Schematic Templates in a Workspace Connected to Altium Designer

Parent page: Workspace Content Types

Altium Designer, in conjunction with your connected Workspace, caters for the ability to create and manage schematic templates (Schematic Template Items) in that Workspace. Such schematic templates are created directly from within the Workspace. Once a schematic template has been created (and data saved into a revision of it), it can be reused in future board-level design projects.

Folder Type

When creating the folder in which to store schematic templates, you can specify the folder's type. This has no bearing on the content of the folder – saving a schematic template will always result in a corresponding Schematic Template Item. It simply provides a visual 'clue' as to what is stored in a folder and can be beneficial when browsing a Workspace for particular content. To nominate a folder's use as a container for schematic templates, set its Folder Type as Schematic Templates, when defining the folder properties in the Edit Folder dialog.

Specifying the folder type – its intended use – gives a visual indication of the content of that folder when browsing the Workspace.

Content Type

When creating a target Schematic Template Item in which to store your schematic template, ensure that its Content Type is set to Schematic Template, in the Create New Item dialog. If you are creating the Item in a Schematic Templates type folder, this content type will be available from the right-click context menu when creating the Item.

Creating a schematic template within a Schematic Templates folder – the correct Content Type is available on the context menu.

Saving a Schematic Template

Related page: Creating and Editing Content Directly through a Workspace

So far, we've discussed the support for a schematic template in the Workspace, in terms of related folder and content types. Saving an actual defined schematic template into a revision of a Schematic Template Item can be performed in a streamlined way.

A schematic template can be edited and saved into the initial revision of a newly-created Schematic Template Item, courtesy of the Workspace's support for direct editing. Direct editing frees you from the shackles of separate version-controlled source data. You can simply edit a supported content type using a temporary editor loaded with the latest source direct from the Workspace itself. And once editing is complete, the entity is saved (or re-saved) into a subsequent planned revision of its parent Item, and the temporary editor closed. There are no files on your hard drive, no questioning whether you are working with the correct or latest source, and no having to maintain separate version control software. The Workspace handles it all, with great integrity, and in a manner that greatly expedites changes to your data.

When you create a Schematic Template Item, you have the option to edit and save a schematic template into the initial revision of that item, after creation. To do so, enable the option Open for editing after creation, at the bottom of the Create New Item dialog (which is enabled by default). The Item will be created and the temporary Schematic Editor will open, presenting a .SchDot document as the active document in the main design window. This document will be named according to the Item-Revision, in the format: <Item><Revision>.SchDot (e.g. SCHDOT-0010-1.SchDot).

Example of editing the initial revision of a schematic template, directly from the Workspace – the temporary Schematic Editor provides the document with which to define your schematic template.

Use the document to define the schematic template as required.

There are three relevant controls when direct editing, readily available from the Quick Access Bar (at the top-left of the main application window), or from the Schematic Standard toolbar:

• – Save Active Document. Use this button to locally save any changes made to the document. This allows you to save current changes, should you wish to come back at a later stage to make further changes before ultimately saving to the Workspace.

• / – Save to Workspace. Use this button to save the defined schematic template to the Workspace, storing it within the initial (planned) revision of the target Schematic Template Item. The Edit Revision dialog will appear, in which you can change Name, Description, and add release notes as required. The document and editor will close after the save. The document containing the source schematic template, *.SchDot, will be stored in the revision of the Item.

  A Save to Server control is also conveniently provided to the right of the template's entry, within the Projects panel itself.
• / – Discard Local Changes. Use this button if you wish to cancel editing and discard any changes made. The document and editor will close, and nothing will be saved to the target Schematic Template Item.

These controls are also available as commands – Save (shortcut: Ctrl+S), Save to Server (shortcut: Ctrl+Alt+S), and Discard Local Changes – from the main File menu and from the right-click menu of the template's entry in the Projects panel.

The saved data stored in the Workspace consists of the source schematic template, defined in the Schematic Template file (<Item><Revision>.SchDot). In the Explorer panel, switch to the Preview aspect view tab to see the template graphics.

Browse the saved revision of the schematic template, back in the Explorer panel. Switch to the Preview aspect view tab to see the template graphics.

Saving an Existing Template to Workspace

While direct editing is the preferred approach – and the only approach – for most design content that can be stored in a Workspace, when it comes to existing schematic templates you also have the abiltiy to save a template directly to the Workspace. This requires that you have a planned revision of an existing Schematic Template Item, into which the sheet will be saved. The process is as follows:

1. Create a new Schematic Template Item and initial planned revision, or have a planned revision of another existing Item, as required.
2. Open the schematic template (*.SchDot) within Altium Designer.
3. Choose the File » Save to Server command from the main menus.

4. The Choose Planned Item Revision dialog will appear. Use this to choose the target revision of the required Schematic Template Item (which must be in the Planned state), then click OK.

   If the target Schematic Template Item doesn't exist, you can create it through the Choose Planned Item Revision dialog on-the-fly. 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.
5. The Edit Revision dialog will appear, in which you can change Name, Description, and add release notes as required.
6. After clicking OK, the template will be saved and stored in the revision of the Item.

Example of sending an existing schematic template to the Workspace to which you are currently connected. The save must be to an existing revision of a schematic template, and that revision must be in the Planned state.

Reusing a Schematic Template

Related pages: Managed Schematic Sheets, Controlling Access to Workspace Content

Once a schematic template has been saved to a Workspace, and its lifecycle state set to a level that the organization views as ready for use at the design level, that template can be reused in future board-level design projects.

When you are connected to your Workspace, use of available schematic templates is automatic. If there are saved revisions of schematic templates, then those templates – shared with you – will be available for use in the following areas of the software where a schematic template can be chosen.

Re-Saving a Schematic Template

At any stage, you can come back to any revision of a schematic template in the Workspace, and edit it directly. Right-click on the revision and choose the Edit command from the context menu. Once again, the temporary 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 schematic template.

Accessing the command to launch direct editing of an existing revision of a schematic template.

Downloading Saved Data

Download the data stored in a revision of a schematic template by right-clicking on that revision and choosing the Operations » Download command from the context menu. The schematic template file will be downloaded into a sub-folder under the chosen directory, named using the Item Revision ID. The file can be found in the Released folder therein.

Soft Deletion

When connected to a Workspace, flexible functionality is available for removing a schematic template directly from within Altium Designer:

• From the Explorer panel – right-click on the schematic template's entry in the panel and choose the Delete Item command from the context menu.
• From the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog – right-click on the schematic template's entry in the dialog and choose the Delete command from the context menu.

The Delete Items dialog will appear, in which to confirm the deletion. The action is actually a 'soft delete', whereby the template will be moved into the Trash area of the Workspace. The Trash is essentially a recycle bin into which any content within your Workspace can be moved (through a soft delete action). It is isolated from the rest of the Workspace.

Soft deletion of a schematic template from within the Explorer panel. The template will be moved to the Workspace's Trash area.

To proceed with the deletion, click the button. The template will be removed and a Deletion Summary dialog will confirm successful deletion. If there was an issue with deletion, this will be flagged to you.

All content deleted in this manner can be found on the Trash page of the Workspace's browser interface. Note that you can only view content that you have personally soft deleted. Administrators will be able to see the full content of the Trash page – so all content that has been soft deleted.

Things to consider in relation to a soft deleted schematic template:

• The schematic template will not be available from your design software, or from within the Web interface.
• Anywhere the schematic template was being used will reflect that the template has been deleted.
• A schematic template can be restored, or permanently deleted from the Trash page, provided you have editing rights. Permanent deletion is only possible provided it is not being used by a parent Item.