Starting with Altium Designer from Udemy

Altium Designer is one of the most popular and frequently used CAD software for schematic design and PCB Layout. If you are planning to become a professional hardware design engineer, if you are moving to Altium Designer from different software or if you have never designed any board before and you would like to learn it, this course will help you.

Go through complete design process of a simple board and learn

- Draw schematic- Create schematic symbol and footprint libraries- Route your PCB and do layout- Generate the essential documents needed to manufacture your PCB

Goal of this course

The main goal of this course is to go through a complete board design process (Schematic + Libraries + PCB + Documentation), and this way to show, demonstrate and practice all the essential Altium Designer features which are also used to create more complex and advanced boards.

Content and Overview

You will start with creating schematic symbols. After all symbols are finished, you will learn how to draw schematic, modify it, how to update your schematic symbol library and how to create footprints. You will learn how to transfer your schematic into PCB, how to do layout and by the end of the course you will generate all the essential manufacturing documents.

In this course you will learn how to:

- Draw schematic, update schematic and annotate schematic- Create components, draw schematic symbols and footprints- Place components into your PCB- Route simple PCB- Create 3D model of your board- Create board variants with different components fitted / not fitted- Create Bill of Material (BOM)- Create assembly drawings showing position of components on the board- Generate Gerbers, Pick and Place, Drill file and other files needed for manufacturing

What's inside

Syllabus

Schematic

Introduction

Starting a new project

Creating 1x2 Header (Schematic Symbol)

Creating 360R Resistor (Schematic Symbol)

Creating LED (Schematic Symbol)

Drawing Schematic

Footprints

Creating 0805 Resistor Footprint

Creating LED 0603 Footprint

Creating 1x2 Header Footprint

Update & Annotate Schematic

PCB Layout

Starting a new PCB

Component Placement and PCB Routing

Finishing PCB

More Advanced Features

Add, Place and Route the Second LED

Add Assembly Drawing Layers into PCB

Variants & 3D View

Generating Manufacturing Documentation

JOB File & PDF Schematics

3D PDF & 3D STEP Model

Printing Layers

Create Assembly Drawings

Pick & Place, Gerbers, NC Drill Files

Generating Bill of Material (BOM)

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Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Starting with Altium Designer with these activities:

Review Basic Electronics Concepts

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Reinforce your understanding of fundamental electronics concepts. This will provide a solid foundation for understanding the schematic design and PCB layout processes in Altium Designer.

Browse courses on Ohm's Law

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Review online resources and tutorials on basic electronics.
Solve practice problems related to circuit analysis.
Familiarize yourself with common electronic components.

Read 'Practical Electronics for Inventors'

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Gain a deeper understanding of electronics principles. This will help you make informed decisions during schematic design and PCB layout in Altium Designer.

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Read the chapters related to basic circuit components and analysis.
Work through the example problems and exercises.
Relate the concepts to the components used in the course project.

Read 'Altium Designer User Guide'

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Deepen your understanding of Altium Designer's features and capabilities. This will enable you to use the software more effectively and efficiently.

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Browse the user guide to familiarize yourself with the available resources.
Focus on the sections related to schematic design, PCB layout, and documentation generation.
Refer to the user guide when you encounter challenges or need to learn a new feature.

Four other activities

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Practice Component Placement

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Improve your efficiency in component placement within Altium Designer. This will streamline the PCB layout process and reduce errors.

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Download or create a sample PCB project in Altium Designer.
Practice placing components according to different design constraints.
Experiment with different placement strategies for optimal routing.

Follow Advanced Routing Tutorials

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Learn advanced PCB routing techniques to improve signal integrity and reduce noise. This will enhance the performance and reliability of your designs.

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Search for online tutorials on advanced PCB routing techniques.
Follow the tutorials step-by-step, applying the techniques to a sample project.
Experiment with different routing strategies and analyze their impact on signal integrity.

Document Your Design Process

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Solidify your understanding by documenting the design process for a simple PCB. This will improve your ability to communicate your designs and troubleshoot issues.

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Choose a simple PCB design project.
Document each step of the design process, from schematic capture to PCB layout.
Include screenshots and explanations of your design decisions.
Share your documentation with others for feedback.

Contribute to an Open Source Hardware Project

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Apply your Altium Designer skills to a real-world project and collaborate with other engineers. This will provide valuable experience and expand your network.

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Find an open-source hardware project that uses Altium Designer.
Identify a task that you can contribute to, such as fixing a bug or adding a new feature.
Submit your changes to the project maintainers for review.
Participate in discussions and provide feedback to other contributors.

Career center

Learners who complete Starting with Altium Designer will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Printed Circuit Board Designer

A Printed Circuit Board Designer develops the layouts for electronic circuits. This course, "Starting with Altium Designer", focuses on the Altium Designer CAD software, which is central to schematic design and PCB layout. The course guides you through the complete design process of a simple board, including drawing schematics, creating schematic symbols and footprints, and routing your PCB layout. Learning to generate manufacturing documents, as taught in the course, is essential for a Printed Circuit Board Designer.

See salaries and explore the career path for Printed Circuit Board Designer

Hardware Engineer

Hardware Engineers design and develop computer hardware and related components. This course, "Starting with Altium Designer," is directly relevant, as Altium Designer skills are essential for schematic design and PCB layout. The course covers creating schematic symbols and footprints, drawing schematics, routing PCBs, and generating manufacturing documents. A Hardware Engineer will use these skills to design and test hardware prototypes. The course's detailed walkthrough of the board design process can accelerate a hardware engineer's capabilities. The focus on creating 3D models and board variants may be helpful.

See salaries and explore the career path for Hardware Engineer

Electrical Engineer

Electrical Engineers research, design, develop, and test electrical equipment and systems. This course, "Starting with Altium Designer", directly relates to the design and layout of printed circuit boards, a crucial aspect of electrical engineering. The course teaches how to draw schematics, create schematic symbols and footprints, route PCBs, and generate manufacturing documents. An Electrical Engineer can benefit from the hands-on approach to board design and creating manufacturing documentation. Understanding PCB layout is critical to this role.

See salaries and explore the career path for Electrical Engineer

Electronics Technician

Electronics Technicians build, maintain, and repair electronic equipment. This course, "Starting with Altium Designer," is useful for understanding the design and layout of PCBs, which aids in troubleshooting and repair. The course covers drawing schematics, creating footprints, and generating manufacturing documents. An Electronics Technician benefits from understanding PCB layouts and how components are placed. The ability to interpret schematics and manufacturing documents, taught in the course, is also valuable.

See salaries and explore the career path for Electronics Technician

CAD Technician

CAD Technicians create technical drawings and plans using computer-aided design software. This course, "Starting with Altium Designer", directly applies to this role, as it focuses on using Altium Designer, a popular CAD software for schematic design and PCB layout. The course teaches how to draw schematics, create symbols and footprints, route PCBs, and generate manufacturing documents. The course's emphasis on generating Gerbers and other manufacturing files is particularly relevant for CAD Technicians. The 3D modeling aspects of the course may be helpful.

See salaries and explore the career path for CAD Technician

Design Engineer

Design Engineers are responsible for designing new products and systems, often involving electronic components and PCBs. This course, "Starting with Altium Designer," may be useful for understanding the design process of PCBs using Altium Designer. The course covers how to create schematics, footprints, and PCB layouts, which are essential skills for a Design Engineer working with electronic products. The course's focus on generating manufacturing documents is relevant for ensuring that designs can be manufactured accurately. The knowledge of creating board variants may further help a design engineer.

See salaries and explore the career path for Design Engineer

Firmware Engineer

Firmware Engineers develop the low-level software that controls hardware devices. While their primary focus is software, understanding the hardware side is crucial. This course, "Starting with Altium Designer," may be useful as it provides insights into PCB design and layout. This knowledge enables Firmware Engineers to better collaborate with hardware engineers. The course content, including schematic creation and PCB routing, provides a hardware context for their software development work. The course's 3D view capabilities may be helpful to Firmware Engineers.

See salaries and explore the career path for Firmware Engineer

Robotics Engineer

Robotics Engineers design, build, and program robots and automated systems. This course, "Starting with Altium Designer", may be useful for understanding the electronic components and PCB design involved in robotic systems. The course covers schematic design, PCB layout, and generating manufacturing documents, which can aid in designing custom PCBs for robots. The course's focus on creating schematic symbols and footprints may be useful for designing custom components specific to robotics applications. The 3D view capabilities may be helpful.

See salaries and explore the career path for Robotics Engineer

Instrumentation Engineer

Instrumentation Engineers design, develop, and maintain instruments and control systems used in various industries. This course, "Starting with Altium Designer", may be useful for understanding the design and layout of PCBs used in instrumentation systems. The course offers practical experience in schematic creation, PCB routing, and generating manufacturing documents. Familiarity with Altium Designer, gained from the course, can aid in collaborating with PCB designers and understanding the hardware aspects of instrumentation. The knowledge gained from this course may facilitate better hardware understanding.

See salaries and explore the career path for Instrumentation Engineer

Product Engineer

Product Engineers oversee the manufacturing and production of a product, ensuring it meets design specifications and quality standards. While not directly focused on design, this course, "Starting with Altium Designer", may give Product Engineers a better understanding of PCB design and manufacturing processes. The course curriculum includes generating manufacturing documents and creating a bill of materials. This can make them more effective in communicating with design and manufacturing teams. Familiarity with Altium Designer, gained from the course, may further help.

See salaries and explore the career path for Product Engineer

Quality Assurance Engineer

Quality Assurance Engineers ensure that products meet certain standards of quality. This course, "Starting with Altium Designer", may provide useful insight into the processes involved in PCB manufacture. Even though Quality Assurance Engineers may not be directly designing circuit boards, understanding the manufacturing process can help them find flaws. The documentation aspects of the course, such as the creation of the Bill of Materials, will inform a Quality Assurance Engineer about the components of a board.

See salaries and explore the career path for Quality Assurance Engineer

Test Engineer

Test Engineers create equipment and procedures to test electronic products. Although Altium Designer is not directly used in the testing stage, the knowledge of PCB design that this course, "Starting with Altium Designer" provides may be useful to a Test Engineer. Knowing the layout of a PCB may help a Test Engineer come up with a testing plan. Furthermore, knowledge of the components and the manufacturing process may inform judgements made while testing.

See salaries and explore the career path for Test Engineer

Technical Writer

Technical Writers create documentation around how to use a product. This course, "Starting with Altium Designer" may further help a Technical Writer, particularly if that person is writing about circuit boards. A Technical Writer must deeply understand the product they are documenting, so hands-on experience will improve their ability to explain circuits. The course walks the learner through the process of designing and using a circuit board through Altium Designer.

See salaries and explore the career path for Technical Writer

Technical Sales Engineer

Technical Sales Engineers use their technical knowledge to sell complex products. This course, "Starting with Altium Designer" may be useful for Sales Engineers selling circuit boards. It is much easier to sell complex products if you understand it deeply. Altium Designer is an industry standard schematic and layout software, making this course useful for any hardware engineers and sales engineers in the industry. It shows how to create schematic symbols as well as the footprints.

See salaries and explore the career path for Technical Sales Engineer

Engineering Manager

Engineering Managers oversee a group of engineers and are responsible for the work they perform. Though not a necessary skill, this course, "Starting with Altium Designer", may be helpful in understanding the work undertaken by the engineers. The course focuses on the Altium Designer CAD software and provides experience in schematic design and PCB layout; this gives the Engineering Manager a look into PCB design and creation.

See salaries and explore the career path for Engineering Manager

Reading list

We've selected two books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in Starting with Altium Designer.

Putting Knowledge to Work

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This is the official documentation for Altium Designer. It provides detailed information on all the features and functions of the software. It valuable reference for both beginners and experienced users. It is especially useful for understanding the specific tools and workflows used in Altium Designer, and great reference to have on hand.

Putting Knowledge to Work

Paperback

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Putting Knowledge to Work

Kindle Edition

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Practical Electronics for Inventors, Fourth Edition

Save

Provides a comprehensive overview of electronics principles and components. It valuable resource for understanding the underlying concepts behind circuit design. While not specific to Altium Designer, it provides essential background knowledge for effective PCB design and troubleshooting. It is often used as a textbook in introductory electronics courses.

Practical Electronics for Inventors, Fourth Edition

Paperback

Starting with Altium Designer

What's inside

Syllabus

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Activities

Career center

Reading list

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