New features enhance high-speed flagship PCB design tool

Altium has released the newest version of its flagship PCB design tool, Altium Designer 15.1. Included in the release are a number of new features to improve design efficiency with expansions to productivity, documentation, and high-speed design. “Altium Designer 15.1 is building upon the solid foundation we’ve had in place since the original release of Altium Designer 15,” said Sergey Kostinsky, VP engineering, Altium. “There’s incremental improvements upon every layer in the platform for both designers and fabricators alike. This update is a win-win for everyone involved in the design process, with greater accuracy in documentation features for fabricators, to expanded productivity and high-speed enhancements for electronics designers.” The new features in Altium Designer 15.1 focus on improvements to the entire design ecosystem, from a design’s inception with electrical designers to the completed PCB with fabricators. While new productivity high-speed design features keep PCB designers at the top of their productivity game, numerous documentation features expand the communication of design intent to fabricators and project managers. Improved xSignals Management High-speed design configurations for length matching rules can now be configured in an easy-to-use wizard that automatically accounts for T-branches, components, signal pairs, and groups, greatly reducing the time spent on setup for high-speed designs. Improved Output Documentation PCB designs can now be exported as 3D PDFs, allowing anyone with a compatible PDF viewer to view and rotate a design in 3D. Boards can easily be navigated with individual component selection, providing greater accuracy and design intent to fabricators. Expanded Rigid-Flex Support Surface layers for rigid-flex designs can now be added with 'bikini' coverlays that are fully visible in 3D and can be configured with the designer’s specific material needs. Coverlay edge clearance and expansion rules have also been added to the design rule options, providing users with precise control over coverlay applications. New Methods for Managing Pads and Vias Pads and vias can be easily be managed in a pad and via library, allowing users to define custom templates for pad shape and size. Templates can then be applied to specific groups of pads on a PCB for easy application, saving countless hours defining pad options individually. Improved Unions Data Management The addition of a new Unions panel helps to better organize design data and align Union data with other PCB objects in a design. The Union panel will show a hierarchical view of Union types, Unions, and Union primitives for easy reference. Pushing Design Possibilities Further Overall, Altium Designer 15.1 expands upon an already robust set of features aimed at making the design process even quicker and easier for today’s electronic designs. You can view the Altium Designer product page for a full overview of all the features added in Altium Designer 15.1, says the company.