Streamlining Board Design Documentation with Draftsman in Altium Designer

 Clear and accurate documentation is a critical part of the PCB design process. Good documentation ensures your design intent is correctly communicated to manufacturing and test engineers. However, creating documentation manually is tedious and error-prone.

Altium Designer's Draftsman tool radically simplifies creating documentation. This built-in tool eliminates repetitive documentation tasks by automatically generating drawings and reports. It frees up designers to focus on the creative part of their job.

In this guide, we'll cover how to streamline documentation generation with Draftsman. You'll learn how to:

• Automatically create fabrication and assembly drawings
• Generate detailed BOM and stackup reports
• Add custom templates for drawings and reports
• Share documentation in industry-standard formats

By leveraging Draftsman, you can shave hours off documentation creation. Keep reading to transform this once painful process!

Automatically Generate Drawings

Manually creating fabrication and assembly drawings is incredibly tedious. Draftsman eliminates this work by automatically generating drawings based on design data.

Fabrication Drawings

A fabrication drawing provides all details needed for PCB manufacturing. This includes layer stacks, finished copper, soldermask layers, silkscreen, board outlines, and more.

To automatically generate a fabrication drawing in Altium Designer:

1. Click the Project tab and select Generate Fabrication Drawings.
2. Select which layers you want to include in the PDF fabrication drawing output. Most designers enable all fabrication layers.
3. Set the correct drawing page size for your fabricator. This is commonly A4 or US Letter.
4. Adjust logo, title block, and other drawing parameters as needed in the preview window.
5. Click Generate to output the final fabrication drawing PDF file.

By leveraging built-in design data, Draftsman outputs a full fabrication drawing in under a minute. No more tedious exporting and arranging layers manually!

Assembly Drawings

The assembly drawing shows PCB footprints, dimensions, part callouts, and other helpful info for assembly engineers. Draftsman can automatically build this drawing too.

To generate an automated assembly drawing:

1. Click the Project tab then select Generate Assembly Drawings.
2. Enable desired assembly drawing layers like assembly text, dimensions, etc.
3. Set paper size and drawing parameters.
4. Click Generate to output the assembly PDF file.

With a few clicks, Draftsman produces a detailed, automatically-dimensioned assembly drawing for your design.

Automatic BOM and Stackup Reports

In addition to drawings, documentation packages need BOMs and layer stackup info. Draftsman can automatically compile and output these reports.

Bill of Materials (BOM)

The BOM provides a listing of all components in your design including reference designators, descriptions, quantities, etc. This aids purchasing and production planning.

Generating a BOM report is simple:

1. Click the Project tab then Generate BOM.
2. Select which BOM columns to include, such as description, reference, quantity, etc.
3. Choose output file type - Excel is recommended.
4. Click Generate to compile and output BOM spreadsheet.

Draftsman gathers all required BOM data from the design and components libraries. The BOM can even include supplier links and component pricing if desired.

Layer Stackup Report

The layer stackup drawing details PCB construction, including layer materials, finished thicknesses, and order. This drawing is essential for fabricators to manufacture your design correctly.

Follow these steps to automatically build a layer stackup report:

1. Select Project > Generate Stackup Report.
2. Customize stackup chart with desired fonts, colors, and dimensions.
3. Enable output of detailed stackup table showing materials and thicknesses.
4. Select output type like PDF or Excel.
5. Click Generate to create the report with the click of a button!

Custom Drawing and Report Templates

While Draftsman's built-in templates are excellent, some designers need custom outputs. Fortunately, Draftsman makes building custom documentation simple.

You can fully customize and template:

• Drawings - fabrication, assembly, etc.
• BOMs - reorder columns, include pricing data, etc.
• Layer stackups - custom charts, callouts, etc.

To create a custom template:

1. Generate the desired base output - drawing, BOM or stackup.
2. Customize the preview with company logos, title blocks, reorder data etc.
3. Save the output as a .Dwf template file.

Now when you generate documentation, choose your custom template file for brand-consistent, designer-approved outputs every time. No more spreadsheet editing or document reformatting!

Output Documentation to Shareable Formats

Draftsman supports exporting documentation files to various industry-standard platforms and formats. This streamlines sharing with your team and external partners.

Supported documentation output formats include:

• PDF - Vector format perfect for printing drawings while retaining layer data. PDFs also display correctly across platforms and don't require original software to view.
• Excel (.XLSX) - Interactive spreadsheet format ideal for BOMs. Excel enables easy quantity tracking, sorting, and pricing data manipulation.
• Word (.DOCX) - Text and image outputs suitable for reports. Tables and data can also be included within Word docs.
• AutoCAD DXF - CAD format sharing fabrication drawings with mechanical engineers to aid enclosure design.

Stakeholders can view design documentation through web browsers, desktop apps, and mobile devices. There's no compatibility issues or software access requirements.

Documentation Version Control

Engineers modify hundreds if not thousands of components during a project. This causes documentation to constantly fall out of sync. Draftsman solves this with incremental revisions.

When generating drawings, BOMs, and reports, Draftsman embeds the output files with details like:

• Project file name
• Revision number
• Date generated

You can quickly view when documentation was last compiled. Even better, outputs update automatically simply by regenerating documentation. No more tracking incremental changes across endless spreadsheets and drawings!

Documenting Complex Designs Faster

While Draftsman simplifies documentation for all boards, it truly shines for complex designs.

Large boards with thousands of components and 100+ pages of documentation are tedious and difficult to manage manually. However, Draftsman handles complex outputs with ease.

In one case study, Draftsman reduced documentation time for an automotive design from over 80 hours to just 4 hours. Similar time savings have been achieved for intricate telecom and industrial boards too.

Here are some key reasons why Draftsman accelerates complex documentation:

• Design data drives drawings automatically instead of manual creation.
• BOMs pre-populate accurate quantities and component data.
• Documentation links directly to source design files. Changes update appropriately with a single click.
• Layer stackups clearly communicate intricate construction needs.

Next time you create documentation for a complex project, leverage Draftsman to save dozens or hundreds of engineering hours!

Conclusion

Clear documentation is crucial for successfully transforming designs into manufactured products. However, traditional documentation methods are fragmented, tedious, and difficult to manage.

Altium Designer's Draftsman technology consolidates documentation into a single, automated tool. It eliminates hours wasted on manual document creation and upkeep. With a custom Draftsman strategy in place, engineers can focus their talents on what matters most - designing groundbreaking products.

Now that you know how Draftsman streamlines documentation, are you ready to implement advanced processes at your company? Contact us today to discuss best practices for accelerating your documentation workflow.

Frequently Asked Questions

What file formats does Draftsman support for documentation output?

Draftsman supports exporting documentation into PDF, Excel (.XLSX), Word (.DOCX), and AutoCAD DXF formats. These standardized formats ensure compatibility across platforms without original software required for viewing.

Can I customize the design templates used in Draftsman?

Yes, Draftsman enables full customization of templates for drawings, BOM tables, layer stackups, and reports. Once set up, output documentation will follow company or industry-standard branding guidelines.

Does Draftsman link documentation outputs to source design files?

Absolutely. Drawings, models, BOMs and other documentation generated in Draftsman embed critical details like design file names and revision numbers. This ensures full traceability and updates documentation instantly when source files change.

Can Draftsman help document very large and complex designs?

Draftsman excels at accelerating documentation for intricate, high component count designs. By leveraging automated data flows instead of manual processes, Draftsman cuts documentation time from dozens or hundreds of hours down to just a few hours.

What skills are required to start leveraging Draftsman?

One of Draftsman's strengths is ease of use even for beginners. With just an hour or two of basic training, new users can quickly utilize Documentation Outputs. Complex customization does require advanced expertise but out-of-box functionality is straightforward.