Altium Designer

Name: Altium Designer
Availability: InStock
Author: Altium

A unified electronics design environment covering schematic capture, board layout, routing, simulation, and manufacturing output in one application with a single project database behind it.

Version 26.9.1.10 5.68 GB Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit) Updated 1 week ago

Overview

What this release is

Altium Designer's defining characteristic is that everything sits in one application over one database. Schematic, board layout, library management, simulation, and manufacturing output are not separate programs stitched together, which means a change in the schematic reaches the board immediately and the two can never quietly drift apart the way they do in a toolchain assembled from separate pieces.

The board editor is the part professionals rate it for. Interactive routing that pushes and shoves existing tracks out of the way rather than refusing to place a new one, differential pair routing with live length matching, tuning patterns for delay matching on high speed buses, and a design rule engine that checks continuously as you work rather than at the end when everything is already wrong.

High speed design is properly supported rather than approximated. Layer stack management with an impedance calculator, controlled impedance routing that follows the stack, signal integrity analysis using the actual board geometry, and length matching across whole buses at once. For anything running at modern data rates these are not optional features.

The three dimensional view is not decoration either. The board renders with real component models so mechanical clearance can be checked against an enclosure imported from a mechanical package, and collisions are reported before a prototype gets made rather than after.

Manufacturing output covers the whole package: fabrication and assembly drawings, drill files, pick and place data, bills of materials with supplier data, and the modern combined output format, all generated from an output job configuration that can be reused across projects.

Feature set

What you get

One unified database

Schematic, layout, libraries, simulation, and outputs in a single application, so the design cannot drift out of sync with itself.

Interactive routing

Push and shove routing, differential pairs, live length matching, and delay tuning patterns.

Continuous rule checking

The design rule engine checks as you work rather than reporting a wall of errors at the end.

High speed support

Layer stack management with impedance calculation, controlled impedance routing, and signal integrity analysis on real geometry.

Three dimensional clearance

Real component models rendered on the board and checked against an imported mechanical enclosure.

Manufacturing output

Fabrication and assembly drawings, drill files, pick and place data, and supplier linked bills of materials from a reusable output job.

Changes in this build

What changed

Faster rendering on boards with very high component counts and dense copper pours
Routing engine improvements with better behaviour in tightly constrained areas
Layer stack manager reworked with a clearer impedance calculation workflow
Improved import of designs from other electronics design packages
Fixed the design rule check missing certain clearance violations inside polygon cutouts

Installation

How to install it

Disconnect from the network before starting, which avoids the licensing check during setup.
Extract the archive to a short path on a drive with at least 20 GB free.
Run the installer as administrator and select only the feature sets you actually need, since the full install is very large.
Apply the licensing step from the included folder before the first launch.
Start the program offline and set up your library paths before opening a project.

Hardware

System requirements

Processor	Intel Core i7 or equivalent, 64-bit, higher clock speed preferred over more cores
Memory	16 GB minimum, 32 GB recommended for large boards
Graphics	GPU with DirectX 11 support and 2 GB VRAM, 4 GB for the three dimensional view
Storage	20 GB free space, SSD strongly recommended
Display	1920 x 1080 minimum, dual monitors strongly recommended
System	Windows 10 version 22H2 or Windows 11

Package

Release information

Title	Altium Designer
Version	26.9.1.10
Developer	Altium
Category	CAD & 3D
Platform	Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit)
Package size	5.68 GB
Interface languages	English, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese
Release identifier	BS-26910101
Listed	3 years ago
Last rebuilt	1 week ago
Total downloads	166,234

Questions

Before you start

Are the component libraries included?

The standard libraries are. The online supplier linked library needs a connection, and the local libraries work fine without it.

Can it import designs from other packages?

Yes, from most of the common electronics design formats, though complex rule sets usually need reviewing after import.

Does the three dimensional view need special hardware?

A card with four gigabytes of memory keeps it smooth on dense boards. It works on less, more slowly.

Why is the install so large?

The bundled libraries and simulation models account for most of it. Deselecting unused feature sets during setup cuts it considerably.