Making an Existing Project Available in the Workspace through Altium Designer

The recommended and most powerful method to work with projects is to create a new project directly within the connected Workspace. If you have an existing project, you can bring it into your Workspace by making it available online and opting to enable formal version control. In each case, the project will be stored and managed through the Workspace’s native Version Control System (VCS). This gives you the full functionality for a project when working with it through Altium Designer. Having your project under full management of the Workspace's VCS is the only way to share that project with multiple people for editing through Altium Designer (provided they are members of the Workspace) and benefit from the platform's additional features such as History tracking and advanced project Sharing.

To make an existing project (a local project or a project currently under external version control) available to the Workspace – either as a project mirrored (Simple Sync) in an Altium 365 Workspace or one under a Workspace's native Git Version Control, open the project as normal in Altium Designer, then right-click on its entry in the Projects panel and select Make Project Available Online from the context menu, giving access to the Make Available Online dialog. When using an Enterprise Server Workspace, the Make Project Available on Server command opens the Make Available On Server dialog.

Make an existing local project available to the Workspace, essentially 'registering' it with the Workspace and creating a 'mirror' of it.

Use the Make Available Online dialog to change the project Name and add a Description. By default, the name will be that of the original project.

Check the Version Control option to add the project under the Workspace's own built-in VCS (Git). When this option is unchecked (an Altium 365 Workspace option only), the project files will simply be stored in the Workspace for basic access and to enable sharing with others for viewing and commenting only – the Simple Sync arrangement. It is recommended to enable version control, as by doing so you will have access to the maximum functionality offered through, and by, the Workspace and the Altium 365 platform. Note that ability to mirror a project in a Workspace (Simple Sync) is available only when connected to an Altium 365 Workspace.

Click the dialog's Advanced link to expose the Folder field. This field is used to specify where the folder for the mirrored project – within the Workspace's folder structure – is to be created. The default path for new projects is specified on the Admin – Settings – Projects page of the Workspace's browser interface (by default, this will be Projects\<ProjectName>). Click the button to browse and select a different Workspace folder, if required.

With the properties for the project transition defined as required in the Make Available Online dialog, click OK. For a project that is not under external version control and when made available online (in an Altium 365 Workspace, the Version Control option was checked), the project and files will be committed and pushed to the Workspace's Versioned Storage design repository. The Projects panel will then reflect the fully synchronized state that exists between the Workspace design repository and the local (working copy) repository, as indicated by the associated icons. The project becomes a true Workspace project – not just 'registered' in the Workspace, but actually committed and under the Workspace's version control. Any changes made to the design must be saved (committed/pushed) back to the repository in the Workspace.

The project made available in the Workspace will subsequently be available from the Projects page of the Workspace's browser interface.

Limitations when using an Existing External Version Control Repository

As mentioned previously, your local designs may already be tracked under an existing, external version control system (Git, SVN, EPDM, etc...). When using an Altium 365 Workspace, you can continue using this setup as before and simply make the designs available to your Workspace by registering them with that Workspace – using the Make Project Available Online feature.

In this mode, every time you make changes to a design and commit those changes to your external VCS repository, that design data will be mirrored to the Workspace in the background, and all needed processing will be performed as usual – preview, where used, etc. There are some limitations to be aware of, however:

• Creation of a new design project still has to follow the previous flow, i.e. it is manually created in the external VCS system. The project is then registered and mirrored to the Workspace using the Make Project Available Online feature.
• If design changes are made but the commit/push is performed by external tools rather than through Altium Designer, then those changes will not appear for the mirrored project in the Workspace. This is corrected when the project is next reopened in Altium Designer, which automatically synchronizes the local project with the mirrored Workspace version. If the changes were made by another user, then the reopened project file(s) will show as Out Of Date () and can be corrected using the version control Update command.
• Opening of the project by a second person will require access to that external VCS repository.
• Rights management will have to be set up/maintained in two places – in the Workspace and in the master source (the external Git/SVN/etc VCS repository).
• Some features delivered through the Altium 365 platform work only by having a project under the Workspace's native version control system. By keeping your project under an external version control system such features, as they become available to the platform, will not be available to you. You can move from using your external VCS to the Workspace's native VCS – see the following section for the procedure to achieve this.

Working with GitHub

Using the GitHub platform as an external version control system (VCS) is a popular way to host and share design projects, and Git repositories are supported by Altium Designer. As described above for an Altium 365 Workspace, the existing external VCS arrangement can be synchronized with (mirrored to) the Workspace, which allows you to benefit from its advanced data management and collaboration features.

How you normally work with GitHub itself will vary depending on company practices or simply the Git tools you have at hand. In general, however, a design project is created in a local Git repository and then Pushed to a GitHub (remote) repository, or an existing project is Cloned to a local repository from GitHub. Once in the local Git repository, the project can be opened in Altium Designer for editing – the software will recognize and use the local/remote GitHub repositories.

If the Git-based project is mirrored to an Altium 365 Workspace (Make Project Available Online), the project can be managed and worked within Altium Designer like any other project stored in the Workspace. In this arrangement, the Workspace still provides all the advantages of its project management system and also transparently communicates with GitHub to perform the major VCS actions – commit, push, pull, etc. Altium Designer will request your GitHub login credentials and retain these for subsequent GitHub interaction.

GitHub Protocols

While there is a range of data transfer protocols offered by the Git VCS, Altium Designer currently supports the HTTP/HTTPS protocol only for connections between a local Git repository and its remote master repository. In practice, the applied protocol is set by the URL prefix specified for the remote repository connection – https://<remote repository>, ssh://<remote repository>, git://<remote repository>, and so on.

GitHub supports both the SSH and HTTPS protocols and recommends using HTTPS URLs for connections.

► See Which remote URL should I use? on GitHub for more information.

If your external VCS system is bound to a protocol other than HTTPS, such as a GitHub SSH connection, this will be preset in a repository that has been cloned from the remote. As this protocol is incompatible with Altium Designer, an error will be thrown when attempting to integrate the project with an Altium Workspace. For the SSH connection, you will be offered to try to have that repository updated to use the supported HTTPS connection protocol instead (provided the repository itself supports this protocol). If you are unsure of the remote URL protocol that is used for a local Git repository, this can be checked using the git remote – v command.

Use the Git Bash command line interface to check a repository's remote URL setting.

The repository can be reconfigured for a different URL, such as the HTTPS protocol to enable compatibility with Altium Designer, by using the git remote set-url <name> <URL> command, where the URL's prefix specifies the protocol type.

Changing the remote repository connection URL protocol and then confirming with the remote command.

Moving from External VCS to Workspace Native VCS

When connected to an Altium 365 Workspace, Altium Designer also offers the ability to faithfully migrate projects that use an external VCS system to a fully-managed Workspace project that hosts the design files in its own Git repository. The converted design project, which will retain the previous history of VCS commits, can then benefit from the Workspace's native VCS-enabled features, such advanced project sharing, single authentication, and the event-based History timeline.

The project VCS migration feature supports both Git and SVN external version control systems and is available when making a local file-based project available online, or when promoting a mirrored (synchronized only) project to one under the Workspace's own Git VCS.

To simply migrate a project that is stored under external version control, right-click on the project name in the Projects panel and choose the Make Project Available Online option from the context menu, or select Project » Make Available Online from the main menu. In the following Make Available Online dialog, check the Migrate to Altium 365 Versioned Storage option and confirm the operation (OK).

The enabled Migrate to Altium 365 Versioned Storage option effectively causes the external VCS repository to be replaced with the Workspace Git repository, converts the project to one stored and managed in the Altium 365 Workspace, and where possible, brings across the version commit history from the external VCS. Note that If the migrate option is left unchecked, the project is mirrored to the Workspace (the Simple Sync arrangement) while maintaining the external repository as its VCS storage.

To port a local VCS project to a fully managed VCS project in your Altium 365 Workspace check the VCS migrate option when making it available online.

The Migrate Project dialog will open and warn you that the project is going to be migrated under full management of the Workspace's VCS. Click the Browse button to select a folder on your hard drive where a new (git-based) local project repository will be created. Click the Migrate button to proceed with the migration.

The Migrate Project dialog

After following the prompts, which includes making a final VCS commit, the project is now under version control in the Workspace Git repository. The external VCS commit history and its comment/messages are ported to the new Workspace VCS project, which can be accessed in the Altium Designer History view – right-click on the project name in the Projects panel and select the History & Version Control » Show Project History command.

When migrated, the project's external VCS commit history (shown on the left) is transferred to the Altium Designer History view (right).

If the external VCS project is already managed in the Altium 365 Workspace as a mirrored project (synchronized local-server files), its VCS files can be migrated to the server's native Git repository using the Migrate to Altium Versioned Storage command, which is available from the Project History view, the Project Options dialog or the Projects panel's History & Version Control right-click context menu. 

A VCS project that has been synchronized with (mirrored to) your Workspace is migrated using the Migrate Project to Altium Version Control option.

Collaboration after migration

• When a Workspace team member has migrated a project to Altium Versioned Storage, they need to ensure that other project collaborators connect to the team Workspace and then update their local (working) project copies. The latter is indicated in the Projects panel by the icon (Out of Date) associated with the project file and actioned by the Project » History & Version Control » Update Whole Project command.
• Once the migrated project has been updated, Altium Designer will offer to update the links to the new repository by rebuilding the project's local working folder. Choose the recommended option in the Fix version control link dialog to finish the local project update.

• Note that if a project collaborator does not connect to the team Workspace and then commits VCS design changes, these will continue to be registered with the external repository and therefore out of sync with the migrated Workspace VCS project.
• During migration, Altium Designer executes a commit to the original repository to set a notification mark so it can be recognized as having been migrated by other team members' instances of Altium Designer.

Moving from the Workspace's SVN to the Workspace's Git

When Altium Designer is connected to an Enterprise Server Workspace and a design project is stored in an SVN repository managed through the Workspace's Version Control Service, you can migrate this project from the SVN repository to the Workspace's built-in Git repository (Versioned Storage). To do this, right-click its entry in the Projects panel and select the History & Version Control » Migrate Project to Altium Versioned Storage command from the context menu. Alternatively, click the Migrate to Server Versioned Storage button in the Project Options dialog.

After following the prompts, which include making a final VCS commit, the project will be migrated to the version control of the Workspace Git repository.

Controlling Project Synchronization

Once a local project has been made available to an Altium 365 Workspace, controls over its online availability and synchronization are provided through the General tab of the Project Options dialog.

Options and controls relating to having made the project available online are presented on the General tab of the Project Options dialog.

Use the option available in the General region of the tab to make changes to the project description. This affects the mirrored project within the Workspace only.

In the Online Availability and Synchronization region of the tab, the Version Control option reflects the current style of online availability:

• Option Enabled – the project (and its source files) are stored under the Workspace's own native VCS (Git). This is the recommended approach, as by doing so you will have access to the maximum functionality offered through, and by, the Workspace and the Altium 365 platform.
• Option Disabled – the project files are stored in the Workspace for basic access and to enable sharing with others for viewing and commenting only – the Simple Sync arrangement.

Use the option to change between these two as desired.

Should you wish to stop the synchronization between your local project, and the managed incarnation of it that was made available in the Workspace, click the button. The Turn off project synchronization window will appear. Click on the Unlink option, then click OK back in the Project Options dialog. The local project will no longer be associated with the project in the Workspace.

This is reflected in the Projects panel after saving the local project, by the project being presented under the active Project Group (*.DsnWrk), rather than as an entry under the active Workspace. A save is required since the links to the project in the Workspace are removed from the project file.

The project in the Workspace remains untouched – it is not removed by this action.

You can sever the connection between your local project and the incarnation of it made available in the Workspace.

You can always make the local project available online again, as a mirrored or full VCS project (Version Control). The General tab of the Project Options dialog will present the button, with which to access the Make Available Online dialog.

A local project can also be made available online – in the Workspace – from the General tab of the Project Options dialog.