New Project

The New Project dialog

Summary

The New Project dialog is used to create an Altium Designer project file. Every design created in Altium Designer starts with a project file that stores project level settings, such as links to each of the design documents within that project. As well as creating the new project file on the hard drive, this dialog supports adding the new project to version control or creating it as a managed project.

The new project can be created:

• In a folder on the hard drive.
• In your version control system with a working copy in your preferred location.
• As a Managed Project with a working copy in your preferred location. A Managed Project is one that is stored in the version control system built into your Altium Vault.

Access

This dialog can be accessed in the following ways:

• Click File » New » Project.
• From the New from template region of the Files panel, click on any of the Projects entries.

Options/Controls

Project Types

Select the required project type from the list. If a template is available for the chosen type, it will appear in the Project Templates list.

Project Templates

After selecting a project type, the Project Templates region will list all available templates of the chosen project type. Templates are listed based on their file extension. For example, when PCB Project is selected in the Project Types list, all files with the .PrjPcb file extension in the Manage Templates folder location, are listed. Note that the project name defined in the Name field is prepended with the name of each document that belongs to the template project.

Manage Templates

Click this button to open the Data Management - Templates page of the Preferences dialog to set the folder location where the templates are stored.

Name

When you click on a project type, a default name appears in the Name field; enter a suitable project name.

Location

This is the folder location where the project files will be saved. Type in the location or click the Browse Location button to navigate to a new location. For a version controlled or managed project, this will be the location of the working copy.

Create Project Folder

If the Create Project Folder option is enabled, a sub-folder with the same name as defined in the Name field will be created and the new project files saved into it.

Repository

Once the Add Project to Version Control option is enabled, the required repository can be selected from the available repositories defined in the Data Management - Design Repositories page of the Preferences dialog. 

Manage Repositories

Click this button to open the Data Management - Design Repositories page of the Preferences dialog. Use the controls on that page to connect to a repository.

Add Project to Version Control

Enable this option to add this new project directly into your version control repository. When the option is enabled, the Repository drop down will show the connected repositories defined in the Preferences dialog. Click Browse Folder to navigate to a specific location within the repository. When you click OK to create a version control or managed project, it will be added to the specified folder within the target repository, then checked out to the local working folder defined in the Location field. The project will be opened in the Projects panel. Note that at this stage, the project needs to be fully committed to the repository, as indicated by the blue crosses in the VCS Status column of the Projects panel.

Repository Folder

Define a name for the folder for this project in the repository.

Browse Folder

Click this button to open the Add to Version Control dialog from where you can navigate and create the required folder structure within the repository.

Managed Project

If this option is enabled, the Add Project to Version Control option will become unavailable, indicating that you are selecting to use the Vault version control system rather than the repository defined in the Data Management — Design Repositories page of the Preferences dialog.

OK

When you click OK, the project and associated files will be created and saved, and the project will be opened in the Projects panel.