5 Design Tools to Help Your PCB Design Project

Translating your big idea in an efficient way is perhaps the magic mix in engineering. This is the place many people fall and many people accelerate their journey. The concept of putting what is in your head into the real world is not as easy as it may sound. This is the endeavor that takes years until it is in the form that can be presented.

Designers mostly succumb to the incompetence of the designer software but the story of Altium designer is quite the contrary. This software gives an edge to you due to the worthwhile features it holds.

Altium homepage screenshot

Designers witness a major freeze in the succession of their project when they have to collect multiple designer tools in creating the design. They jump from one software to another. Also, not all software has all the possible required features installed in them, so for performing even the meekest of function, they have to switch between software where making the output of one software compatible as the input of the subsequent software backbreaking. These minor things consume major gulps of your limited time and in the end, most designers are all over the place.

Altium is a comprehensive software which has all the necessary tools patched in one interface. It is your complete CAD software for PCB design. Here are five tools which are the prerequisite for your PCB Design Project which is present in Altium Software.

1. Altium’s Schematic Editor

Altium has a schematic editor which has the power of catering most complex designs. Hundreds of levels of hierarchy can be dealt in Altrium that too with swiftness. The software is built in a way to take huge projects and it does not freeze or take huge times in rendering and saving the project. Even the output files are generated instantly.

2. Altium Active Route

The best thing about this tool is that gives you full control over the router. You can have different router potential for different projects and even deviate the power in between a single project. This tool has the tendency of routing the most complicated topologies for you.

3. CAD Viewer

The MCAD and ECAD together in software is a relief. Before moving in to develop the prototype of your project you have to access it in real time. Even placing up your project for reviews is a mandatory step. CAD viewers provide a read-only window to the users where they can effectively present and validate their project.

Altium Designer screenshot
photo credit: Altium

4. Comprehensive Analysis tools

One design format is used in all the steps of the project which make the analysis easy at all the steps. Various analysis tools can be fitted in the workflow without any need of translating the put results in different formats.

5. Real-Time Reporting

Altium allows you to allocate licenses the way you will. License usage can be optimized with the Real-time reporting feature of this software.

Altium is a complex bundle of tools which are needed for your PCB Project. It is an all in one software! Something all designers need.