Altium design rules download

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After installing and launching your new version of Altium Designer, the Import settings dialog will open in which you can choose to import preferences from the most recent previous installation at startup. Import settings from your previous version's installation. You can type your own specific query for the rule scope directly into the query region to the right.

Alternatively, two features are available to help in the creation of logical query expressions. They are the Query Builder and the Query Helper. These can be useful when you are unsure of the syntax of a query or the keywords that are available. Use the Custom Query option to craft a more complex query expression. Click the button to open the Building Query from Board dialog , which enables you to create a query for targeting specific objects in the design document by the simple construction of a string of conditional statements.

The left-hand section of the dialog is used to specify the condition s required to target the set of objects needed. Each condition is made up of a Condition Type and a Condition Value.

Drop-down fields for these populate with entries that are relevant to building a scope for the current rule type and values for the chosen condition type, respectively.

As a condition is defined, a preview of the currently built query is shown in the right-hand section of the dialog. When the expression for the query has been defined as required, clicking OK will load the expression into the query region of the PCB Rules and Constraints Editor dialog. Use the Query Builder to build a logical query expression through a series of conditional statements. With the Custom Query option enabled, click the button to access the Query Helper dialog. The underlying Query Engine analyzes the PCB design and lists all available objects, along with generic keywords for use in queries.

Working with the Query Helper is fairly intuitive, even more so when you break it down into three distinct areas as shown in the image below:. Example complex query defined using the Query Helper. Use the button bottom-left of the dialog to verify that an expression is syntactically correct. Before leaving this area, it is worth taking a look at the order of precedence in place for the operators used in logical Query expressions. After all, without such knowledge, an expression may not target the objects required.

Brackets have the highest precedence within an order of precedence that has been defined for the various operators, and which determines how queries are interpreted by the software whenever the user has not provided brackets.

The sequence of this order from highest to lowest is as follows:. To simplify the process of defining and managing rules, the idea is to define general rules that cover broad requirements and then override these with specific rules in specific situations. For this to be possible, you need to be able to prioritize the rules in order to indicate which one to use when an object is targeted by multiple rules of the same type. For example, to specify the most commonly used routing width on the board, define a single rule that applies to every net on the board.

This rule can then be overridden for a specific net or a class of nets for that matter by adding another rule of the same type, but with a higher priority. Another example could be the solder mask requirements. Here you would define one mask rule that targets every pad and via on the board, which could then be overridden for the pads in a specific footprint-kind. This footprint-specific rule could further be overridden for a specific pad in that footprint if required.

An important aspect of managing the rules is ensuring that all the priorities are set appropriately. When a new rule is created, it defaults to the highest priority. Change rule priorities in the Edit Rule Priorities dialog. Initially, the dialog will list all rule instances for the rule type that is currently selected in the PCB Rules and Constraints Editor dialog. Use the Rule Type field to change the rule type and list the specific rules defined for that type.

The defined rules are listed in order of current priority — from 1 highest priority downwards. Select a rule entry and use the Increase Priority and Decrease Priority buttons to move it up or down in the priority order respectively.

Rules, of course, can be modified at any time. Indeed, to arrive at the final working set of rules often involves a few key refinements here and there. Typically this involves scoping to ensure the target design objects are being 'picked up' by the respective rule s as required. Select an existing rule in the PCB Rules and Constraints Editor dialog and make changes as necessary to its scoping and constraint attributes. Changes made to existing rule definitions are highlighted in both the folder-tree pane and the applicable summary lists.

Such entries are distinguished by the rule name becoming bold and an asterisk displayed to the right of the name. The asterisk is used to reflect that the rule is an existing rule that has been modified, rather than a newly-created rule which is displayed in bold without an asterisk. Example of an existing rule that has been modified. An asterisk is used to flag the modification, along with the rule name being made bold. If a rule is detected as being invalid by the system — for example, it has an issue with its scoping query expression or a value for a constraint that is not allowed — it will be flagged as being invalid.

Such a rule will be highlighted in red within the PCB Rules and Constraints Editor dialog both in the left-hand rule tree, and any summary view rule category or rule type in which the rule appears. In addition, the text for the rule type and rule category is also presented in red within the left-hand rule tree. So if you have collapsed an area of the rule tree that contains an invalid rule, you will still be alerted to it at a higher level in the hierarchy.

A warning message will also appear if you attempt to close the dialog. An example of the system flagging an invalid design rule, in this case, an erroneous scope query expression. In the rules-driven environment of the software's PCB editor, it is not uncommon to build up a rather impressive and comprehensive array of rules with which to successfully constrain your boards.

For whatever reason along the way, you may wish to disable some rules; perhaps they are not applicable to the board in question or they need to be temporarily disabled to ease the load on the Design Rule Checker and speed up its performance as a result! Disabling is a good way of keeping such rules just in case they are needed again in the future. To disable a rule, toggle the corresponding Enable option for that rule in one of the relevant summary lists on the right-hand side of the PCB Rules and Constraints Editor dialog.

A disabled rule also will appear 'grayed-out'. Example disabled rules, appearing in gray font within a summary list. The rule name will appear bold with strike-through highlighting to distinguish it as being a deletion that is yet to be 'applied'. Deleting a single rule.

Many rule types have default rules created when a new PCB document is created. In a similar fashion, if all specific rules for one of those rule types are deleted, the default rule will be re-added automatically the next time the PCB Rules and Constraints Editor dialog is accessed. Alternatively, default rules can be created again by clicking the Create Default Rules button at the bottom of the dialog. This allows you to save and load favorite rule definitions between different designs.

The report can cater to all rule categories, a specific rule category, or a specific rule type. A report can be generated by:. The Report Preview dialog will open with the appropriate report already loaded. The Constraints Editor is a document-based user interface that offers an alternative approach for viewing, creating and managing the design constraint rules used for your PCB layouts.

The editor is arranged into six selectable rule sections of increasing priority — Nets , Diff Pairs , xSignals , Polygons , Components, and Advanced. In this arrangement, the first five sections Nets to Components represent a design object view of the rules, while the Advanced view section applies to more complex rules typically using queries that cannot be expressed as the simpler design object-orientated rules.

The Constraints Editor — an alternative approach for managing design rules. In the Constraints Editor, existing rules that feature more complex query expressions in their matching scope are considered Advanced Rules or Custom Rules while simpler rules are re-expressed as the object-type Basic Rules , i.

Most rules in the Advanced query-based format can be converted to the simpler Basic rules by dragging and dropping the rule onto the Basic Rules listing or by selecting the Move Custom Rule to Basic option from the Advanced rule's right-click menu. When converted, the advanced rule's query-based scope will be interpreted to the basic rule's object type qualification. Query-based Advanced rules can be converted to simpler Basic rules.

In general, the priority of Rules is dealt with automatically by the system. This is indicated by the arrangement of the rules view buttons in the interface, which are positioned by rule priority from left to right — Nets having the lowest priority. Creating a new rule in the editor's default Advanced mode as indicated and selected using the button is similar to constructing a rule in the PCB Rules and Constraints Editor dialog. Select Add Custom Rule from the right-click context menu or the button , add a query-based matching scope if required then enter the constraint parameters in the column grid or the lower graphical representation.

Create your own custom constraint rule. The library is presented in the Properties panel where custom scopes can be imported, managed and exported for reuse in other custom constraint rules. The use of a library-based scope in a rule is indicated by an icon in the rule's Object Match column entry. Use the scopes library to simplify creating of custom rules.

To take a simpler design-object orientation approach to constraint rule creation, select a suitable object mode button at the top of the rules grid to change from the default Advanced mode. Conceptually, these modes present a more integrated rule interface that focuses on constraining limiting how design objects can be applied rather than the creation of breakable design rules.

The positional sequence of the design object buttons relates to increasing object complexity and rule priority , from basic Nets and classes to unified Components up to the Advanced mode.

When in Advanced mode , the rules are grouped by type, such as the basic Via and Width constraint rules shown in the below images.

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