Additional Enhancements and Improvements

Altium Designer 17.1 includes a number of significant enhancements that include (but are not limited to): control over left/right selection in the Schematic and PCB editors, Tool menu updates, and enhancements to the confirmation dialog when deleting locked primitives. The enhancements with this version are described in the following sections.

Modified Polygons Checked During DRC

When running a Design Rule Check (DRC) from the Tools menu, modified polygons are checked first even when the rule is disabled. If the design contains shelved or modified (but not repoured) polygons and violations are found, a warning message is displayed stating that the DRC may not be correct. The warning will recommend to restore/repour all polygons then proceed with the DRC. The warning also will appear in a generated OutJob report.

Convert to Keepout Command Moved to Tool Menu

The command to convert primitives to keepouts has been moved to the Convert sub-menu of the Tools menu and is named Convert Selected Primitives to Keepouts. The command is grayed out (not accessible) if it is not applicable.

Moving a Project Folder in Vault Explorer

A Confirmation dialog now appears when attempting to move a folder that contains a Project in the Vault Explorer. 

Streamlined Confirmation Dialog when Deleting Objects

The dialog that appears when deleting a set of objects if one or more of them are locked had been made more comprehensive. You now can select Unlocked Only or Locked and Unlocked.

Additional Default Suppliers

The suppliers Avnet and Future have been added to the list of default suppliers.

Added 'Use Left/Right Selection' to System Preferences

A new Use Left/Right Selection has been added to the System - General page of the Preferences dialog (DXP » Preferences) as shown in the following image. Use the setting to use right side (inside area) and left side (touching rectangle) selections in all editors. This option is enabled by default. 

Use Left/Right selection option of the System - General Preferences page

Added Ability to Waive Violations

Violations can be waived from the PCB Rules And Violations panel and the Messages panel using commands available in the right-click menu of each panel. When waiving a violation, you can log information regarding who waived the violation and why, as well as when the violation was waived. Violations that are marked as waived are displayed in a separate color on the board.

     Waive violations from the right-click menus of the PCB Rules And Violations and Messages panels.