Multi-Channel Support for Variants
This document is no longer available beyond version 16.0. Information can now be found here: Variant Support for Multi-channel Designs for version 24
Altium Designer's support for Variants allows the designer to create a single, base design, and then populate it in different ways, to create different products.
Originally, variant support allowed components to be defined as Fitted or Not Fitted, or individual components parameters to be varied. Altium Designer 14.3 saw the introduction of True Variants, that is, the ability to replace a base component with a completely different component, in a chosen variant. In Altium Designer 16 this has been extended again, with support for multi-channel designs.
Vary Components Across All Channels
Altium Designer 16 sees the introduction of support for varying a multi-channel design. Now, a variant can have components varied across all channels, including: being Fitted/Not FItted; specific parameters varied; or Alternate Parts chosen.
Vary Components Within a Specific Channel
There is even support for varying a component within a specific channel. At this stage this support includes: Fitted/Not Fitted, and parameters being varied.
Summary of Supported Variations
Variation Type | Applied to all Channels | Within a Specific Channel |
---|---|---|
Fitted/Not Fitted | Supported | Supported |
Varied Parameters | Supported | Supported |
Alternate Part | Supported | Not Supported |