Creating a Draftsman Template

Created: January 30, 2023 | Updated: April 15, 2025 | Applies to versions: 23, 24 and 25

Note

The features available depend on your Altium product access level. Compare features included in the various levels of Altium Designer Software Subscription and functionality delivered through applications provided by the Altium 365 platform.

If you don’t see a discussed feature in your software, contact Altium Sales to find out more.

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.

What is the Difference between a Sheet Template and a Document Template?

Draftsman document templates focus on the content and structure of the entire Draftsman document, while sheet templates handle the formatting of individual sheets.

A Draftsman document template can include multiple sheets (pages) and various elements such as views and tables. When a Draftsman document is saved as a document template, the data from the current PCB is retained to define a drawing content 'shell.' When subsequently used as a document 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.
A Draftsman sheet template, when applied to a Draftsman document page (learn more), defines sheet-level properties of a Draftsman document, such as the size and title block of the sheet.

A number of Draftsman document and sheet templates are provided by default in the following locations:

In the connected Workspace – within the Managed Content\Templates\Draftsman Templates\Document Templates and Managed Content\Templates\Draftsman Templates\Sheet Templates Workspace folders (if you opted to include Sample Data upon the activation/installation of your Workspace).
Locally – within the Templates sub-folder in the Shared Documents folder of your Altium Designer installation (C:\Users\Public\Documents\Altium\AD<Version> for the default installation).

You can edit these default templates according to your requirements or create new ones as described below.

Creating a Workspace Draftsman Template Copy Link Copied

Draftsman document and sheet templates can be created in your connected Workspace – one centralized secure location for all your design data, accessible for your entire design team.

Creating a Workspace Draftsman Document Template

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

Open the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog.
Select the Draftsman Document command from the menu of the button or the context menu of the template grid.
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 Item will be created automatically in a Workspace folder of the Draftsman Templates type.
Define the content of the document template. The document template supports multi-page documents, data for the main document attributes (views, tables and lists, etc.), page settings, and elements created by Draftsman that do not depend on the PCB's design content.

A sheet template can be used to define the page-level attributes, such as the title block, size, and so on (refer to the Setting Up a Draftsman Document page to learn more configuring document sheets, including applying a sheet template). The reference to the sheet template is saved as part of the document template. Sheet templates are discussed next.

An example of a single-page Draftsman document template

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.
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.

Creating a Workspace Draftsman Sheet Template

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

Open the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog.
Select the Draftsman Sheet command from the menu of the button or the context menu of the template grid.
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 Item will be created automatically in a Workspace folder of the Draftsman Templates type.
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 graphical tools (such as lines and rectangles) are also included – for example, a constructed title block and content.

An example of a Draftsman sheet template

When creating a Draftsman sheet template, it is recommended not to use another sheet template as the source of page size and format, i.e., use Standard or Custom mode rather than Template when defining page options on the Page Options tab of the Properties panel when no object is defined in the design space.

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.
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.

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:

Open the template within Altium Designer.
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.
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 does not 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.
The Edit Revision dialog will appear, in which you can define Name, Description, and add release notes as required.
After clicking OK, the template will be saved and stored in the revision of the Item.

You can also create a new Workspace Draftsman document/sheet template using the Load from File command from the menu of the button or the Add context menu of the template grid on the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog. In the Open dialog (a standard Windows open-type dialog) that opens, select the Draftsman Document File (*.DwfDot) / Draftsman Sheet File (*.DwsDot) option in the drop-down at the right of the File name field and use the dialog to browse to and open the required file that will be uploaded into the initial revision of the new Draftsman Document/Sheet Template Item created automatically in a Workspace folder of the Draftsman Templates type.
If the required Draftsman document/sheet template to be saved to the Workspace resides in the Local Template folder (defined at the bottom of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog) and is listed under the Local entry of the template grid, it can be migrated to a new Draftsman Document/Sheet Template Item by right-clicking on it and selecting the Migrate to Server command. Click the OK button in the Template migration dialog to proceed with the migration process – as stated in this dialog, the original template file will be added to a Zip archive in the local template folder (and hence it will not be visible under the Local template list).

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 Item.

If you need to update a Workspace Draftsman document/sheet template and you have the updated Draftsman document/sheet template file, you can upload that file to that Workspace template. From the Templates tab of the Data Management – Templates page of the Preferences dialog, right-click on the template entry and choose the Upload command from the context menu. Use the Open dialog (a standard Windows open-type dialog) that opens to browse to, and open, the required file that will be uploaded into the next revision of the Draftsman Document/Sheet Template Item.

Creating a Local Draftsman Template Copy Link Copied

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.

As with other Altium Designer documents (schematic, PCB, etc.), 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.

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).

If you find an issue, select the text/image and pressCtrl + Enterto send us your feedback.

Printer-friendly version