Altium Designer

What It’s Used For

Altium Designer is a professional electronic design automation (EDA) software used for designing printed circuit boards (PCBs). It allows engineers to:

• Create schematic diagrams
• Design and route PCB layouts
• Simulate circuits
• Generate manufacturing files (Gerbers, BOMs)

Altium is widely used in industry for both hobbyist and professional PCB design projects.

Installation

• Download the installer from Altium Designer Downloads.
• Altium requires a valid license; you can use a trial, student, or institutional license.
• Follow the on-screen instructions to install the software. Ensure you have adequate disk space and system requirements (Windows 10/11 recommended).

Student License Setup

1. Go to Altium Academic Program and register using your university email.
2. From Altium (more details can be found here):

   It might take a day or two to get a response after you fill out the form on the website. Your school's domain may not be approved by our automated system (if it doesn't end in .edu, for example.) If this is your case, or if you still haven't received any communication, contact us describing your issue here:
   Contact Us

3. Launch Altium Designer and sign in with your student credentials.
4. The software will automatically activate with your student license.

Setup

1. Launch Altium Designer after installation.
2. Contact the Electrical Leads to be added to the TUAS Workspace
3. Configure your workspace:
   • Set default project directories.
   • Configure library paths for components.
   • Set default design rules and units (metric or imperial).
4. Start a new project:
   • File → New → Project
   • Create schematics, add components, and begin PCB layout.