CPW - Polygon's Arc Approximation

The arc approximation for polygons needs to be considered when creating Coplanar Waveguide controlled impedance traces (CPW).

click on images to view

The default Arc Approximation for Polygons is 0.5mil.


Example: The rules call for clearance of 13.6 mils



click on images to view (Gap = Pitch minus Width) = 13.6mils

The measured gap > Report > Measure Primitives

14,7 mils ?

Solution:

Reduce the Arc Approximation for the polygons poured adjacent to the CPW traces.

Re-pour the polygons and measure again.

Result 13.601mils.

Much better !

PCB: From-To-Editor (AD14 versus AD15)

Looking at the same net using the From-to-Editor

AD14.3.18  (length 1864 mils)


AD15.1.15 (length 1965 mils)

Why the difference ?

AD14.3.18 does NOT account for the length of the vias in the routed path.

AD15.1.15 does account for the length of the vias in the routed path.

This 100 mils is a very significant difference for high-speed designs.

Use AD15.1.15 or higher to account for the vias !

That's It.

Myself and 50+ others have voted on an idea to add all file export options to the Outjob.

"I'm strongly in favour of not just adding ASCII file exports, but any type of file export to the output job. Every time we release a design we have to manually export ASCII files because they are used in the manufacturing process. Sometimes they get forgotten and it leads to delays."  - Altium User Comment

Please support this idea.

#1324: Create ASCII version of PCB from an OutJob generation

Thank you

Nine Dot Connects - The quest for the optimal library

"There are fundamentally 2 library types out there – symbol centric and database library. Symbol centric libraries have been around since the beginning of EDA tools; however, the most efficient method is the database library. In addition to symbol and footprint reuse, it is far easier to create and duplicate formats in a database than it is to do so in a symbol centric library."

"Unless the customer or industry upon which the design is being created for requires version control of a library, there is no need for it. Components generally do not change over time."

Link the full article:  Nine Dot Connects » Library Services: 

'via Blog this'

Open *.PCBLIB or *.SCHLIB Files - Bug

The bug described below applies to AD14 and AD15.

Altium was closed and I right clicked on a *.PCBLIB or *.SCHLIB file in Windows Explorer to Select and Open the library file.  The file did not open.




Altium started up and displayed an invalid license warning.

Work-around:

Open Altium First, then open a *.PCBLIB or *.SCHLIB file.

A second instance of Altium opened and had a valid license, while the other instance did not.

A work-around was found to prevent the second instance of Altium from starting up.

Before opening the *.PCBLIB or *.SCHLIB file from Windows Explorer, first open an existing PCB project, or create a new part using File > New > Library > . . .


The Cause of the Problem:

I was using a roaming license, I work from two locations, my company office and home.

The Fix:

Release the roaming license, use the license, then configure for roaming again.

The mysterious open file from Windows File Explorer bug was exterminated.

That's It !

Missing api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll

I just started getting this message yesterday every time I started Altium.

The program can't start because api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

"Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem" ?

I can tell you that reinstalling Altium did not fix the problem.

To fix the problem I installed Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015.

For Win 7 64 bit install vc_redistx64.exe

That's It !