Service pack upgrades design software

Available as a free download to existing licensed Altium Designer Nexar, Protel, CircuitStudio and CAMtastic customers, SP4 includes over 100 new features and enhancements.

Altium has released Service Pack 4 (SP4) for Altium Designer, the single, unified application that incorporates all the technologies and capabilities necessary for complete electronic product development.

Available as a free download to existing licensed Altium Designer Nexar, Protel, CircuitStudio and CAMtastic customers, SP4 includes over 100 new features and enhancements to improve collaboration between design teams and make electronic product development faster and more efficient.

The development of the new features and enhancements available within SP4 reflects the close co-operation Altium shares with its Altium Designer community.

As a result of this co-operation, SP4 includes a range of new team-targeted features such as document file locking to improve collaborative design.

With this feature enabled, documents opened for editing by one designer can be locked to prevent accidental overwriting by other designers, thus improving overall work flow in which a number of designers are working on a single project.

A new "archive project" command automatically consolidates all project documents within a compressed zip file.

This allows easy movement of the design between PCs, or archiving of a completed project.

At the PCB level, SP4 introduces real-time, 3D component clearance checking when placing parts.

Designers can define the extent of components in terms of multiple areas, heights and standoffs, creating a complex 3D "envelope" of the component body.

Enhancements to component clearance checking rules allow clearances in all directions to be monitored in real-time during placement, enabling the effective stacking of components compliant with height restrictions.

Schematic editing has been enhanced to include the automation of common rework operations on schematic designs, reducing errors and design time.

New commands include "push part to sheet", that makes it easy to replace a component with a sheet symbol, automatically creating an additional subsheet containing the displaced component and maintain overall connectivity.

A new "rename child sheet" command allows the user to change the filename of a subsheet and optionally update all sheet symbols in the project or workspace.

These commands guarantee the integrity of updates and lessen the risk of errors and the time taken to reorganise a schematic.

"Altium Designer Service Pack 4 is yet another example of Altium's commitment to responding to our customers needs and bringing the best and latest technology to their design desktops", said Nick Martin, founder and CEO, Altium.

"The powerful features and enhancements included in this service pack improve collaboration within design teams and make the overall electronic product development process easier and more efficient".

Service Pack 4 is available free of charge for immediate download to all existing licensed Altium Designer customers.

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