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This TechWatch is based on the first section of my "I didn't know you could do that in Altium Designer 6" presentation at our user conference on the 31st October 2006. This section covers hints tips and tricks within the Altium Designer Environment, following sections will include the Schematic, PCB and Library environments.  

Each section is divided into parts, in Part 2 I will cover the hints and tips shown for Data Management under the Altium Designer Environment section.

The Altium Designer Environment

Within the Altium Designer Environment we looked at the areas of Workspace Manipulation and Data management.  Under Workspace Manipulation (see Part1) we looked at customising the user interface including tips with panels and custom toolbars.  With Data Management we explored the less known features of the Projects panel and the Storage Manager.

Data Management

Projects Panel

The projects panel has a number of customising options which can be found either under DXP » Preferences » Projects Panel or by selecting the arrow on the split Compile All Projects button to the top right of the Projects panel.  

Dragging files using left mouse click and drag within the projects panel will allow you to move files in and out and between projects. Holding Ctrl while dragging will allow you to copy the file to another project rather than move it.

It is possible to include external documentation files into the projects panel for easy access from within Altium Designer. Documentation files could include things like Word, Excel or PDF files.

To add a non Altium Designer file to a Project use the command Project » Add Existing to Project, then within the resulting Choose Documents to Add to Project dialog box change the Files of Type to All Files (*.*). This will allow you to select the documents you wish to include, which can then be opened from within Altium Designer by selecting them in the Projects panel.

Finding the location of any file listed within the Projects panel can be done by simply hovering your mouse cursor over the file name to produce a Tool Tip of its file path.  An additional useful feature here is if you right click on the file and select Explore, from the popup menu, Altium Designer will open Windows Explorer at the folder location for this file.

Project Packager

The project packager allows you to package up your project or even your entire workspace into a single zip file. This tool provides options for the files you wish to be included, for example you don't have to include all your generated files, and creates a time stamped zip file for you. This tool is very useful for archiving or distributing your projects. 

The tool can be found under Project » Project Packager.

For more information on this see this TechWatch article Archiving your Project or Design Workspace the tool was originally called the Archiver in Altium Designer 2004.

Storage Manager 

The storage manager allows you to perform Windows Explorer style changes to your files such as Rename and Delete, performing these functions within the Storage Manager means your Project or Design Workspace file links will be updated appropriately. These actions can be performed by right clicking on the file within the Storage Manager panel (located under View » Workspace Panels » System » Storage Manager).

The Storage Manager can also be used to view your local history, which is a form of version control within Altium Designer. Every time you save your document the previous version of the file is archived to a History folder. Using the Storage Manager in the Local History section you can select older versions and use the right click menu to open or revert to, replacing your current document in the project.

If you select two files from the Local History you can run a compare which performs a physical difference check and reports any differences between the two versions.

The Storage Manager is also your interface into your own version control systems if you are using one. Version control and local history options can be found under DXP » Preferences » Version Control.

Go to Part 3 or back to Part 1.