Altium 18.1: Cross Select Mode

[Paul van Avesaath]

I agree with robert, practice practice and you will find that creating the footprint is easy.. reading the datasheet correctly is the hard part in some cases.. .

you can use the default libs for most cases like 0402/0603 sot23 etc (basic components).. (i personally don't) but once you have a lot of own footprints its easy to re-use or adapt.

one note that might be helpfull is to add the margin to a footprint recommendation.
so if a pad is let say 1mm wide with a margin of +/-0.05, make the footprint pad 1.05 wide.. gives you a bit less trouble sometimes when you go to manufacturing..

also when creating your footprint it is somethimes really helpfull to switch your reference point (E-F-Lkeyboard shortcut).. it removes the hassle of calculating values from x/y coordinates..
just remember to reset it to center or pin 1 when you are done.. personally I use center-ref for IC and pin 1 ref for connectors..

or set your grid to a specific value ( G-G keyboard shortcut) just to punch a gazillion pads in a row with exact spacing..

alsways set your ouline bigger than the component (use a 6mil line) so that you can still see the outline when the component is placed...

hope this helps you a bit.. and good luck.. if you have made your footprints.. show and tell!!! would love to see them!

[robertferanec]

Creating footprints is not difficult. Just practice - create footprints by yourself and you will see, soon you will have enough confidence and you will not be thinking about that much - you will just do it. Also, what may help, do not create footprints for every component which you place into your schematic - often happen, that you may need to delete or re-do your schematic. First, finish schematic and only then create footprints.

[Salam Alkhawri]

HI Robert


First, thank you very much for the help.

I have one more thing. I'm still a beginner in PCB design, therefore, sometimes I find it hard to know how to choose my components and then create their footprints. Are there any tips/ advice you can give me to easy the way when creating footprints for any components ?

I like reading the datasheet for the footprint but once there is something I don't know about my head start spinning and then I get lost :/



Regards
Salam Alkhawri

[robertferanec]

You probably need to have the PCB in the same project as is your schematic. At this moment your PCB is under Free Documents.

[Salam Alkhawri]

HI

I have cross select mode enabled on both Schematic and Pcb, but when I try to select a component on either of the window it doesn't select it on the other window. I'd appreciate the help.

Sorry for my bad English.





Thanks
Salam Alkhawri