Inner Planes - Missing Connection Markers

This 16 layer design has 6 plane layers.

AD16.1.8 is displaying the plane connections on only 4 of 6 plane layers.

L2 Plane is showing connections to the plane.

L4 Plane is showing connections to the plane.

L6 Plane is NOT showing connections to the plane.

L11 Plane is NOT showing connections to the plane.

L13 Plane is showing connections to the plane.

L15 Plane is showing connections to the plane.

That's It !

Release Notes for Altium Designer Version 16.1 | Online Documentation for Altium Products

Release Notes for Altium Designer Version 16.1 | Online Documentation for Altium Products:

'via Blog this'

Live Drill Table = Slow Performance

I'm currently working on a fairly complicated 16 layer design which has 3000+ vias.

This is a second spin due to feature creep.

click on images to view

Live Drill Table (3178 Driils)

I was experiencing very slow and sluggish performance while placing new vias, moving existing vias or deleting vias.

So the troubleshooting began:

At first I suspected active online DRC checking. After some further investigation I determined the sluggish performance was due to the Live Drill table.

Test:

Open any large design in Altium with a live Drill table, select the P then V key and start placing vias, there will be a long delay (~ 2 seconds) between the via placements.

Work around:  

Delete the Live Drill table.  Place the drill table after all routing is done.

Idea:

Stop updating the Live Drill Table if it is NOT visible.

Note: The managed release will fail to generate the fabrication outputs (Gerbers) if the drill table is missing (not placed) in the design.


That's It !

Altium Designer 16.1 - Altium Discussion Forums

Altium Designer 16.1 (2 May 2016) - Altium Discussion Forums:

Release Notes for AD16.1.7

'via Blog this'

Importing 274X Gerbers

Example of Importing Top Layer 274x Gerber data into Altium.

Open the Top Gerber layer in CAMTastic.

Add a new layer to the CAM file and name it drill. Edit > Layers > Add

Go to Tables > NC Tools and create a new small drill, example 10 mil.  

Set CAMTastic to drill mode by going to View > NC Editor. 

In NC Editor Mode go to Place > Drill > Point and place a small drill inside one of the mounting hole flashes.

Tables > Layers, set Top to Top and set Drill to Drill Int.

Tables > Layers order, click the Physical Layers column for top and set it to 1.

Tables > Layers > Enable (Select On) for the layers to export.

Go to Tools > Netlist > Extract.

Select File > Export > Export to PCB.

Done !

Tip: Go to Tables > Layers > Review the Type column after the layer name.  You need at least one layer to be the Top layer.  If all of your copper layers are Internal...it will not export. Be sure to specify at least one drill layer as Drill Top if you are importing drills into Camtastic. 

Links: CAM Editor Reverse Engineering PCBs | Altium