component Library Reader
• Count Ports
• Create a Component In a Library
• Create a Component Directly on Schematic
• Create Schematic Objects
• Delete Schematic Objects
• Fetch Parameters
• Fetch Component Parameters
• Align Pins
• Iterate Schematic Sheets
• Library Iterator
• Models Of A Component
• Modify Schematic Objects
• Move Parameters
• Parameters of Symbols in a Library
• Parent and Child Iterators
• Place a Port
• Place Schematic Objects
• Replace a Schematic Object
• Schematic Documents Renamer
• Simulation Models of Components
• Symbol Primitives Iterator
• Undo and Redo
• Using a Spacial Iterator
• Using Schematic Interfaces
• Using Workspace Manager Interfaces

Workspace Manager Scripts

• Export to Agile
• Protel Netlister
• Add a Document to a Project
• Netlister
• Project Reporter
• Using the Messages Panel
• EnableBasic Scripts
  • Circuit Wizard
  • Clear Inside
  • Clear Inside (with Confirmation)
  • PCB Color
  • PCB Layer
  • Place Schematic Port
  • Quick Copy
• JScript Scripts
  • Add a Document to a Project
  • Built-In Functions
  • Copy Board Outline
  • Get Script Engine Info
  • Hello World!
  • Parent and Child Iterators
  • Server Process Report
  • Sine wave
  • PCB via creation
• Query Language Scripts
  • Using Scripts in the Filter Panel
• VB Scripts
  • Add a Document to a Project
  • Copy Board Outline
  • Get Script Engine Info
  • Hello World!
  • Parent and Child Iterators
  • Server Process Report
  • Sine wave
  • PCB via creation