WorkspaceManager_Cmd-ShowPCBReleaseViewShowPCBReleaseView_AD

Applied Parameters: None

Summary

This command is used to access the PCB Release view. This is the user interface to Altium Designer's PCB Process Manager, and command central for releasing a configuration of a board design. Altium Designer provides powerful, high-integrity board design release management. The release process is automated, enabling you to release your design projects or, more specifically, defined configurations of those projects, without the risks associated with manual release procedures.

Access

This command can be accessed from any editor by:

• Choosing the View » PCB Release View command, from the main menus.
• Clicking the  button on the editor's Standard toolbar.
• Choosing the Project » Design Workspace » PCB Release View command, from the main menus.
• In the Projects panel, clicking the Workspace button and choosing the PCB Release View command from the context menu.

Use

After launching the command, the PCB Release view will become the active document view in the main design window. This view presents a high-level 'Dashboard' that operates in two modes:

• Design Mode – for controlling and managing the Board-Level design process. Here you can run validations and generate outputs as needed, and in any order, 'testing the waters' as it were, to ensure all is as it should be, prior to initiating the actual release of the intended configuration.
• Release Mode – for initiating releases of PCB Project configurations. This is where the high-integrity release process is performed, taking the specified configuration of the design project and processing it to obtain the data required to physically produce the revision of the Item referenced by it.

With the PCB Release view in Release Mode, initiating the release is an automated affair, kicked off by pressing a single button. The process consists of several stages run in sequence – a process flow if you like:

• Checkout Snapshot – a snapshot of the data, including dependencies, is checked out from the applicable Design Repository (where applicable).
• Validate Design – all defined validation output generators, defined in an Output Job file assigned to the configuration being released, are run. This includes running any of:
  • Differences Report – using the comparator to determine if the source and PCB design documents are correctly in-sync.
  • Electrical Rules Check – checking the electrical/drafting validity of the captured source design.
  • Design Rules Check – checking the validity of the PCB document in relation to specified board-level design constraints.
  • Footprint Comparison Report – comparing footprints on the board against their source library to ensure they are up-to-date, and matched.
  • Environment Configuration Compliance Check – checking that only data items permitted through the environment configuration available for use by your assigned role (if applicable), are being used. This check can also ensure that all design items are sourced from an Altium Vault.
  • Component States Check - checking that the design is not using components that are in restricted states.
• Generate Outputs – all other defined outputs in the assigned Output Job file(s) are run. These are the outputs that drive the release of the target Item, the instructions from which the physical Item will be produced to exist as a tangible product which can be bought and sold.
• Commit Release – pushing the generated outputs and validated design document snapshot into the defined new revision (planned revision) of the target Item, stored in the nominated Altium Vault (if applicable).

All stages in the process flow must run successfully, otherwise the release will fail and no data will be committed to the new Item Revision in the vault. As the process is fully automated, the risk of errors associated with a manual release process are no longer a consideration. Full validation, full checking. The data set for use by the supply chain is exactly what it needs to be, to produce the product exactly as you designed it.

Tips

1. For detailed information about the PCB Release view and how it is used, see Releasing a Design with the PCB Release View.
2. For a tutorial-like walk-through of the release process, see A Walk Through the Board Design Release Process.