Altium Designer - update schematics change to PCB

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ericvic

Joined: 22 Oct 2009
Posts: 7
Location: USA

23 Oct 2009 7:54 Altium Question

I am trying out Altium Designer Summer 09 to see if I want to switch from Eagle.

I have look at many of the training videos on Altium's site and read some of the docs. So far I really like the interface but one thing that that I would potentially like to change is having to perform an ECO to update the PCB if I make a change in the schematic.

In Eagle if you make a change on the schematic the PCB automatically reflects that change but in Altium you have to tell it to update the PCB. I'm sure there is a good reason but it is strange to me.

Can someone tell me why it is good to have to tell Altium to perform the update?
And is there a way to turn that off and have it update automatically?

Thanks,
Eric

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ssankurathri

Joined: 16 Mar 2006
Posts: 111
Helped: 6

23 Oct 2009 12:47 Re: Altium Question

hi
it is good to tell altium to update the pcb, coz every time we can check what changes we made exactly on the schematic and the consistency between the pcb and schematic will perfectly work out.
for simple designs it may not be problem.
but for large design with several hundreds of components, it is difficult to check if a component on schematic is removed by mistake. Now, the pcb update inform those inconsistencies before going further.
hope this info. helps u.

regards

ericvic

Joined: 22 Oct 2009
Posts: 7
Location: USA

23 Oct 2009 18:16 Altium Question

That makes sense for large designs. Most of my designs are pretty small though but I'm sure I will get used to it in time.

ericvic

Joined: 22 Oct 2009
Posts: 7
Location: USA

24 Oct 2009 3:29 Altium Question

Another question.

How do you setup default design rules to be applied to any new PCB designed. I know where I can set the design rules for a particular PCB but in Eagle I could load a set of rules in the DRC dialog but I don't see how to do that in Altium.

Thanks,
Eric

Anonymous_Ricky

Joined: 26 Dec 2006
Posts: 214
Helped: 18

26 Oct 2009 12:27 Altium Question

In altium also you can import the Design rules for that you have to open DRC dialog and use RMC to open the pop up for the import or export rules option.

ssankurathri

Joined: 16 Mar 2006
Posts: 111
Helped: 6

26 Oct 2009 12:44 Re: Altium Question

hi ricky,

I started using altium for simulating my designs. can we interface altium with matlab or simulink? coz the graphical features for simulating designs are not so good. i mean to say the CRO options, switch options which we usually find in other ECAD tools like multisim etc are not available in altium.

Regards
skr

ericvic

Joined: 22 Oct 2009
Posts: 7
Location: USA

26 Oct 2009 19:20 Re: Altium Question

Anonymous_Ricky wrote:

In altium also you can import the Design rules for that you have to open DRC dialog and use RMC to open the pop up for the import or export rules option.

Great, that is what I needed.

Eric