A project with two variants of schematic and pcb with a different layout?
Jorge Miguel , 04-15-2020, 09:59 PM
Hello colleagues I have the following question I have a project in altium, I have a schematic design that is based on THT technology and a variant in SMD but how can I achieve several pcb iterations with different sizes and positions of the components all in the same project and sharing the same schematic?
robertferanec , 04-16-2020, 09:52 AM
PCB and schematic needs to be the same for all variants - only difference is what components are fitted and not fitted. Otherwise you may need to create a new project.
Comments:
Jorge Miguel, 04-16-2020, 10:27 AM
thanks for answering robert so if i have a schematic where i use tht components and i want to make a variant with smd components how can i make a totally different pcb with that smd variant? I ask because I have two altium projects that basically share the same but the tht and smd versions have different sizes, different layout and different component placement. somehow it is possible to create a single project where you have different versions of the schematic and the pcb?
Jorge Miguel , 04-16-2020, 10:31 AM
What I'm saying is being able to do the same thing but in a single project? since they share everything, schematic, library, nets etcc ......
Comments:
Jorge Miguel, 04-16-2020, 08:31 PM
thanks for the reply and quite interesting this method i will be testing
robertferanec , 04-17-2020, 05:23 AM
@beamray I believe, @Jorge Miguel needs different schematics too - one with symbols referring to TH footprints and other schematic with symbols referring to SMD footprints. I am not sure it it would be possible to have one schematic with two different footprints for components.
Jorge Miguel , 04-17-2020, 07:39 AM
exactly robert I know that I can have a schematic with a variant using smd components but on the pcb I would have to have both footprints which I am not looking for and therefore I had to do two independent projects and from there achieve the iterations that I needed
beamray , 04-17-2020, 08:59 AM
You can do that easy way. In footprint manager there should be 2 footprints. Than you create variants and in variants manager changes footprint.
Comments:
Jorge Miguel, 04-17-2020, 09:01 AM
if that part I know but what happens is that the pcb would use the two footprint as I understand
robertferanec , 04-17-2020, 10:43 AM
You can do that easy way. In footprint manager there should be 2 footprints. Than you create variants and in variants manager changes footprint.
Comments:
Jorge Miguel, 04-17-2020, 10:51 AM
hello robert, up to where I was testing when you make the variant in the schematic with the smd components and create the pcb in it the two footprint will be loaded then when you change the variant the components change the problem is that when I do that I cannot make a layout different (well within the knowledge I have so far)
beamray , 04-18-2020, 02:34 AM
Yep, PCB will have 2 footprints. I haven't found any description of the parameters one could apply to variants.
So we'd been left with 2 possible solutions: New project wit new board and new footprints and new schematics, or a subproject with 2 footprints, but one should change footprints manually,
So we'd been left with 2 possible solutions: New project wit new board and new footprints and new schematics, or a subproject with 2 footprints, but one should change footprints manually,
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