When you investigate the component properties (see the Properties panel in the PCB Editor), you’ll see the following error:Ĭomponent data error during PCB layout reuse If you simply open schematic and PCB layout files in a new project, you’ll be able to see footprints and schematic symbols, but you won’t be able to access any data for the component. To simulate transferring these files to another designer, I created a new project, uninstalled the the ATmega328p microcontroller library from my Components panel in Altium Designer, and deleted the integrated library file from my computer. The schematic and PCB layout were created in their own project, and the schematic and layout files were saved to my local hard drive. The integrated library for the microcontroller was created from component data that was downloaded from the internet. The layout and schematic contain a 100 pF capacitor from the Miscellaneous Devices library (this is built-in to Altium Designer), and an ATmega328p microcontroller. As an example, we’ll look at a schematic and layout that were created in Altium Designer 19. Because any schematic and PCB layout depends on component data from a library, you’ll need to ensure that your design data points to the right location for this data. There are a number of ways to reuse your old PCB layouts in a new project. Let’s take a look at some ways you can reuse your old data in Altium Designer.

When you work with the library management features in Altium Designer, you’ll be able to easily import your old design data into a new project and start using it in new designs. This takes some care in ensuring your prior design data is available in your new version of Altium Designer. In some cases, you may be sharing designs with someone on the other side of the planet, and you might want to make sure all the data in your project is accessible.

With your PCB design data, you may naturally want to reuse an old layout in a new project. When it comes to simpler things like text files or images, you’ll have no problems you can immediately reopen and reuse these files. Once I broke into my new computer and transferred my data over, I became worried I wouldn’t be able to reuse my old data. I recently bought a new computer after data on my old hard drive started to “magically” become corrupted. With the right PCB design package, you can even reuse layouts for these old cell phones

Atmega328p altium library