Altium Version 20
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Leverage the most powerful, modern and easy-to-use PCB design tool on the market. Altium Designer brings together unified design and Native 3D™ PCB capabilities to help you create next-generation electronics. Altium Designer Library Download Free Altium Designer Footprint Library Download. The schematic of the motor driver circuit as shown in Altium Designer When you open PDN analyzer, you will start out with a new solution that has a single network to get you started. I highly recommend expanding your PDN analyzer window out a bit larger than the initial starting size to make viewing the network easier. For ALTIUM profitability analysis, we use financial ratios and fundamental drivers that measure the ability of ALTIUM to generate income relative to revenue, assets, operating costs, and current equity. These fundamental indicators attest to how well ALTIUM LTD FPO utilizes its assets to generate profit and value for its shareholders. Altium Packaging has an opening for a CDL Driver $27 an hour in East Windsor, NJ. This site uses cookies. To find out more.

Can't get the library working? Here are the most common resolutions to problems!

Common Issues

No Components or Connection Error

If you are looking at the components panel and can see different categories/views, but you cannot see any components in any view, you may have a connection error. Alternatively, you may be displayed the connection error below and not be able to view the components panel items at all.

Open the DbLib that you downloaded from the portal, if the error message mentions requiring 64-bit Microsoft Access - you do not need to install Microsoft access. Installing Microsoft Access will not fix the error.

Steps to Fix Missing Driver

For Altium Designer 17 and older: Download and install MSSQL Native Client 32 Bit
For Altium Designer 18 and newer: Download and install MSSQL Native Client 64 Bit

If instead, you see the message 'Connection Failed. Check your connection settings'. There is an issue stopping Altium from connecting to the database server.

Steps to Fix Connection Failed

Check that Windows Firewall allows Altium access to the internet.
If you are a home or small office user, check that your router allows connections out on TCP port 1433.
If you are using the library at a large organisation or university, check that your IT allows connections out on TCP port 1433 (MS SQL) - many will need to make an exception for you.

Footprint/Symbol Missing

If you have found the component you require but the component panel can't find the footprint or symbol for the part, it is likely a new part that has been added since you last cloned the library files from GitHub.

Steps to Fix Missing Footprint/Symbol

In GitHub Desktop, click the Fetch Origin button on the right of the main toolbar.
Click Pull in the same place, or alternatively go to Repository -> Pull from the menu bar.

Views starting with z_

If you are finding views in the component list starting with z_, these are the component tables and do not contain the columns Altium requires to work with the library. If you can see these tables, it means that your DbLib is out of date.

Steps to Fix Out of Date DbLib

Login to the Portal.
From Server Logins -> Manage, download the DbLib for your login. Replace the DbLib in your library folder with it.

Previously, I posted about designing a simple DC brushed motor controller using a single IC. While it’s a relatively simple board, it will still be transferring a maximum of 4 amps of current if both motors are running at the driver’s full rated current per channel. For a board as simple as this, you could simply look at the trace length and width and use an online calculator (or a little math) to figure out current densities on the traces and see how they would cope with the load. For more complex boards, however, that can get quite tedious very quickly. If you have polygon pours which carry current, a mixture of trace widths, components along the trace, or other complex PCB features, it becomes more difficult to calculate whether the board will be sufficient for the task at hand.

Being able to visualize current density on a copper layer helps you make more optimal design decisions.

This is what I really love about PDN Analyzer: it takes a little bit of work to set up for a complex board, but once you’ve done that, it shines spectacularly by letting you optimize your circuit board for the currents and voltages on it. Even if just for powering a microcontroller or an FPGA, you can use PDN Analyzer to quickly visualize where current densities are too high, or the voltage drop on a trace is exceeding your margins. For less technical stakeholders, it also allows you to quickly create a visual map of the circuit board to highlight potential issues, allowing you to see why you may need to shift the specifications a little (perhaps giving you more board real estate) to ensure the board works as expected.

If you’re new to PDN Analyzer, I wanted to create a board you could download and follow along with to set up the power network and look at the analysis as a way to learn how to use the tool. The Altium documentation contains several getting started examples, however the motor controller project I built is much simpler and allows you to quickly set up the power network for every net on the board, which I hope will allow you to get started that much quicker if you’re pressed for time. There is also the full getting started guide for PDN Analyzer which runs through installation and licensing. Finally, you can also check out the PDN Analyzer documentation.

Setup

Before starting PDN Analyzer, I suggest you first add net names to any nets that you will be referencing in the power network design. This makes them much easier to find, rather than having to rely on identifying a net named something like IC2_2!

The schematic of the motor driver circuit as shown in Altium Designer

When you open PDN analyzer, you will start out with a new solution that has a single network to get you started. I highly recommend expanding your PDN analyzer window out a bit larger than the initial starting size to make viewing the network easier.

PDN Analyzer has an unnamed simulation with your single network.

Next, you’ll want to click on the DC Nets button to set up the voltages and specify which nets you’ll be working with.

The window to set up the voltage levels for the nets in your schematic will pop up.

Then, select all of the nets and click Add Selected. If the net you’re looking for is missing, you can click the Enable all nets for filtering checkbox to make them all visible.

The setup I use for the power network on an H-Bridge looks a little odd at first glance, as we want to simulate the current path from the supply all the way through to the ground. Technically, the load is the motor connector, however, for simulation purposes, this isn’t particularly helpful as the current will be flowing through the driver IC, the motor, and then back to the driver IC to go through the current sense resistor—at least with the Allegro A4954 this project is using. To handle this, I’m setting the network’s load to be the current sense resistors (R6 and R9 connected to the CS1 and CS2 nets), and extending the VCC net through each net that carries current to the motor with IC1 and the connectors (J1 and J2) as the series connections between each net.

We described the power flow through our network with R6, R9, and IC2 configured as loads.

For completeness, I’ve also added the voltage regulator as a voltage regulator load, shown as Load 1 in the figure above, despite its low current draw. Adding voltage regulators as a load allows you to correctly simulate current flow through the board. When adding a load, you can set the Device Type to VRM (Voltage Regulator Module) at the top of the Device Properties window, which will then allow you t

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