Altium Designer

Overview

Altium Designer is the package that took board design from a chain of separate tools into a single environment. Schematic, layout, routing, simulation, mechanical verification and manufacturing output share one data model, which means a change on the schematic is reflected on the board without an export, and the board can be checked against the enclosure without leaving the application.

Schematic capture handles multi channel and hierarchical designs with sheet symbols, buses and differential pair definitions, with a component model that ties symbol, footprint, three dimensional body, simulation model and supply chain data into one managed part. Design rules defined once at the schematic level travel through to layout, so impedance requirements and clearance constraints are enforced rather than remembered.

Layout and routing are where the time goes and where the tooling earns itself. Interactive routing with push and shove, walkaround and hug modes, length tuning for matched nets, differential pair routing as a single operation, via stitching and shielding, polygon pours that update live, and a rule engine that checks clearance, width, impedance, annular ring and manufacturing constraints continuously rather than at the end.

The verification and output stages close the loop. A real time three dimensional view of the assembled board with imported mechanical models checks fit against an enclosure and flags collisions, rigid flex designs are modelled in their folded state, and the output job configuration produces the complete manufacturing package including the fabrication and assembly files, drill data, bills of material and pick and place data in one operation with an in application preview of what the fabricator will receive.

Key Features

• Unified environment sharing one data model across schematic, layout and output
• Hierarchical and multi channel schematic capture with buses and differential pairs
• Managed components tying symbol, footprint, three dimensional body and supply data together
• Interactive routing with push and shove, walkaround, hug and length tuning
• Differential pair routing, via stitching, shielding and live updating polygon pours
• Continuous design rule checking for clearance, width, impedance and manufacturing limits
• Real time three dimensional board view with imported mechanical models and collision detection
• Rigid flex design with folded state modelling
• Signal integrity analysis and impedance profile calculation
• Output job configuration producing the complete manufacturing package with preview

What Changed in This Build

• Faster routing and rule checking on very dense boards
• Improved three dimensional viewport performance with large mechanical models
• Additional manufacturing output formats in the output job configuration
• Component management interface reworked for large in house libraries

System Requirements

Processor	Intel or AMD 64-bit, 3 GHz or faster, 8 cores recommended
Memory	16 GB minimum, 32 GB recommended for large multilayer boards
Graphics	DirectX 12 capable card with 4 GB VRAM
Storage	20 GB free, SSD required
Display	1920 x 1080 minimum, dual displays strongly recommended

Release Details

Full title	Altium Designer
Version string	26.9.1.10
Publisher	Altium
Category	CAD and 3D
Licence	Full version, no term limit
Platform	Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit
Interface language	English, German, Japanese, Chinese
Archive size	8.94 GB
Mirrors	4 active, all reporting online
Listed	refreshed 3 months ago, checked again 40 minutes ago

Installation Notes

• Set up your design rules before routing rather than after. Retrofitting constraints onto a finished board is far more work than defining them at the start.
• Keep libraries in a managed location rather than inside individual projects, so a footprint fix propagates instead of being repeated.
• Generate and inspect the manufacturing output before sending it. The preview exists specifically to catch the layer and drill mistakes that cost a board spin.

Before You Start

Read the notes above before running setup. Most of the problems people write in about are covered there, and almost all of them come down to an older version of the same software still being installed, a graphics driver that predates the release, or a security suite quarantining part of the package mid install.

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Frequently Asked