AltiumLive - Content Store
Contents
Introducing the AltiumLive Content Store. The Content Store is an area in AltiumLive dedicated to content - content that is invaluable for helping the designer learn about and work in Altium Designer.
Content available in the Store includes:
- Software Plug-ins
- Components and Libraries
- Reference and Example Designs
- Design Templates
As every designer knows, it's not just the tools that make them effective, it's as much about how quickly they can learn and how efficiently they can design. That's the role of the Content Store, to help designers learn and become more effective – through a single, central location where the designer can not only browse and download content, they can also rate it and share their experience with their fellow designers. And you don't need to own Altium software to access and explore the Content Store, it's open 24/7 to everyone who is interested. If there's content you'd like to download and explore, complete a simple registration process and you're away.
Accessing the Content Store
The Content Store is accessed at the top of both the AltiumLive and altium.com modes of browsing on the Altium website, as shown in the image below.
The Content Store will open, presenting the various storefront areas available within the Content Store, including:
Store area | This area contains |
|---|---|
Altium Designer Plugins | Plug-in software modules for Altium Designer. Designers can browse hundreds of optional plug-in Altium Designer modules. Detailed information about each plugin is provided. Note that actual plugin management, including installation of new plugin functionality to your current Altium Designer installation, is performed from within Altium Designer, using the Plugins view.. |
Unified Components | Board-level, unified components for Altium Designer. These unified components are from a range of manufacturers, each component includes the schematic symbol, a 2D footprint and a full 3D PCB model. Components are revision tracked and include multiple live links to on-demand supply-chain information. These components are created by Altium's Content Development Center and stored in the Altium Vault. They can be downloaded from the Unified Components area of the Store, or from the Altium Vault using Altium Designer's Vault Explorer. |
NanoBoard Example Designs | A wide range of working example designs for Altium's NanoBoards. The example designs include the FPGA and embedded projects and demonstrate a broad range of design challenges, including: TCP/IP, WiFi, mobile communications, video, audio, image processing, USB mass storage, file systems and much more. |
Showcase Reference Designs | A collection of larger and more sophisticated example designs to help designers explore and learn more about Altium Designer’s capabilities. Some of the examples include full PCB designs, including the NanoBoards, daughterboards and Peripheral board designs. Others showcase aspects of Altium Designer's embedded and soft design capabilities. |
Template Designs | PCB design project templates for Altium Designer including: PCB design project templates for a number of board form-factors with board outlines, related connector components and managed sheets, signal harnesses, applicable design rules and 3D models. Template designs are revision tracked, managed design content, created by Altium's Content Development Center and stored in the Shanghai Vault. Templates can be downloaded from the Template Designs area of the Store, or from the Shanghai Vault using Altium Designer's Vault Explorer. |
Click on the storefront of interest to explore the content of that area of the Content Store.
Working in the Store
Each of the five areas in the Content Store has the same design and behavior, click on the area of your choice to enter. Across the top is a banner, cycling and showcasing three items available in the chosen Store area. Below the banner is a grid that displays up to 15 Items available in that Store area, with controls to step through all the Items. Within each Store there is a number of categories defined, click the All Categories button to explore and select a category, the grid region will then display the Items in that category. Click on an Item for details and images of the Item, or to download Item content.
Click the view all link to restore the display to show all of the Items in an area of the Content Store.
Exploring an Item and Downloading Content
Click on an Item to learn more about that Item. Each Item includes a description, images, and a field for entering a User Review. Download buttons are located on the left, exactly what sort of content that is available for download differs, depending on the area of the Store you are currently in.
The following buttons appear down the left of the Item, use them to download Item content. Which buttons appear depend on the type of Item, as described below.
Button | Store |
|---|---|
| For NanoBoard Example Designs and Reference Designs, the example projects are supplied in a ZIP file. |
| For the Example, Reference and Template Designs there is also a PDF available. Typically this is a PDF of the design files, such as the schematics sheets and the PCB. |
| For the Template Designs and Unified Components areas of the Store, there is a link to that Item in the Vault. Click the button to open that Item in the Vault, where you can click the Revision Documents link to get the latest revision of that Template or Component. |
| Unified Components may also includes a link to download an Integrated Library of that device family. |
Searching for an Item
Use the Search feature to help locate Items of interest. The Search bar appears at the top right of each area of the Store, as shown in the image below. Searches are applied across the entire Store area, even if a Category has been selected. Search returns include Items that contain all words in the search string.
Reviewing Content
Designers can rate and comment on a Store Item, through the User Reviews section of the Item. As well as a text description, a star rating can be added to help identify the usefulness and popularity of that Item. Note that the star rating must be chosen before the review is submitted, as existing reviews cannot be edited once they have been submitted. The usefulness of another designer's user-review can also be rated, simply hover over the review, then click one of the available buttons to rate that review as either Like or Dislike.