Parent page: Designing with a Connected Server
Following industry best practices for security and data integrity, Altium 365 supports TLS (Transport Layer Security) 1.2. As such, to be able to connect to an Altium 365 Workspace from your design software, you must be using Altium Designer 20.1.14 or later, which includes support for TLS 1.2.
Interaction with your Workspace can be made from various areas, but there are two main places:
From a purely component management perspective, much of the day-to-day interaction with your Workspace will be performed from within Altium Designer, through the
Components panel.
This page takes a look at accessing your Workspace from within Altium Designer.
It is assumed that you have been added to the team for at least one Workspace - within your own organization, or through access to a Workspace in another organization, and to which you have been invited as a team member. If you do not yet have a Workspace in your own organization, Altium Designer will guide you through its activation, when you attempt to connect.
Connecting to Your Workspace
First, ensure that you are signed in to your Altium account through Altium Designer. To do so, click on the 
control at the top-right of the main application window, then click the 
entry on the associated menu. Use the subsequent Sign In dialog that appears to enter your AltiumLive account credentials, then click 
.
Ensure you are signed in to your Altium account, using your AltiumLive credentials.
The control will change to reflect your having signed into your Altium account by displaying your AltiumLive profile picture, or avatar (e.g.
). The menu will display this also, with full name and with a link to quickly access your AltiumLive account (profile) through your default Web browser.
You can now connect to your Workspace. To do so, click on the 
control at the top-right of the main application window. In the subsequent menu, all Workspaces that are available to you will be listed across two sections:
- My Workspaces – these are Altium 365 Workspaces that you have activated for your own organization and for which you are the owner.
- Shared With Me – these are Altium 365 Workspaces to which you have been invited and subsequently added as a member (i.e., you are not the owner of these Workspaces).
Click the entry for the specific Workspace you wish to connect to.
All Workspaces are presented automatically by having signed in to your AltiumLive account.
Click to access a Workspace from all those available to you.
If your organization does not yet have a Workspace, a link will be provided to an area with which to do so. The Manage link takes you to your AltiumLive account profile page, from where you can activate, and then manage, Workspaces available to you. Click the My Altium 365 link to access the Altium 365 Platform Interface. In either case, clicking a link will open your default web browser (if not already) and open the relevant target in a new tab.
Connection when Opening or Creating a Project
You can also connect to your Workspace from the Open Project and Create Project dialogs, when wanting to open an existing managed project, or create a new managed project, respectively. In either case, select the 
entry in the Locations region of the dialog, then click on the button for the required Workspace.
Connect to a Workspace through the Open Project and Create Project dialogs.
You will be connected to the Workspace, with the dialog updated to present the Workspace's name in the Locations region. For the Open Project dialog, the main area will populate with managed projects currently in the Workspace, and that are shared with you. The Create Project dialog will present the controls and options for defining a new managed project within the Workspace.
Once connected, the location will update with the name of the Workspace, and the relevant dialog content presented.
Automatic Connection to a Workspace
If you are a member of the team for one or more Workspaces, you can set up to automatically connect to the/a Workspace upon signing in to your Altium account (using your AltiumLive credentials). To do this you need to set the/a Workspace to be your default Workspace. This is performed from your AltiumLive profile page (https://accounts.live.altium.com/) by clicking the 
button associated to the required Workspace (the button will change to show 
). If you have enabled the option to Sign in automatically to your Altium account, then each time you start Altium Designer, you'll be connected to that account and then momentarily also connected to your default Workspace - all set ready to continue designing where you left off.
Auto-connect to a Workspace upon signing in to your Altium account in Altium Designer, by setting it to be your default Workspace.
Checking Connection Status
You can check whether you are currently connected to a Workspace from the following places:
- The menu associated to the Active Server control, at the top-right of the main application window. When actively connected to a Workspace, the control will reflect the name of that Workspace (e.g.
). The currently connected Workspace will also be highlighted in the associated menu (and is distinguished by the 
icon). Clicking the entry provides access to the Workspace through the Altium 365 Platform Interface (through your default web browser).
Verification of being connected to your Workspace.
You can only be actively connected to one managed content server through the software at a time, and this could be a Workspace, or a self-managed server. If you have previously connected to other servers from that instance of Altium Designer, they will be listed as Known Servers. While actively signed in to one server, you could also be connected to another (it will not be the active server).
Once connected to the Workspace, it will become the Active Server, as can be seen here.
- The Explorer panel. When connected, the Workspace will be available from the menu associated with clicking on the name of the server currently being browsed.
Note that all connected servers will be listed, but only one will be active and is distinguished by the inclusion of the
icon, and its name in bold.
Browsing the Active Server through the Explorer panel in Altium Designer.
Read-only Workspace
If there is no active Altium Subscription across any of the Altium Designer licensing for a company's account with Altium (to which that company's Workspace is associated), then that Workspace will switch over to being Read-only. All team members will still be able to view/work with existing content in the Workspace, but will not be able to modify that existing content in any way, nor create any new content.
When connecting to a Read-only Workspace, a warning dialog will be presented and the icon for the connected Workspace will present as 
.
Connecting to a Workspace that has been switched to Read-only mode.
Switching Workspaces
You can quickly switch between any of the Workspaces available to you. To do so, click the Active Server control, at the top-right of the main application window (e.g. ). In the subsequent menu choose the entry for the Workspace you wish to switch to. You will be disconnected from the current Workspace, then after a few moments connected to the chosen Workspace.
When you are a team member of multiple Workspaces, you can quickly switch between them.
Managing Your Workspace from Altium Designer
From within Altium Designer, you have the ability to manage certain aspects of your connected Workspace. This is performed from the Data Management - Servers page of the Preferences dialog. Click the Properties control associated with the Workspace - in the Active Server region of the page - to access the commands, illustrated in the following image and detailed thereafter.
Accessing commands to manage various properties of the actively connected Workspace.
- Server configuration - use this command to access the Workspace's browser interface (through the Altium 365 Platform Interface) in your default web browser. If you are an Administrator for the Workspace you will be taken to the Admin-Settings page of the interface.
- Lifecycles - use this command to access the Edit Lifecycle Definitions dialog, with which to manage the defined lifecycles for the Workspace.
- Naming schemes - use this command to access the Edit Revision Naming Schemes dialog, with which to manage the defined revision naming schemes for the Workspace.
- Operations - use this command to access the Edit Operation Permissions dialog, with which to define and manage global operation permissions for the Workspace.
Disconnecting from Your Workspace
You can disconnect from your Workspace - from within Altium Designer - in the following ways:
- By clicking the Active Server control, at the top-right of the main application window (e.g. ). In the subsequent menu, click the disconnect control (
) at the far-right of the entry for the currently connected Workspace.
Your access to the Workspace will also be terminated when you exit Altium Designer. In addition, and for an Administrator of your Workspace, there is the provision to kill a session from the Admin - Sessions page of the Workspace's browser interface. This would then allow the administrator to remove that user from the Workspace team (something that could not otherwise be done if the user were actively using the Workspace).
Working in the Workspace
Related page: Working with the Explorer Panel - Feature How-Tos
Once you are connected to your Workspace, you can access and create content. The primary interface to the Workspace from Altium Designer is the Explorer panel.
From a purely component management perspective, much of the day-to-day interaction with your Workspace will be performed from within Altium Designer through the
Components panel.
When you are working in Altium Designer, you access full Workspace content through the Explorer panel. For component management only, you'll tend to use the Components panel.
To display the Explorer panel:
- Click the
button at the bottom-right of Altium Designer, and select Explorer from the menu that appears.
- Choose View » Panels » Explorer from the main menus.
