Creating a Draftsman Template in Altium Designer

A Draftsman document can use document and sheet templates:

• Document Templates – used to define the content of a new Draftsman document.
• Sheet Templates – used to define page properties of a Draftsman document.

Creating a Workspace Draftsman Template

Creating a Workspace Draftsman Document Template

To create a new Draftsman document template in your connected Workspace:

1. Open the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog.

2. Select the Draftsman Document command from the menu of the Add button or the context menu of the template grid.

   

3. After selecting the command, click OK in the Close Preferences dialog that opens to close the Preferences dialog and open the temporary Draftsman editor. A planned revision of the new Draftsman document template will be created automatically in a Workspace folder of the Draftsman Templates type.

4. Define the content of the document template. The document template supports multi-page documents, data for the main document attributes (views, tables and lists, drawing types, etc.), page settings, and elements created by Draftsman that do not depend on the PCB's design content. A sheet template can then be used to define the page-level attributes, such as the title block, grid, line style, and so on. The reference to the sheet template is saved as part of the document template. Sheet templates are discussed next.

   
   An example of a Draftsman document template.

   A multi-page Draftsman document might typically contain assembly drawings, drill tables and drawings, layer stack and BOM tables, and fabrication drawings. When saved as a Document Template, the data from the current PCB is retained to define a drawing content 'shell'.

   A Draftsman document relies on a PCB document for context. To be able to define document options for a Workspace Draftsman Document Template while defining it, a virtual 6000x4000 mil PCB document is created to provide this context.

5. Save the document template to the connected Workspace by selecting the File » Save to Server command from the main menus. The Edit Revision dialog will appear, in which you can define the Name and Description of the Draftsman Document Template Item being created in the Workspace and add release notes as required.

   Any elements that are incompatible with the Document Template format will be removed. If incompatible elements exist, an alert dialog will detail the pending action before saving.

   

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

Creating a Workspace Draftsman Sheet Template

To create a new Draftsman sheet template in your connected Workspace:

1. Open the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog.

2. Select the Draftsman Sheet command from the menu of the Add button or the context menu of the template grid.

   

3. After selecting the command, click OK in the Close Preferences dialog that opens to close the Preferences dialog and open the temporary Draftsman editor. A planned revision of the new Draftsman document template will be created automatically in a Workspace folder of the Draftsman Templates type.

4. Define the content of the sheet template. The templates can contain the graphics information for a page, including sheet sizes, parameters, and zones and border settings. Objects created with the editor's graphics tools (such as lines, rectangles, circles, and text) are also included – for example, a constructed title block and content.

   
   An example of a Draftsman sheet template.

   If using an automated sheet numeration parameter in a title block, note that two System types are supported for documents: the conventional SheetNumber parameter and the GOST compliant SheetNumber_OneSheet parameter. The latter will not report the current sheet number when only one sheet exists in the Draftsman document (as per the GOST 2.104-2006 drawing standard), and will otherwise deliver the same numbering as the SheetNumber parameter.

5. Save the template to the connected Workspace by selecting the File » Save to Server command from the main menus. The Edit Revision dialog will appear, in which you can define the Name and Description of the Draftsman Sheet Template Item being created in the Workspace and add release notes as required.

   Any elements that are incompatible with the Sheet Template format will be removed. Before saving, an alert dialog will detail the pending action if incompatible elements exist.

   

A Draftsman sheet template can be applied to a Draftsman document page: learn more.

Saving an Existing Local Draftsman Template to the Workspace

If you have an existing Draftsman document/sheet template (*.DwfDot/*.DwsDot), you also have the ability to save this template directly to the Workspace. The process is as follows:

1. Open the template within Altium Designer.

2. Choose the File » Save to Server command from the main menus.

   The file must be locally saved (File » Save) prior to saving to the Workspace.

3. The Choose Planned Item Revision dialog will appear. Use this to choose the target Draftsman Document/Sheet Template Item into the next revision (or an established revision in the Planned state) of which the sheet will be saved, then click OK.

   If the target Draftsman Document/Sheet Template Item doesn't exist, you can create it through the Choose Planned Item Revision dialog on-the-fly in the chosen Workspace folder by right-clicking in the revision list region of the dialog (or, if the folder does not contain any item yet, by clicking the Add an item control) and selecting the Create Item » Draftsman Document Template / Draftsman Sheet Template command. If doing so, be sure to disable the Open for editing after creation option (in the Create New Item dialog), otherwise you'll enter direct editing mode.
4. The Edit Revision dialog will appear, in which you can define Name, Description, and add release notes as required.
5. After clicking OK, the template will be saved and stored in the revision of the Item.

Editing a Workspace Draftsman Template

At any stage, you can come back to a Draftsman document/sheet template in the Workspace and edit it. From the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog, right-click on the template entry and choose the Edit command from the context menu. The temporary Draftsman editor will open, with the template contained in the revision opened for editing. Make changes as required, then save the document into the next revision of the Draftsman document/sheet template.

Creating a Local Draftsman Template

A local Draftsman sheet/document template can also be created by saving the Draftsman document (*.PCBDwf) that is currently open in the editor as one of the template types.

When the required Draftsman document is the active document, 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 Sheet Templates (*.DwsDot) or Altium Draftsman Document Templates (*.DwfDot) from the Save as type drop-down.

Local Draftsman templates will be listed on the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog, in the Local region of the grid (visible only if the Template visibility option is set to Server & Local on this page).