Altium Designer 2013 Home Page

Old Content - visit altium.com/documentation
Modified by Admin on Nov 6, 2013

Contents

The Home page has been totally redesigned in Altium Designer 13.0, presenting a number of distinct views and sub-views with which to browse and manage various aspects of the software. This includes views for License Management, Plugins & Updates, the Altium Wiki, and a Workspace view – providing a fuller, richer graphical browsing experience of your open projects and their constituent documents. There's also a dedicated Getting Started view, to get you up and running with the software, as well as a What's New view – catering for latest announcements in the AltiumLive Blog, as well as new content added and available in the Content Store. For those connected to an Altium Satellite Vault Server, views are also provided to browse and manage (if an administrator) the structure and users for the vault.

Access

Access the Home page by:

  • Using the View » Home command (shortcut: V, H).
  • Clicking the  button on the Navigation toolbar.

Other menu-based commands are available to access certain views or sub-views of the Home page. These are indicated, where applicable, in the sections that follow.

Views and Sub-Views

The Home page consists of a number of dedicated views. In some cases a view simply acts as a 'container' for a collection of sub-views. The following sections detail each of these views/sub-views.

Where a view contains links to web pages, a target URL will open either as a tabbed document inside Altium Designer, or in an external browser, depending on the state of the option to Open internet links in external Web browser. This option can be found on the System – View page of the Preferences dialog.

Start

The Start view is simply a container providing access to two sub-views – What's New and Getting Started.

What's New

This sub-view presents information in two regions:

  • Latest News – the latest 10 entries posted by Altium in the AltiumLive Blog. Click on the title for an entry to access it directly within the Blog.
  • New in Content Store – the latest content that has been added to the AltiumLive Content Store. Click the graphic or first link beneath it to access the corresponding detailed page for that content within the Store. Click the second link below that to access the parent-level page for the manufacturer/category.

Use the What's New sub-view to keep abreast of the latest developments from Altium.

A link is provided in each region to access the main Blog and Content Store pages of the AltiumLive site respectively.

Getting Started

This sub-view provides various task-based links. Use the links provided in the left-hand pane to quickly access controls to perform common tasks, or to access features directly. Many of these links are to predefined navigation support pages. Tasks associated with a particular design area, for example, will take you to pages offering common tasks such as creation of a new project or document, and also featuring key reference documentation for that design area. Other links provide immediate access to resources, such as the Devices view or Knowledge Center panel.

Use the Getting Started view to quickly access, for example, pages with common tasks and key documentation, to get you up and running with a particular area of the software.

Workspace

Main article: Project Document Previews

This view provides a neat graphical interface for browsing all currently open projects and their constituent documents. Only one project can be browsed within the view at any given time, and this is distinguished by a highlighted background. Click on a project entry to select it for browsing. With the desired project selected in the list, the remaining sections in the view present its constituent documents. Documents are gathered into logical groupings, similar to the sub-folder structuring found in the Projects panel. The exact groupings will depend on the type of project being viewed.

For Schematic, PCB and OpenBus documents, document previews are available. Previews are generated for the currently focused project in the Projects panel, when accessing the Workspace view. Previews for another open project are only generated upon selecting to browse that project within the view.

Use the Workspace view to graphically browse open projects and their documents.

Actions can be performed at the project- and document-level, directly from within the Workspace view. Simply select the project or constituent document, then right-click to access a menu of commands available, and in context with the type of project/document selected. These commands are identical to those found when right-clicking over the project or document entry in the Projects panel.

The Workspace view can also be accessed by using the View » Workspace menu command, Clicking the  icon, from an Editor's Standard toolbar, or using the Ctrl+` keyboard shortcut.

Documentation

This view presents Altium's online Wiki. The Altium Wiki is home to the latest documentation for Altium's Design solutions. It is here that the latest features are documented as new articles, and updates applied to existing articles as the software improves. The Altium Wiki can be thought of as THE master set of documentation – your destination for information on solutions including: Altium Designer, Altium Vault Technology, AltiumLive, Altium Designer Viewer, the Altium Instrument Dashboard, and Altium Hardware.

The Altium Wiki is the most current source of Altium Documentation.

Vaults

Coming Soon!

 

Users

Coming Soon!

 

Admin

The Admin view is simply a container providing access to two sub-views – License Management and Plugins & Updates.

License Management

Main articles: Altium Designer Licensing System, Using an On-Demand License, Using a Standalone License, Using a Private Server License

This sub-view provides 'command central' for obtaining a license. Sign-in to your Altium account (using your AltiumLive credentials) and view and select On-Demand licenses available to you. Add a Standalone license file. Or, connect to your Private License Server and use a seat from any of the associated Private Server licenses made available to you by your network administrator.

Whether using an On-Demand license, Standalone license, or Private Server license, the Available Licenses region of the view will automatically present the specific licenses available to you. Choose the license that you want to use and then click on the applicable command, depending on how you want to use that license.

The License Management sub-view is your interface to all things licensing. After signing in, you can be up and running with an On-Demand license in a couple of clicks!

Click on the Account Preferences option to quickly access the System – Account Management page of the Preferences dialog, from where you can specify your sign-in details (at the system level) and also which Altium Account Management Server (Altium portal) you connect to. From this page, you can also elect to stay connected to Altium's on-demand services, or disconnect completely.

If you have forgotten your password, simply click the Forgotten Password? option to access the Reset Password dialog. Simply enter your user name (your email address) and click the Reset Password button. A temporary password will be created and mailed to that email address. Use this to sign in – you will be prompted to create a new password at that time.

The License Management sub-view can also be accessed by using the DXP » My Account menu command.

Plugins & Updates

Main articles: Installation & Content Management, Post-Installation Management of your Altium Designer Install

This sub-view provides the interface to Altium's cloud-based installation repository (http://installation.altium.com). It is through this repository that Altium makes available new revisions to the core Altium Designer platform, as well as the optional plugins that provide extended software functionality.

From this view, it can be seen, at a glance, whether a new revision of the platform – itself a plugin – is available, or if there are updates to other currently installed plugins, or even if other new plugin functionality is available. Then make the decision as to whether or not to update the platform and/or existing plugins, or add that additional functionality to the installation. And there are no constraints. You can freely add, update or remove functionality at any time as needs change, including the ability to roll-back to a previous revision of a plugin.

The Plugins & Updates sub-view - command central for managing your installation of Altium Designer.

Although the designer is free to manage their installation in terms of its functionality, continued access to future updates (platform revisions, core functionality enhancements, new functionality, and so on) requires continued valid subscription for the license of Altium Designer being used.

The Plugins & Updates sub-view can also be accessed by using the DXP » Plug-ins and updates menu command.

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