Knowledge Base

Our Knowledge base is developed from our users questions. Find answers and step-by-step instructions. Chances are we’ve seen your question before.

Importing your company logo into a PCB document

How to import your company logo from a bitmap file (.BMP) into your PCB document.

Updating schematic component footprints from the PCB Document.

For designs where the footprints in the PCB do not match the footprint configured in the schematic component, this will show you how to get them in sync.

How to control the Designator location in Schematic Library

Component designator and comment can be made visible in the documents options of a schematic library.

Altium 365 Data Cleanup

How to remove all objects related to components, projects, templates, etc.

Sharing Projects to Members Outside of the Organization Without Invitation to Workspace

Managed Projects to be edited by outside users needed to be invited to workspace, but not with the new update.

Changing Owner of an Altium 365 Workspace

Only through internal request to Altium's DevOps Team

Error access A365 - You do not have a valid subscription for Altium Designer

When trying to access A365 Workspace and received this error message: You do not have a valid subscription for Altium Designer (Expired at 1-Jan-2000). Subscription is required for Altium Designer to work with an Altium 365 workspace.

Accessing A365 Managed Project GIT Repository Outside of Altium Designer

Is it possible to access the A365 git repository through a commandline without opening Altium?

Variant - Schematic - Project level parameters

Note of project priority when used in conjunction with special strings at various levels of your project files. How are same named parameters resolved?

3D Bodies missing from PCB 3D View

Why are 3D bodies missing from 3D layout mode?

Copying Circuit Selection From One Project to Another

What is the best method if I want to transfer a section of a schematic circuit and the associated layout from an existing project to another project?

How to group panels in tabbed mode when they are in fractal mode?

I want a panel to be tabbed with other panels that appear just above it. No amount of dragging will group it in tabbed mode. Why doesn't it stay where I put it?

Active Bar how to disable or customize

Active Bar can only be disabled, not customized

Unable to open *.DRL file in Altium

*.DRL generated by the CAM Editor is in ASCII Format and readable. The best practice is to always provide your Fabricator with the .TXT generated from the PCB Editor, and ignore the *.DRL generated by the PCB Editor.

How to access the Content Vault in the Explorer panel?

In Altium Designer 20 the Content Vault is not accessible via the Explorer panel per default. This article describes how you can make the Content Vault accessible via the Explorer panel again.

Signing Into A365 within Altium Designer

Signing into and Connecting to Altium 365 from within Altium Designer

Edit Components in Altium 365

Working with and editing managed components with Altium 365

Connection to Altium 365 is Lost While Working

It is possible that connection may be lost to the Altium 365 platform while working due to a number of reasons; ie. service provider outage, server outage, temporary disconnects. This Article discusses how this is handled from the server perspective.

Re-adding a project to the A365 workspace

How to re-add a project to the A365 workspace. If the project has been already deleted from the workspace but you want to re-release the project back to the workspace, we need to remove the links from the previous release to the workspace to allow for the re-release to be available.

Enabling VCS of an Uploaded A365 Project

A previously released project may not have utilized the built-in VCS of Altium 365. This article discusses how to add the project to the built-in VCS of Altium 365 after it has been released.

Thermal Relief Connections for Custom Pads

How to create Thermal Relief Connections between Polygons and Custom pads.

Remove Solder Mask and Paste Mask from PCB Pads

How to remove the Solder Mask / Paste Mask from a Pad

How to import allegro binary file brd to Altium

Importing Allegro binary brd file into Altium

Custom Pad Creation - Multiple Pad to Single Pin

Custom Pad Creation instructions, as well as explanation of single schematic pin assigning net to multiple PCB Pads with same designator

Configure and Animate the bending of a PCB that is entirely Flex

Configuring and Animating the bending of a PCB that is entirely Flex

3D placement

How to place the 3D Model precisely over the footprint in PcbLib

Library Migrator to Altium 365

Migrating File-Based libraries to Altium 365 workspaces

Can you set Electrical Clearance in the Design Rules for the Route Tool Path

Route Tool Path is defined on Mechanical layer, how can I define clearance to this path?

Rollback entire SVN Repository

When there is an issue with the current revision of the repository, there is a method on how to rollback to a previous revision.

Connection Lines on PCB - Rats nest display

How do I control the display of Rats nest on my PCB, I want to show or hide them

Why am I seeing different designators in my schematic?

This article summarizes how to remove board annotation if it was accidentally added to your project, or if it is no longer wanted.

Numbering Sheets in Multi-channel

What are the steps and requirements to number my sheets in a multi-channel design?

Is 3D view of a Cavity in PCB possible?

I would like to display my component in 3D while it is placed within a cavity, is this possible?

Convert a Fill or Region into a Polygon

When I try to create a polygon from the outline of overlapping shapes using Fills and Regions it does not work.

Compile Error: Duplicate Net Names(Multi-Channel, Bus)

Duplicate Net Name on Multichannel design, but buses look to be properly formed. How do I fix this?

I am getting a Validation Error on my Project Schematics what does this mean

When validating schematics in a Project, various messages can be generated by the compiler. Please review the list of messages provided here for more information

Software Compliance

Account is flagged for Software Compliance

Subscription Expired on License

Receiving a Subscription Expired message, but I am sure it was renewed. How do I check and fix this?

My Update button is greyed out - Trying to update Altium Designer

There is an update Available for Altium Designer, but my update button is greyed out. How can I update?

How do I reset the Altium Designer configuration to the installation defaults?

Reset the configuration of Altium Designer.

Altium Designer is not informing me of updates or allowing me to install them

When installing with the Offline Installer, online activity is disabled and 'greyed out'. Including the ability to check for and install updates. This is how you turn it back on.

PCB Why do I see Designator overlaid on my extra designators?

Special Strings Display - You toggle the display of the Special Strings overlay within the View Configuration panel, go to the View Options Tab and toggle the visibility of Special Strings.

Cannot delete Layer from Layerstack

This article describes a couple of scenarios in a Pcb document that can prevent layer deletion in the Layer Stack Manager.