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Before you can actually start drawing your schematic, you need to figure out how your circuit will work.
Schematic Theory and the Datasheet
Figuring out how your components are connected will require reading through the datasheet for your non-passive components (i.e. your ICs) and understanding how they work. You won’t have to read through the entire datasheet page-by-page, but there are a few sections you should read carefully and understand as much as possible to ensure you implement the circuit correctly. Here are some sections in the datasheet to look for:
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After you’ve understood the datasheet and figured out how to wire up your components, it’s time to actually create the Altium schematic.
Creating a Schematic File
Schematics are made up of one or more schematic files (or schematic sheets). At WARG, we have templates available for schematic sheets that include the WARG logo, address, and other information so that all our projects have a consistent style. To create a new schematic file, click File > New > Schematic. To use one of the WARG templates, go to the Properties pane, and under Page Options, select Template and choose one of the WARG templates from the drop down.
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Placing Components
Now it’s time to place the components you selected previously. From the hotbar at the top, click on the Place Part button. A pane should open up on the right with the WARG component library. Scroll through the categories or search for the components you created from the top, double click on a component to grab it and then click somewhere on the schematic to drop it in.
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You’ll notice that each part you place has a symbol on top of it that looks something like U?, R? , C?, etc. This is the designator, which is a short text string to identify each component. Every component needs a unique designator, so you’ll need to modify all the designators to replace the question mark with a unique number. This is done by double-clicking a designator to modify its value. Alternatively, you can use Altium’s Annotation tool to automatically do it for you (Tools > Annotation > Annotate Schematics, then click Accept Changes (Create ECO)).
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Wiring up your Schematic
With your components placed and annotated, you can begin wiring everything up according to the circuit you figured out from the datasheet. There are a couple of tools you have available to wire things together:
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There are other tools available for wiring up schematics in your hotbar and Altium menus, but these aren’t necessary for the bootcamp and typically aren’t necessary until you start working on more intermediate or advanced projects.
Validating your Schematic
The final step for making your schematic is to have Altium check your schematic for errors. This won’t guarantee that your schematic is 100% correct, but it can be used to catch some easy-to-fix mistakes. To run Altium’s error-checking, click Project > Validate PCB Project <name of your project>.PrjPcb. Altium will then display all the errors and warnings it found for your schematic in the Messages panel. Some examples of the errors and warnings it can find are:
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