Sharing the design beyond R&D
New product innovation and development – that somewhat intangible process of taking a loose idea and transforming it into great products – is what puts a glint in the eyes of any developer. But bringing a new electronic product to market requires more than just an engineering design team. There is a host of other people involved – many of whom need timely access to information about the design.
Purchasing needs information about what to buy, production engineering needs to work out how to build it, test engineering needs to know how to verify it, marketing needs to understand what makes this their next killer product, and the field repair team need to know how to fix it in the unlikely event that it needs a service call.
To differing degrees, they all need access to the electronic design data. Altium Designer 6 delivers this access across your entire organization in a variety of ways. In this article we’ll examine two of them – the Smart PDF feature and the free Altium Designer Viewer Edition.
Smarter PDF files
Smart PDFs include bookmarks to sheets, components and nets in the design
PDF format is the preferred method of sharing design documents such as schematics and PCB layouts. PDFs are compact, portable files that can be opened with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, giving access to everyone who needs it. In Altium Designer, PDF generation has been taken to a new level and tailored specifically to meet the needs of electronic product development.
PDF generation from Altium Designer 6 is built-in, so no external programs are required and the process couldn’t be simpler. A Smart PDF Wizard walks you through the entire process. By building PDF generation directly into the unified Altium Designer environment we make it easy to share your design data throughout the development process and to package the data into an easily-navigable form.
For example, the PDF file that you generate is based on the project, so a single PDF file can include one, a chosen few, or all schematic sheets in the design. It can also include a printout of the board layout, configured to include only those layers you need.
The Smart PDF Wizard also allows you to include bookmarks to sheets, components and nets in the design. Schematic sheet bookmarks reflect the design hierarchy. Component and net bookmarks give direct access to the selected component or net in the schematic or the PCB – simply click to zoom and show it. Being fully navigable, Smart PDFs are ideal for a design review, or the service technician.
View the detail in the design
The Viewer Edition includes all of Altium Designer’s design inspection and review capabilities, but does not allow modifying or saving documents.
For situations where more detailed information is needed about the design, the free Viewer Edition of Altium Designer is the answer.
The viewer gives true read-only access to any Altium Designer document. As well as opening, viewing and printing documents, you can examine the properties of any design object. This could range from checking the parameters in a schematic component, to reviewing the contents of specific layers on the board, to examining the PCB design rules. Since the files cannot be modified, the viewer is ideal for anyone involved in the product development cycle who needs detailed information about the design but must not be able to modify it, such as the production, test, or CAM engineer.
All of Altium Designer’s powerful design inspection and review features are available in the Viewer Edition, such as the Board Insight lens, the object Inspector and the List panel, plus you retain the ability to generate reports and printouts.
Sharing success
The combination of Smart PDF and a free Altium Designer Viewer Edition provides a comprehensive and versatile platform on which to build team collaboration within and between organizations. Better collaboration leads to a streamlined progression from design through to prototype and production and less mistakes late in the design cycle. This ensures you get your innovative idea to market as quickly and cost-effectively as possible, giving it the best possible chance of success.