Improved Checking for Available Updates

Altium Designer now offers improved and more accessible software update information for all users, and is no longer dependent on the type of activation license and its status, or on being logged in. These changes help to keep you informed of valuable updates to Altium Designer and its software/hardware extensions, along with providing more detailed information on each update.

Those that those using Altium Designer with a standalone, private server or roaming license – or those with an expired Altium subscription –  can now see what software updates are available regardless of log-in status.

The currently available updates for Altium Designer can be reviewed and accessed from the Updates tab of the Extensions & Updates page (DXP » Extension and Updates), which is in the Admin section of the system Home page ( button). The Updates page includes the update status for all software elements of Altium Designer, including the core platform, System Extensions, Software Extensions and Hardware Device plugins.

The popup new update notification dialog takes you directly to the Updates tab of the Extensions & Updates page.

An enhanced overview of the current software license and subscription status is now provided in the page top banner, along with details of the Altium Designer version and the host PC. When the license/subscription status requires attention, its overview text is highlighted in red – this can be due to an invalid license, an expired (or soon expiring) subscription, or a portal connection issue. To deal with license issues, go to the associated License Management tab on the Extensions & Updates page.

The top banner of the Updates page serves as an information and notification area.

In the Updates page banner area, select the  button to refresh the update and license information, or the button to configure Altium Designer’s installation and update notification settings.

The latter opens the System – Installation page in the Preferences dialog, where you can configure how frequently Altium Designer will check for software updates and notify you. Note that an option is available to check for new updates each time Altium Designer is activated – the On Start-up setting in the Check Frequency drop down menu.

Set how frequently you are notified about new Altium Designer updates.

The contents of the Updates page now includes all Altium Designer platform updates that are available, arranged in chronological order, to provide an historical view of platform changes since the last update. The most recent version build incoporates the changes from all previous updates.

To view further information on any Platform or Extension update, click on its name link to open a detailed view. In most cases this will provide an expanded description of the update or extension’s function, and Release Notes that summarize its changes over the previous version.

This detailed view is for software entries in all tabs (Installed, Purchased and Updates) of the Extension & Updates page.

 
Detailed functional and release change information is available for all software  and update entries, in all Extensions & Updates tab views.

The currently selected software update can be initiated from the detailed view by clicking its button.

To download and install a software update listed under the main Updates tab, click its associated  button that appears when you hover the mouse cursor over the update entry name. If your license or subscription status does not allow the update, or you are not logged in to the Altium portal, a warning message will pop up to indicate the issue.

New software updates are always visible, but require a valid Altium subscription and account login to be downloaded and installed.