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Altium Designer – Getting Started

Last updated: 1/25/16, John Miller, Altium Designer 14.3

Creating a project and circuit schematic

1. Select Start All Programs CAD Altium Designer

2. If this is the first time you are opening it or the first time on a new computer, click the DXP icon

in the upper left, and choose Preferences. Under Schematic Graphical Editing, check the box

for Always Drag. This means that wires connected to a component will move with the

component when you drag it. Click OK.

3. Select File New Project…. The dialog below will appear. Choose PCB Project for the

Project Type and <Default> for the Project Template. Type a name in the Name box, and click

the Browse Location… button to choose a location in which to save your project. Select Create

Project Folder to have Altium create a folder with the project name in the location you specify.

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4. You will now have a blank project and need to add a schematic page to it. Using the Baylor

template is recommended. For this, click the Files tab and then Schematic Templates….

Browse to the location of the “BU_ANSI_A.SchDot” template and click Open.

Your instructor may provide this file or it can be found here (as of this writing):

\\ada\group\Production\PCB-Documents\Altium Design Files\Altium files

5. Click the Projects tab. Make sure that your new schematic was added to your project (see

below). If not, click and drag it to the project name. Once done, save your schematic & project.

It is recommended that you change the default name of the schematic (e.g. name it

“Lab04_Sheet1.SchDoc”).

WRONG! CORRECT!

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6. You are almost ready to start drawing your circuit. Click the Libraries button on the far right.

This will open the Library toolbar where you can search for parts and add new part libraries if

needed.

7. Click the first drop down arrow to view the installed libraries (red arrow below). You should

have at least the “Miscellaneous Devices” and “Simulation Sources” libraries installed. If not,

click the Libraries… button at the top (green arrow below).

8. If you have those libraries, skip this step. If not, then you will see the following dialog. Be sure

you are on the Installed tab. If you have libraries listed (as shown below), make sure the

Activated box is checked for each of them. If not, you may have to do one of the following:

a. Change the main Library Path (red arrow) to something similar as shown below

b. Install libraries from another location (green arrow), choose Install from file…

(see next page)

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9. Once you have the necessary libraries installed, you can begin selecting and placing parts (or

components). Select the “Miscellaneous Devices” library from the drop down menu. In the box

just below that (should have a “*” in it), type “RES”. This will list only parts that begin with the

letters “RES”. The part we want is “Res1”, a generic resistor.

Note: You can see more of the list by dragging the dividers between each window within the

dialog.

Type here

Drag here

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10. Double-click on “Res1” in the list and move your cursor over your schematic. BEFORE you click

to place it, press Tab. This will bring up the Properties dialog box for that part. You can now

change the Designator from “R?” to “R1”. Making this change before placing the part allows

Altium to automatically increment Designator number (i.e. after placing this resistor, the next

one will automatically change to “R2”). Click OK.

11. Place two resistors on your schematic. You will notice that the Designator automatically

updates to “R2” for the second one.

12. Click on R2 (the part, not the text). Press Spacebar to rotate it 90 degrees. (This also works

while placing parts.)

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13. We need to add a source and a ground node identifier. When simulating, all voltages are

computed with respect to this node (we call it “ground”).

Sources are found in the “Simulation Sources” library. Return to the Libraries dialog, choose

that library, delete the “RES” that you typed earlier, and find the “VSRC” component. Double-

click to select it for placement, then press Tab to open its Properties. Update the Designator to

“V1” and type “5V” for the Value parameter (red arrow). Check the Visible box next to Value

(green arrow) so that value is displayed on your schematic.

14. To add a ground node identifier(s), click the GND Power Port symbol on the toolbar.

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15. Now you can wire your components together. The shortcut for placing a wire is Place Wire (P,

W). You should now have the following.

Note: If desired, you could change the values of the resistors by double-clicking on the text that

says “1k”. This also works for the VSRC part if you made the Value visible.

16. Labeling wires (or “nets”) is very helpful for building schematics for two reasons:

a. It improves the readability of the circuit because wires with the same name are

automatically connected together, so you don’t have to draw as many wires.

b. It makes the simulation results easier to understand because plots are labeled with

those same names (vs a default name, like “NetR1_2”).

In Altium, wire names are called “net labels.” To place them, the shortcut is Place Net Label (P,

N). (You might remember this better by thinking “place name”.) BEFORE placing the name,

press Tab to change it. Label as shown below. You are now ready to simulate.

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Common Mistakes – Avoid These!

Wrong Right

Deleting the “Designator” or “Value”

from a part

Wiring across a part

Not connecting wires that need to be (Note: right vs. wrong this depends on the circuit you are

trying to create.)

Wires Not Connected Wires Connected

Common schematic editor shortcuts – Use These!

Rotate part – spacebar

Place wire – P, W

Place net label – P, N

Place text string – P, T

Next Steps

If you want to do a basic DC simulation of your circuit, read the section below. For more advanced

simulation options, see the tutorial: Altium - Simulation Tutorial.

If you want to create a PCB, see the tutorial: Altium - PCB Tutorial Abbreviated

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DC Simulation

17. Click the Setup Mixed-Signal Simulation icon (red arrow) on the simulation toolbar (or go to

Design Simulate Mixed Sim). You can make the toolbar appear by going to View

Toolbars Mixed Sim.

18. The following dialog appears. Your values for the fields Collect Data for and Sheets to Netlist

should be the same as below by default. Set the SimView Setup option to Show active signals

(red arrow). Under Available Signals, select IN, OUT, and all of the R1 and R2 signals, then click

the arrow (green arrow) to move them to the Active Signals list. Click OK.

19. Click the Run Mixed Signal Simulation icon on the toolbar (green arrow) or press F9 (shortcut).

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20. You should get a listing of the DC values for the signals that you specified. This is the Operating

Point tab.

Other Helpful Points

Part Pin Numbers

21. Note that r2[i] is negative. This is NOT because the current is flowing backward in that component and forward in R1, but rather because we’ve switched the direction of R2 compared to R1. Each pin of a component is labeled as 1, 2, 3, etc. When building the circuit, we rotated the component such that pin 2 was on top and pin 1 on bottom, thus the current is entering pin 2, leaving pin 1, and shows up negative on the output listing. To show pin numbers, double click on R2 to bring up the Properties dialog. Check the box for “Show All Pins On Sheet (Even if Hidden)” in the lower left.

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This will display the pin numbers on the schematic (as shown on left below).

22. Pull the wires away and then rotate R2 so that pin 1 is on top (as shown at right above). Re-run the simulation. The current value will now be positive.

Netlist File A netlist is a text-format list of the components and connections in your schematic (and sometimes includes your simulation settings). It can sometimes be helpful in troubleshooting your schematics.

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23. While looking at your schematic, go to Design Netlist for Document XSpice. This will start the process of generating a netlist, but the first thing that appears is your simulation settings. Don’t change anything, simply click OK.

24. The netlist file has now been generated but does not automatically open. Under the Projects tab in the left-hand sidebar, expand the files under your project. Expand Generated and AdvancedSim Netlists. Your file will be there (red arrow) with a .nsx extension.