Creating Harness Template Documents in Altium Designer

Creating a Wiring Diagram or Layout Drawing Template

When applied to a wiring diagram or layout drawing, a harness template document defines the size, the graphics (such as title block) and the list of document-level parameters of this document. You can create your own set of templates to facilitate providing consistent-looking harness design documents created by you or the entire team.

To create a new wiring diagram or layout drawing template:

1. When a harness design project is the active project, create a new wiring diagram document / layout drawing document by selecting the File » New » Harness Wiring Diagram or File » New » Harness Layout Drawing command, respectively, from the main menus.

2. Configure options of the design space using the General tab of the Properties panel in its Documents Options mode:

   • in the General region of the panel: select the units and configure the grid options;

     

   • in the Page Options region of the panel: select Standard or Custom in the Formatting and Size region and configure the provided options as required – set sheet size and orientation, enable or disable use of a default title block, and set margin and zones;

      

     Do not select Template in the Formatting and Size region of the panel and choose a template. Doing this means you are applying a template to your new template; if you do, your template will not behave correctly.

3. Define the set of parameters on the Parameters tab of the Properties panel in its Documents Options mode. These parameters will become document-level parameters of the wiring diagram / layout template document to which the template will be applied. Use the controls at the bottom of the panel to add and remove used-defined parameters.

   

4. Using drawing objects (Line, Image, etc.), define the look of the template. For example, if you opted not to include a default title block, create a custom title block using these objects.

   You can also use Text String objects to define the static text strings of the template, i.e. the text that will not be changed in the document (e.g. Drawn By text).

   
   An example custom title block created using line and text objects.

5. Use Text String objects as Special Strings to define placeholders for design or system information that will be substituted with parameter values when the template is applied to a document. Define the Text property of a selected Text String object in the format =<ParameterName>. When applied to a document, this Text String will show the value of the parameter with the same name. This can be a sheet-level parameter (predefined or user-defined) or a project-level parameter.

   For example, a Text String with the =DrawnBy text will show the value of the Drawn By parameter (where, for example, the name of the designer is entered) when the template is applied to a document.

   Learn more about Special Strings.

   
   An example custom title block with special strings added. These special strings will be updated with actual parameter values when the template is applied to a document.

   When creating a wiring diagram / layout template document template, it is recommended not to use spaces in the names of parameters that are used as special strings – when applying such a template to a document, and parameters with spaces in their names are not added to the sheet from the templates, an apostrophe character (') or the #NAME? string will be shown on the sheet instead of the actual parameter name.

6. Select the File » Save As command from the main menus. In the Save As dialog that appears, browse to the local templates folder for your installation of Altium Designer (denoted in the Local Templates folder field at the bottom of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog; C:\Users\Public\Documents\Altium\AD<Version> for the default installation), enter the desired name of the template and select Harness Wiring template (*.WirDot) or Harness Layout template (*.LdrDot) from the Save as type drop-down.

   

   

The template can now be applied to a wiring diagram / layout document. When the document is active, open the Properties panel in its Documents Options mode (active when no object is selected in the design space), and in the Page Options region of the General tab, select Template mode for Formatting and Size and then use the Template drop-down to select from available templates.

Creating a Manufacturing Drawing Template

A manufacturing drawing template defines a manufacturing drawing document's content and (optionally) its style properties.

To create a new manufacturing drawing document template:

1. When a harness design project is the active project, create a new manufacturing drawing document by selecting the File » New » Draftsman Document command from the main menus.

2. Define the content of the template. The template supports multi-page documents, data for the main document attributes (tables and lists, drawing types, etc.), page settings and elements that do not depend on the harness design content. A sheet template can be used to define the graphic format of a new or existing drawing document and is also saved as part of a manufacturing drawing document template.

   
   An example of a manufacturing drawing document template

   A multi-page manufacturing drawing document might typically contain wiring diagram and layout drawing views, connection and BOM tables, and wiring lists. When saved as a Harness Document Template, the data from the current harness design is retained to define a drawing content 'shell.'

3. Select the File » Save Copy As or File » Save As command from the main menus. In the Save dialog that appears, browse to the local templates folder for your installation of Altium Designer (defined in the Local Templates folder field at the bottom of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog; C:\Users\Public\Documents\Altium\AD<Version> for the default installation), enter the desired name of the template and select Altium Draftsman Harness Document Templates (*.HarDot) from the Save as type drop-down.

   

   After clicking Save, an existing drawing document's content and attributes, except those related to data extracted from the harness design, will be saved as a manufacturing drawing document template. If the source drawing document has a specific page style (as might be applied by a Sheet Template), these graphical elements and attributes will be saved with the new manufacturing drawing document template.

   • As with other Altium Designer documents, the Save As command will replace the existing source file in the project structure (in this case, a Draftsman drawing document) with the newly saved file (a Draftsman template document). The source document (*.PCBDwf) is not deleted from the project folder on disk. A better approach is to use the Save Copy As option, which will save the new template to the nominated directory while keeping the source document (and project contents) intact.
   • Any elements that are incompatible with the manufacturing drawing document template format will be removed.

When subsequently used as a template for a new manufacturing drawing document, the project data is loaded into the shell in place of the template data, therefore, recreating the document format and its type of content.