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The standard Altium Designer installer requires an Internet connection to complete the installation process. If it is not possible to run the installer from the target PC, then you can install Altium Designer using the Offline Installer.

Pre-Install Preparation

Contact your local Altium office or Value Added Reseller to organize your copy of the Offline Installer.

Running the Installer

  1. Double click to run the executable named AltiumDesigner14Setup.exe. The Altium Designer Installer welcome page will appear.

Initial welcome page for the Altium Designer Installer.

The installer itself is wizard-based, providing a set of progressive and intuitive pages that collectively gather the information needed to install the software with its initial feature set, as you require.

  1. Click Next to continue. The following sections provide a summary of the various pages you will encounter.

License Agreement

This page of the Installer presents you with the Altium End-User License Agreement (EULA).

Read and accept Altium's End-User License Agreement.

Before you can continue with the installation of the software, you must read through, and accept, the terms of this agreement. The agreement can be viewed in different languages, including English (the default), Chinese and Japanese. Clicking the Advanced button will display the Advanced Settings pop-up window, where proxy-settings can be specified. These settings are only needed for the online installer, if applicable for that installation environment.  

  1. With the EULA read, continue with the install by checking the I accept the agreement box and clicking the Next button.

Installation Mode

Select to either install New, or Update existing.

In the next page of the Installer you select between:

A new installation of Altium Designer - use this option the first time you install Altium Designer with the Offline Installer.

Updating an existing installation of Altium Designer - use this option when you are updating your offline installation of Altium Designer. If you are updating an existing installation, you can select the product instance being updated.

  1. Select the required Installation Mode, and click Next to continue.

Select Design Functionality

The next page of the Installer allows you to specify which features are installed initially. The PCB Design option provides the base software and core technologies required to perform PCB design. It is always installed and cannot be deselected. Use the remaining options to tailor the install to suit your needs.

Click the plus symbol to expand an area for greater control over the available sub-functionality. Click the parent checkbox to enable/disable all child options in a single action.

Enable the initial functionality you would like in your installation of Altium Designer, this can be changed later if required.

Platform Extensions offer extended functionality to the core platform. Each platform extension is a dedicated package of core platform functionality that has been 'brought out' of the platform and delivered as an extension. By delivering this functionality as an extension, Altium can deliver updates to that core functionality without having to release an update to the entire platform itself.

  1. Enable the functionality you require. As you select and deselect functionality, text at the bottom of the page dynamically updates to reflect the space required for installation. You can add or remove features and functionality at any stage after installation. Note that the figure given for the amount of downloaded data does not apply to the Offline Installer.
  2. After defining what functionality you'd like, click Next to proceed.

Destination Folders

The next page of the Installer allows you to specify the destination folders for the installation, for both the software Program Files and the Shared Documents that are accessed and used by the software.

Specify where the software and associated documents, including example designs, are to be installed.

  1. Select the required installation locations. To specify alternate locations, simply type the location directly into the applicable field, or click the folder icon at the right of a field and browse for the required destination folder.
  2. Once the install locations are specified, click Next to continue.

These locations become especially important when installing multiple instances of Altium Designer. If these destinations are not currently empty folders (i.e. devoid of content) you will be prevented from proceeding with the installation until you specify alternate, empty destination.

The default destinations are:

Program Files

C:\Program Files (x86)\Altium\AD14 ----for Windows 7

C:\Program Files\Altium\AD14 ----for Windows XP

Shared Documents

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Altium\AD14 ----for Windows 7

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Altium\AD14 ----for Windows XP

Ready To Install

The Installer now has all the information it requires to proceed with the installation. If you need to change anything, click the Back button. If you want to cancel out of the install, click Cancel.

  1. To complete the installation, click Next.

Installation Complete

When the installation completes the Installation Complete page of the Installer will appear. An option is included to launch Altium Designer when you exit the Installer, enabled by default.

  1. Click Finish to exit the wizard and run Altium Designer.

That's it, you have installed Altium Designer on your computer with its initial functionality tailored to suit your design needs. The next step is to license the software.

Licensing the Software

When Altium Designer starts, it will display the License Management page of the Admin area, as shown in the image below.

Switching to Offline Mode

Click the Account Preferences link to configure Altium Designer to operate in the offline mode.

The first step is to configure Altium Designer to operate in an offline mode so that it will not attempt to contact Altium to validate the license.

  1. To do this, click on the Account preferences link, as shown in the image above.
  2. The System - Account Management page of the Preferences dialog will open, select the No, I wish to remain disconnected from Altium option.
  3. Click OK to accept the change and close the Preferences dialog.

Note that the offline installation does not check for updates or new extensions, regardless of the status of the Altium Connection setting. To perform an update you will need a later copy of the Offline Installer.

Adding the License File

The last step is to add the license file Altium Designer needs to unlock all its functionality.

Add the license file to complete the process.

  1. To add the license file, click the Add standalone license file link, as shown in the image above.
  2. The Open dialog will appear, browse to and select the license file. Altium Designer license files have the extension .ALF.

Once you have selected the license file and returned to Altium Designer, the License Management page will display the license details, as shown below.

The details for the chosen license are displayed.

The license file can be downloaded by logging in to the AltiumLive website, opening the Dashboard and going to the Licenses section. When you click on a license to examine the details there is an Activate button, click this to download the ALF file for that license.

 

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