Work in progress: Native Altium Importer

Software
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is this fixed in the current version? I improved polygon handling quite a bit, but it is still annoying. For example: Zones are defined at at least three different places:

  • Polygons6 (this should be the actual definition)
  • ShapeBasedRegions6 (this is the poured polygon generated from Polygons6)
  • Regions6 (this is the poured polygon only defined with points (no arcs).

Now, I don’t know how to differ between a Zone and a Polygon on copper, because I don’t see any reference between those two. The first one is defined in Polygons6, the other one likely in ShapeBasedRegions6, but zones are also present in ShapeBasedRegions6.

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42

All advanced systems have this in use. There was never a discussion about a pad stack library before introduction of the V6 format ?

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Hey, look-ee there. That’s my feature request. :nerd_face:

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45

Nah, it’s made by KiCad bot.

image

:robot: :smirk:

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46

Transferred from Launchpad.
It is impossible to uses high density BGA packages without using minimal pads on unconnected layers.
The same problem comes up with hgh density circular through hole connectors

47

I think @eelik was just jokingly teasing me. See his choice of emoticons.

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Update of the last days:

  • support for hatched zones (but there are filling artifacts which need to be manually deleted at the moment)
  • initial support for board-cutouts
  • support of keepout zones / fills / lines / arcs
  • microvia / burried via support
  • bugfixes
  • rebase to current master
  • arc traces support

TODO:

  • polygon pad
  • improve zones (this seems to be the main issue of the importer, due to wrong clearances)
  • improve polygon drawings (only the filling is visible at the moment?)
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49

I know that, but new users now and more in the future won’t know about the GitHub/Launchpad transfer

50

Ok, I have two community requests:

If you have access to Altium Circuit Studio:

  • I would need a board with a Dimension object inside. This is the only directory I did not find.

If you have access to Altium Designer:

  • I need boards with custom shapes. Ideally, place multiple custom shapes with the same shape but different sizes into one file, and add a screenshot so I know how it should look like in the end.
    Is it possible to define custom shapes like in KiCad by adding different primitives, or does Altium only support polygons?

thx, Thomas

51

Latest windows build: https://kicad-downloads.s3.cern.ch/windows/testing/patched/kicad-patched-619-5.99.0-1009-gbda2f7f91-x86_64.exe

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52

Do you have a range of versions and file formats this importer should accept ?
ie how far back in Altium releases can it accept ?

53

If you need more test files & shapes, I recall this project which started in Altium and then ported to kiCad


that means it has design files in both formats, which is likely useful.
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54

some web Altium designs (no need to register to download)
https://developer.toradex.com/products/ixora-carrier-board#design-resources
https://developer.toradex.com/products/apalis-evaluation-board#design-resources
and from myriadrf GH repos, a bunch of Altium case test
github.com/myriadrf/LimeNET-Micro
github.com/myriadrf/LimeSDR-QPCIe

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55

I can make a board with custom shape pads in a footprint. But, I don’t think they can be scaled unless exploded to free primitives. Custom pad shapes can be made from any primitives (including arcs, segments, regions, fills, etc)

[edit: I’ll just take this to email thread]

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56

Thank you for your efforts by creating the native Altium importer. I have access to Altium Designer, so I can make test files for you.

Ive already made some test files with screenshots to test another Altium to KiCAD converter, are those of any use to you?

Cheers, and greeting from the Netherlands,
Cedric

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57

I have testfiles down to Altium 14 from which are working. The importer itself supports files with the version 6 tag, but I don’t know when Altium introduced them. It would be nice to have testfiles with older versions too.

Thanks for those files. I used them in early development, and they should be fully supported now (except the 3d-stuff I will not include for the moment)

58

I find some info on FIle versions and tool releases here :
https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-nexus/pcb-dlg-confirmfileformatformfile-format-pcb-ad
eg that says format 4,0 is Protel 99SE

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59

So how do you try this?
I have downloaded the patched nightly (as linked above) but I can’t see how or where to import an altium board?

As this is for something work related and specific findings would need to be shown in altium but I just wanted to give this a go

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  1. Open pcbnew in standalone mode
  2. File -> “Import None KiCad Pcb” -> Select your Altium application
1 Like