[SOLVED] [Altium] Device Sheets and designators

[Easyrider83]

Hi,

Can anyone explain me one basic question. How to annotate designators in device sheets in Altium?
For a years I used unique names based on prefix which extends designator name and looks not convinion for a me - requeres too much pcb space for components names.
What is the correct way to assign designators for read only sheets? Share you experience, please.

 

[andre_luis]

In general the designators prefixes make use of only one letter, and unless space is so critical on PCB, I think the best thing to do would be to reduce the size of the font size on the silk layer. By the way, in rare exceptions, regardless of whether or not it was a correct practice, I had to rename one component or another to replace it with another one that had fewer digits. Another technique I used long before SMD took place was to fit the designators underneath the component, that is, within the footprint of the component, and thus any further maintenance process should be done with the printed drawing of the board layout in hands; another option was to switch as not-visible an array of components with sequential numbering, and to insert its values in the form of a label (I admit, a bad practice). In short, each critical situation requires a particular solution, and the context is that it will determine how acceptable it is.

 

[Easyrider83]

I still think that there should be a better solution rather than changing the font (which is impossible for me) and renaming the components on layout (also impossible, using device sheets should reduce development time and risk of mistake, not increase it)
May be designator indexes can be represented as variable which will be related to top level design? Than you just giving a value from top sheet and componets will be reindexed.
Problem is that I have to use one sheet multiple time. I'm facing duplication designator error anyway.

 

[andre_luis]

Perhaps what you are looking for is the Multi Channel Design functionality, in which it is possible to perform a board level annotation that will have effect only on the board, not in the schematic. I've never used this feature, but it should work.

 

[Easyrider83]

I'm sure that it is possible to use 2 more device sheets in one design. We just don't know how.

 

[Easyrider83]

Solution found. Using Annotate Compiled sheet creates annotation file which overwrites sheets annotations.