Creating a Draftsman Template

Created: January 30, 2023 | Updated: January 30, 2023 | Applies to versions: 23 and 24

A Draftsman document can use document and sheet templates:

Document Templates – used to define the content of a new Draftsman document.
Sheet Templates – used to define page properties of a Draftsman document.

Some Draftsman document and sheet templates are provided by default in the following locations:

in the connected Workspace: within the Managed Content\Templates\Draftsman Templates\Document Templates and Managed Content\Templates\Draftsman Templates\Sheet Templates Workspace folders (if you opted to include Sample Data upon the activation/installation of your Workspace);
locally: within the Templates sub-folder in the Shared Documents folder of your Altium Designer installation (C:\Users\Public\Documents\Altium\AD<Version> for the default installation).

You can edit these default templates according to your requirements or create new ones as described below.

Creating a Workspace Draftsman Template

Creating a Workspace Draftsman Document Template

To create a new Draftsman document template in your connected Workspace:

Open the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog.
Select the Draftsman Document command from the menu of the Add button or the context menu of the template grid.
After selecting the command, click OK in the Close Preferences dialog that opens to close the Preferences dialog and open the temporary Draftsman editor. A planned revision of the new Draftsman document template will be created automatically in a Workspace folder of the Draftsman Templates type.
Define the content of the sheet template. The template supports multi-page documents, data for the main document attributes (tables and lists, drawing types, etc.), page settings and elements created by Draftsman that do not depend on the PCB's design content. A sheet template can be used to define the graphic format of a new or existing drawing document and is also saved as part of a document template.

An example of a Draftsman document template.

A multi-page Draftsman document might typically contain assembly drawings, drill tables and drawings, layer stack and BOM tables, and fabrication drawings. When saved as a Document Template, the data from the current PCB is retained to define a drawing content 'shell'.

A Draftsman document relies on a PCB document for context. To be able to define document options for a Workspace Draftsman Document Template while defining it, a virtual 6000x4000 mil PCB document is created to provide this context.
Save the template to the connected Workspace by selecting the File » Save to Server command from the main menus. The Edit Revision dialog will appear, in which you can define the Name and Description of the Draftsman Document Template Item being created in the Workspace and add release notes as required.

Any elements that are incompatible with the Document Template format will be removed. Before saving, an alert dialog will detail the pending action if incompatible elements exist.

When subsequently used as a template for a new Draftsman document, the project's current PCB data is loaded into the shell in place of the template PCB data, therefore, recreating the document format and its type of content.

Creating a Workspace Draftsman Sheet Template

To create a new Draftsman sheet template in your connected Workspace:

Open the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog.
Select the Draftsman Sheet command from the menu of the Add button or the context menu of the template grid.
After selecting the command, click OK in the Close Preferences dialog that opens to close the Preferences dialog and open the temporary Draftsman editor. A planned revision of the new Draftsman document template will be created automatically in a Workspace folder of the Draftsman Templates type.
Define the content of the sheet template. The templates can contain the graphics information for a page, including sheet sizes, parameters, and zones and border settings. Objects created with the editor's graphics tools (such as lines, rectangles, circles, and text) are also included – for example, a constructed title block and content.

An example of a Draftsman sheet template.

If using an automated sheet numeration parameter in a title block, note that two System types are supported for documents: the conventional SheetNumber parameter and the GOST compliant SheetNumber_OneSheet parameter. The latter will not report the current sheet number when only one sheet exists in the Draftsman document (as per the GOST 2.104-2006 drawing standard), and will otherwise deliver the same numbering as the SheetNumber parameter.
Save the template to the connected Workspace by selecting the File » Save to Server command from the main menus. The Edit Revision dialog will appear, in which you can define the Name and Description of the Draftsman Sheet Template Item being created in the Workspace and add release notes as required.

Any elements that are incompatible with the Sheet Template format will be removed. Before saving, an alert dialog will detail the pending action if incompatible elements exist.

A Draftsman sheet template can be applied to a Draftsman document page: learn more.

A Workspace Draftsman Document/Sheet Template can also be used as a configuration data item in one or more defined Environment Configurations. An environment configuration is used to constrain a designer's working environment to only use company-ratified design elements. Environment configurations are defined and stored within the Team Configuration Center – a service provided through the Workspace. Once you have connected to the Workspace, and chosen (if applicable) from the selection of environment configurations available to you, Altium Designer will be configured, with respect to use of Draftsman Document/Sheet Templates. If the chosen environment configuration has one or more defined Draftsman Document/Sheet Template Items, then only those defined definitions can be used. If the chosen environment configuration applicable to you does not have any Draftsman document/sheet template revisions specified/added, or is set to Do Not Control, then all available saved template revisions (shared with you) will be available (automatic reuse). If there are no saved revisions of Draftsman document/sheet templates in the Workspace, then you will be able to use local, file-based templates. For more information, see Environment Configuration Management (Altium 365 Workspace, Enterprise Server Workspace).

Saving an Existing Local Draftsman Template to the Workspace

If you have an existing Draftsman document/sheet template (*.DwfDot/*.DwsDot), you also have the ability to save this template directly to the Workspace. The process is as follows:

Open the template within Altium Designer.
Choose the File » Save to Server command from the main menus.

The file must be locally saved (File » Save) prior to saving to the Workspace.
The Choose Planned Item Revision dialog will appear. Use this to choose the target Draftsman Document/Sheet Template Item into the next revision (or an established revision in the Planned state) of which the sheet will be saved, then click OK.

If the target Draftsman Document/Sheet Template Item doesn't exist, you can create it through the Choose Planned Item Revision dialog on-the-fly in the chosen Workspace folder by right-clicking in the revision list region of the dialog (or, if the folder does not contain any item yet, by clicking the Add an item control) and selecting the Create Item » Draftsman Document Template / Draftsman Sheet Template command. If doing so, be sure to disable the Open for editing after creation option (in the Create New Item dialog), otherwise you'll enter direct editing mode.
The Edit Revision dialog will appear, in which you can define Name, Description, and add release notes as required.
After clicking OK, the template will be saved and stored in the revision of the Item.

You can also create a new Workspace Draftsman document/sheet template using the Load from File command from the menu of the Add button or the Add context menu of the template grid on the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog. In the Open dialog (a standard Windows open-type dialog) that opens, select the Draftsman Document File (*.DwfDot) / Draftsman Sheet File (*.DwsDot) option in the drop-down at the right of the File name field and use the dialog to browse to, and open, the required file that will be uploaded into the initial revision of the new Draftsman Document/Sheet Template Item created automatically in a Workspace folder of the Draftsman Templates type.
If the required Draftsman document/sheet template to be saved to the Workspace resides in the Local Template folder (defined at the bottom of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog) and is listed under the Local entry of the template grid, it can be migrated to a new Draftsman Document/Sheet Template Item by right-clicking on it and selecting the Migrate to Server command. Click the OK button in the Template migration dialog to proceed with the migration process – as stated in this dialog, the original template file will be added to a Zip archive in the local template folder (and hence it will not be visible under the Local template list).

Editing a Workspace Draftsman Template

At any stage, you can come back to a Draftsman document/sheet template in the Workspace and edit it. From the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog, right-click on the template entry and choose the Edit command from the context menu. The temporary Draftsman editor will open, with the template contained in the revision opened for editing. Make changes as required, then save the document into the next revision of the Draftsman document/sheet template.

If you need to update a Workspace Draftsman document/sheet template and you have the updated Draftsman document/sheet template file, you can upload that file to that Workspace template. From the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog, right-click on the template entry and choose the Upload command from the context menu. Use the Open dialog (a standard Windows open-type dialog) that opens to browse to, and open, the required file that will be uploaded into the next revision of the Workspace Draftsman document/sheet template.

Creating a Local Draftsman Template

A local Draftsman sheet/document template can also be created by saving the Draftsman document (*.PCBDwf) that is currently open in the editor as one of the template types.

When the required Draftsman document is the active document, select the File » Save Copy As or File » Save As command from the main menus. In the Save dialog that appears, browse to the local templates folder for your installation of Altium Designer (defined in the Local Templates folder field at the bottom of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog; C:\Users\Public\Documents\Altium\AD<Version> for the default installation), enter the desired name of the template and select Altium Draftsman Sheet Templates (*.DwsDot) or Altium Draftsman Document Templates (*.DwfDot) from the Save as type drop-down.

As with other Altium Designer documents (schematic, PCB, etc.), the Save As command will replace the existing source file in the project structure (in this case, a Draftsman drawing document) with the newly saved file (a Draftsman template document). The source document (*.PCBDwf) is not deleted from the project folder on disk.

A better approach is to use the Save Copy As option, which will save the new template to the nominated directory while keeping the source document (and project contents) intact.

Local Draftsman templates will be listed on the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog, in the Local region of the grid (visible only if the Template visibility option is set to Server & Local on this page).

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