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Altium users in a company need to "mutually align" their Altiums?

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Flyback

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Hello,
I went for an interview for an Altium PCB layout job with an electronics company in Southampton. Their Chief Engineer had with him a 16 page document that he had written himself. This document contained all the details about how Altium should be set up within their company. It was very detailed.
Apparently, if there are more than one engineer using Altium within a company, then all of those engineers must ensure that multiple Altium features are set up the same on each of their Altium configurations on their individual PC’s.
If this “mutual setup” is not done, and each engineer uses Altium without “aligning” their Altium with the other engineers in the company, then disaster ensues.
I believe that one problem that happens if the separate Altiums are not “aligned” is that one person will open a PCB layout file, and what he sees as “silk screen”, might actually be “top copper” on the other Altium.

So do you know if there is a guide anywhere on this “Mutual alignment” process that is essential for using Altium within a company.?
(by the way this "mutual alignment" might be essential for all PCB layout packages.......mind you , i know for a fact that its not necessary for Eagle Pro.)
 
Hi Flyback,

Did you get a copy you could take home? Or did they show you this and say this is what we expect you to follow if hired.
 
No, the "Alignment" has nothing to do with "silkscreen" showing up as "copper", etc. Altium has built-in standards to make sure that the layers, etc are identified correctly in all cases.

I expect the "Alignment" has to do primarily with Altium versions (i.e. someone might run Altium 14 and someone else might run Altium 16). There are differences between 14 and 16 (i.e. multiline silkscreen text entry is supported in 16 but not 14), and if multiline text entry is used in 16 and the file is opened in 14, the text shows up on one line with very long spaces where the line breaks should be. That is the only issue I have seen (there are quite a few Altium users where I work), so it's important that everyone has the same version of Altium. Silkscreen will never show up as copper unless someone physically makes that change (puts the text on another layer). Perhaps other "alignment" aspects would be design rules, template files, libraries, etc. That's all common sense though, and would be applicable to any package (Eagle included). It shouldn't be difficult to keep everyone on the same page when using Altium -- It does a lot of the work for you in the background and is very consistent. Everything is hard-coded.

The only semi-difficult "alignment" issue might be layer colors (each user has the ability to change his own layer colors) but I have never found that to be an issue. For example, one user may use red for the top layer and blue for the bottom layer, while another user might use yellow for the top layer and green for the bottom layer (this doesn't happen often, if ever, where I work, but it CAN happen). However, all of the layers are clearly labeled ("Top Layer", "Signal Layer 1", "Signal Layer 2", "Bottom Layer", etc) so this shouldn't be a problem.
 
Sounds like software revision control.
It is done to ensure that everyone is working to the same revision and configuration to ensure compatibility and maintain a "house style".
Just good engineering practice.

JimB
 
Sounds like software revision control.
It is done to ensure that everyone is working to the same revision and configuration to ensure compatibility and maintain a "house style".
Just good engineering practice.

JimB

That would involve "alignment" of the design files. My understanding was that Flyback was saying Altium settings had to be "aligned".
 
The chap with the 16 page (detailed) document believed that that kind of documentation was an essential thing for any group of people in their company using Altium.
 
The chap with the 16 page (detailed) document believed that that kind of documentation was an essential thing for any group of people in their company using Altium.

Certainly, documentation is absolutely critical, but silkscreen showing up on copper on someone else's machine is not possible (unless you're referring to colors, in which case my prior comments apply). The layers are labeled, though, so even that isn't important. Altium has routines that determines which layer is which to avoid layer mixups.

All of the other things I mentioned are absolutely applicable though, and documentation is great to keep everyone on the same page.
 
i must admit sine were talking layers, in eagle its absolutely obvious which layer is which, but in altium, there seems to be top copper and bottom copper, and then all you have is mech layer 1 to 30.
Which of those mech layers is the board layer etc?
 
i must admit sine were talking layers, in eagle its absolutely obvious which layer is which, but in altium, there seems to be top copper and bottom copper, and then all you have is mech layer 1 to 30.
Which of those mech layers is the board layer etc?

Altium often uses the term "mid-layer X" for the inner layers, Mech layers are different (for 3-D bodies, keepouts, etc). You also have the ability to rename the different layers. For example, if you wanted to name Mid-Layer 1 "GND" and Mid-Layer 2 "48V" you could do that. When someone else opens your project, your personalized layer names will appear on their machine as well (like I said before, all of the data is stored in the files).

I generally also rename one of the unused Mech layers to "BOARD_OUTLINE" (all caps to signify it's a custom name -- Just my own personal preference) and use that layer as the board outline, nothing more. This is incredibly useful when setting up an outjob to export the gerbers, as you can select a layer to display on every gerber layer (in which case, you would select "BOARD_OUTLINE" to display on every gerber to show where the board outline is).

You seem to be falling into the expectation that you are restricted by Altium's conventions and settings, but in reality Altium gives you a LOT of control. It does not define for you which layer is which (except for the Top Layer and Bottom Layer, but even those you can change). It offers you suggestions, but ultimately it gives you the freedom to choose and set your own standards.
 
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