What Is The Best Software for PCB Layout Design?

When it comes to designing the layout for your printed circuit board, you may be overwhelmed with the choices available to you. Between different design companies, design software, and other factors, it can be difficult to know how to go about designing your own PCB. But the first step to designing an amazing PCB is picking the right software for your PCB design.

There are many PCB layout design software packages available on the market right now, but the right PCB design software is a combination of features, efficiency, and ease of use. And when it comes to picking a software package that has great features, is easy to use, and has a great interface, my choice is Altium Designer.

Figure 1 – Golden Gate Graphics is an official Altium Designer service bureau.

In this article, we’ll go over the reasons why Altium Designer is the best software for people who are looking for PCB design services in Los Angeles, Denver or anywhere in the USA.

Altium Designer is used in Native 3D PCB CAD. It integrates all tools that engineers and PCB developers need in a simple user interface. From the initial concept and PCB Design, to 3D modeling and manufacture, Altium Designer offers an efficient and high-performing workflow for electronic designers.

An Interface That Works for You

When it comes to designing a PCB, you’ll need an interface that makes sense and is easy to use no matter the situation or the project. One of the best things about Altium Designer is the interface it uses and the flexibility it offers its users who are accustomed to other design programs.

By using the importers and exporters available, users are able to integrate Altium Designer with the software of their choice. Besides importing EDA files from another vendor, the user has freedom to customize Altium Designer to create a more familiar user interface across all of their tools and editors. This makes it easier for people with a background using other software applications to use Altium Designer and create designs more quickly.

Cutting Edge Features

Another important aspect of choosing PCB design software is looking at the features that the software offers its users. And when you compare the features of Altium Designer to the other software packages available on the market, there’s no competition in its price range.

One of the most useful tools that Altium Designer has in its arsenal is it Manufacturer Part Search panel. This lets you link your design components to real-world parts. It enables you to have access to live supplier data as you design. Manufacturer Part Search allows the suppliers’ own databases to be searched right from within Altium Designer. For any given supplier item found through a search, its parameters, data sheet links, pricing, and stock information can be easily imported as parameters of a target library component. Thus at your fingertips is access to live component information from an impressive number of parts suppliers.

Altium Designer also includes features like advanced routing technology, powerful data management tools, support for cutting edge rigid-flex board design, and much more. These useful tools and features will allow you to create a PCB that is within your budget and best utilizes the space and materials used in its design.

Open the Door to Secure Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) with Concord Pro.

The team at Altium has made sure that security is a major part of Altium Designer and its add-on tool Concorde Pro, which interfaces to PLM software.

With Altium Designer together with Concorde Pro, you will get access to a managed content server, where you can securely store all of your designs, data, and other project materials. But this isn’t the only feature that is available. The managed content server also tracks the “lifetime” of data within the server. This means that designers and other project members can access the data and see how recent and up-to-date any item is and if it is approach end-of-life. This opens doors to intelligent PLM and design reuse.

The Concorde Pro managed content server allows you to manage the data and designs that are on the server, which makes it both the source and the destination of all design-related materials. Designers and other project members can use the managed content server as both their source of project materials and the destination for anything that is essential to the project, which makes it a one-stop-shop for everything related to the current project.

Altium Concord Pro facilitates the uni- or bi-directional synchronization of component data with your enterprise systems. A Comma Separated Values (CSV) component database importer tool can be used to bring component data into Concord Pro from a file exported from another system (PLM, ERP, or otherwise). In addition, direct support is provided for the following enterprise systems:

• PTC Windchill® PLM (11.0 M030)

• Arena® PLM

• Oracle® Agile™ PLM

Choose Altium Designer as Your PCB Design Software

Now that you know more about and the incredible features of Altium Designer PCB design software, you can do the research to make sure your PCB designer uses Altium Designer.

If you’re looking for PCB layout design in Los Angeles, the professionals at Golden Gate Graphics use Altium Designer to create the best products for their clients. We operate out of Los Angeles as well as the Denver metro area. If you would like to learn more about Golden Gate Graphics and Altium Designer, please contact us at 424-220-8379.