Tutorial - Collaborative Design with a Workspace Connected to Altium Designer

1. To access the History view for the project from within Altium Designer, right-click on its entry in the Projects panel and choose the History & Version Control » Show Project History command from the context menu. The History view presents as a distinct tabbed document (Multivibrator History).
2. Explore events relating to the project: project creation (the tile at the very bottom of the timeline), project commits (saving it to the Workspace), project release (the tile at the very top of the timeline, that straddles the timeline as a 'major' event).

3. Click the control at the top-right of the view to access a search field and perform a search of events related to the R1 resistor. Enter R1 to the search field – one tile should be filtered, with the search string highlighted in the event details.

   
   Using the Search feature in the History view.

4. Clear the search field to clear the current filtering and return to the full timeline – click on the Clear Filter control in the box summarizing how many events are being shown (at the top of the view) or click the control at the far right of the search field.
5. Close the History view – right-click on its document tab and select the Close Multivibrator History command from the context menu.

1. To access the Web Viewer interface from within Altium Designer, right-click on the project entry in the Projects panel and choose the Show in Web Browser command from the context menu. The detailed management page for the project will open in your default browser, with the Design view of the project presented.

2. The SCH data view that presents the source schematic sheet will open by default. Using view buttons at the top of the main viewing area, switch between other data views available: PCB (the board in 2D), 3D (the board in 3D), Draftsman (the view of the Draftsman drawing), and BOM (Bill of Materials).

   
   Buttons for switching the current data view.

3. On the SCH data view, use Mouse Wheel to zoom in/out; Click, Hold&Drag (or Right-Click, Hold&Drag) to pan the document.
4. Hover the cursor over a component and click to select it and display its details in the right-hand pane.
5. Hover the cursor over a wire and click to select the net and display its details in the right-hand pane.

6. Buttons at the top of the right-hand pane allow cross-probing to the selected object on other data views. When a component or a net is selected, use these buttons to switch to another data view, with the same object selected, centered, and zoomed there. Select the GND net on the schematic view and click the PCB button in the details pane to switch to the board data view with the net selected, centered, and zoomed.

   
   Cross-probing controls (for a selected net). Hover the cursor over the image to see the net in the PCB data view.

7. In the PCB data view, use Mouse Wheel to zoom in/out Click, Hold&Drag (or Right-Click, Hold&Drag) to pan the document.
8. Use the Layers/Objects pane accessed by clicking the  control at the top-left of the view to control layer and object visibility. Use the Top and Bottom controls at the top of the pane to quickly toggle between viewing the board from the top or bottom, respectively.
9. Switch to the 3D view. Use Mouse Wheel to zoom in/out; Click, Hold&Drag to rotate the board; Right-Click, Hold&Drag to pan the board.

10. Click the control in the top-right control cluster to access the Search facility, allowing you to search for components and/or nets. Type C1 in the search field to display the list of matching components and nets. Click NetC1_1 to select this net on the current data view.

    
    Searching for a net within the active 3D view.

11. Switch to the Draftsman data view to explore the Draftsman drawing included in the project.
12. Switch to the BOM data view. Use links in the Designator column to cross-probe to the component on the last active data view prior to accessing the BOM data view.

1. When the project is opened in the Web Viewer interface, switch to the SCH data view.
2. Click the control in the top-right control cluster to display the Comments pane where project comments are shown.
3. Click the button in the top banner area of the browser tab or the  button in the Comments and Tasks pane. The cursor will change to a cross-hair and you will enter comment placement mode.

4. Hover the cursor over the C1 capacitor so it is highlighted with a blue border and click. A commenting window will be presented – enter a comment in the field provided and click Post. A comment marker will be presented in the main viewing area.

   
   Placing a comment in the Web Viewer interface.

5. Open the schematic sheet in Altium Designer. Note the comment marker ( ) next to the C1 capacitor. Click it to display the commenting dialog. Double-click it to open the Comments and Tasks panel (the panel can also be opened from the Panels button menu).

6. In the reply field of the commenting dialog, enter a reply to the initial comment and click Reply.

   
   Replying to a comment.

7. Click the button at the top-right of the dialog to mark the comment as resolved (i.e. close it as complete).
8. In Altium Designer, open the PCB document in its 2D layout mode (shortcut: 2).
9. Click the button at the top-right of the design space or the button in the Comments and Tasks panel to enter comment placement mode.
10. Click and hold the left mouse button away from an object, drag the cursor to create a rectangular highlighted area around resistors, and then release the mouse button to confirm its final shape.

11. In the commenting dialog, enter a comment in the comment field. Optionally, enter the @ character and select a user from the drop-down list that appears to mention that user in the comment. Click Post.

    
    Comment for an area in the PCB document. A user is mentioned in the comment.

12. In the Web Viewer interface, switch to the PCB data view of the project and make sure that the comment added to the PCB in Altium Designer presents in the main viewing area and in the Comments and Tasks pane.
13. Click the comment marker to open the commenting window and click the control at the top-right to mark the comment as resolved.

1. In Altium Designer, click the button at the top-right of the application window to open the Share dialog.

2. Click the Share with control to see who currently has access to the projects.

   
   Access the Share dialog in Altium Designer and check with whom the project is currently shared.

3. By default, the project is available for editing to all members of the Workspace – note the Workspace Members entry and the Can Edit at the right. Click the Can Edit and select Can View from the drop-down – Workspace members will still have access to the project but for viewing and commenting only, while the project owner (the user who has created the project) and Workspace administrators will have editing permissions for this project.

   For an Enterprise Server Workspace, Workspace Members will have permission to view the project by default. You can change this the same way by clicking the Can View drop-down and selecting the desired option.

   
   Change access to the project permissions from the Share dialog.

4. Click the Save button to save the changes. You can click the Who has access control to get back to the list of entities who has access to the project and make sure that the change has been applied.

   Project sharing settings can also be configured through the Workspace's browser interface. For more information, see the Workspace Projects – Sharing a Project page (Altium 365 Workspace, Enterprise Server Workspace).
   When working on a project hosted in an Altium 365 Workspace, you can also share your designs with people outside of your Workspace team – either for viewing and commenting only or for editing – without the need to invite them into that team. This allows invited stakeholders to view/edit (as applicable) a live, work-in-progress design project, without gaining access to your full server of design data. For more information, see the Sharing a Design – Sharing with a non Team Member page.
5. Besides sharing an actual work-in-progress design, you can also create and share design snapshots, i.e. design at that specific point in time of the project's development, for wider browser-based collaboration with others. To share in this manner, click to select the Snapshot on the Web entry, on the left side of the Share dialog.

6. By default, the dialog is set to Share By Link, meaning that you can generate a link and anyone who is given the link will have access to view the design snapshot through their browser for a time-limited period of 48 hours. Click the Generate Link button to generate the link to the design snapshot.

   
   Generate a link to provide simple access to the project snapshot on the Web.

7. Once the link is ready, click the Copy link button to copy it.

8. Open the link in your browser – you will be taken to an instance of the Altium 365 Viewer – on the main altium.com site – with the design processed and loaded.

   
   Using the shared link, a recipient can browse the design snapshot using Altium 365 Viewer, loaded on the main altium.com site.

   The Share dialog also provides an ability to share a design snapshot with one or more specific people, by email invitation. Clicking the Share with specific people control on the Snapshot on the Web tab of the dialog will switch the sharing mode to allow you to do this. Recipients will have access to view, share or download the design snapshot through the browser interface of the Altium 365 Platform. Such a design snapshot is available permanently through the platform and commenting on the design is possible with this level of sharing.

1. Open the project in Workspace's browser interface.
2. Click the Releases entry in the left-hand menu to access the list of project releases.

3. Click the Send to Manufacturer button associated with the release's entry. The Sending to Manufacturer window will be presented in which to configure the content of the package, and to whom it will be sent.

   
   You can send (share) a specific release of a project directly with your manufacturer.

4. By default, fabrication and assembly data sets are added to the package. Enter a description of what the package gives to the Description field, and enter an email to the Manufacturer Email field.

5. You can leave other fields with their default values and click the button. The package will be shared with you (as the author of the package) and the specified manufacturer(s) and an entry for it will appear in the Sent region of the Releases view.

   
   After sending a manufacturing package, an entry will appear for it back in the Releases view, in the Sent region.

The manufacturer to whom you sent the package will receive an email invite to access that package through Altium 365. Upon signing in to the Altium 365 platform, they will be taken to the Manufacturing Package Viewer, with the shared package loaded.

Access the shared manufacturing package from the email invite that is received by the manufacturer.

The Manufacturing Package Viewer interface offers a range of integrated capabilities that allow detailed access to the release data contained within the shared manufacturing package. These capabilities are accessed through different pages of the Viewer.

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Overview – this page of the Viewer shown on the image above presents a summary overview of the design in terms of keyboard data and any user-defined parameters that have been defined for the project (on the Workspace side). 2D and 3D previews of the board are also provided. The full release package can be downloaded from this view. Fabrication – this page of the Viewer provides an embedded Gerber Viewer that uses the Web Viewer interface. Standard review features include layer visibility selection and comment markup. Assembly – while labeled 'Assembly', this page actually provides both 2D fabrication (PCB data view) and assembly (3D data view) views of the board. These data views use the Web Viewer interface. This interface offers a range of capabilities that allow detailed access to the design's data and layout. You'll be able to search, select, cross-probe, and inspect components and nets across the two sub-views as applicable, as well as the ability to leave comments. And when viewing the board in 2D, you can take measurements. Bill of Materials – this page of the Viewer presents a simple BOM listing for parts used in this specific release of the design. Structure – this area of the Viewer presents a structured listing of all files available in the data sets included with the manufacturing package being viewed. This will typically include generated data for fabrication and assembly data sets, but could also include the snapshot of the design from which the release package was made (if the source has been included in the package). Each file can be independently downloaded. Along with the option to download PDF files present in the structure list, you can click on a PDF’s name entry to open it in the system PDF Viewer.