Version control systems provide an ideal method for managing and controlling access to electronic documents. Altium Designer 6.3 brings library management and version control together with the new version-controlled database libraries. Version-controlled database libraries are an extension of Altium Designer’s database libraries, a type of library where components are placed directly from a company database.

The new version-controlled database libraries offer:

• Ease of use; all Altium Designer library components are placed directly from the Libraries panel –component data is read directly from the company database, with the referenced symbol and footprint being placed from the version control repository (Subversion).
• When you click to place a component from the Libraries panel, the component status is checked and if the symbol or footprint are not the latest then they are automatically updated from the repository.
• A new Library type, *.SVNDBLib has been added. The SVNDBLib library file is added to the Libraries panel and components placed directly from there (the same as the standard database libraries, *.DBLib).
• A new Wizard has been added to help restructure libraries for version control, converting multi-component libraries into single model (symbol, footprint, 3d model) files, ready for adding to the Subversion repository. Storing each model in its own file is more appropriate for version-controlled sources.
• Altium Designer models that are stored in the repository can be edited directly from Altium Designer and the updated model checked back into the repository.
• A detailed physical difference check can be performed between revisions of a model, directly from within Altium Designer.