Newbie Altium Errors - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: oscaryu1
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 13, 2015, 09:05:35 pm
content: Hi all,Altium newbie here. I recently made a schematic for a project of mine but am having a difficult time getting the nets transferred to the PCB. Example:There's my "reset" net between a header and the reset circuitry. I'm using the stock header layout from the library. Whenever I update the schematic in Design->Update PCB Document, I get this error:And none of the nets transfer over. I seem to be having alot of these issues, but I can't figure out where I went astray. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you again!Best,Oscar

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2015, 10:04:36 pm
content: For everyone's sake (including your own in the future!), please learn how to draw schematics:http://seventransistorlabs.com/tmoranwms/Elec_Circuit_Rules.html(Written specifically for the manual graphic method, but applies in general to all things.)You appear to be trying to join pins with net labels, which is ugly. It completely breaks flow and leaves the reader wondering what possible signals might be connected. If drawing a wire is inconvenient, your circuit is presented -- move parts around until signals flow from left to right (preferred, with right to left as a second choice, usually for feedback signals that logically go back to the input side of things), and supplies flow from top to bottom (positive to negative).Altium's auto label positioning is okay, but labels can be moved for better management of space or visual balance.If you have many connections, they can be grouped in a bus; see the Altium docs on how to do this.If you find you still have hanging connections (or it is impossible to avoid them, e.g., making connections between sheets), try Off-Sheet Connectors instead. (Don't use ports, those are for hierarchical blocks.)Also, if you find you have many repeating circuits, consider using hierarchical design methods. Again, see Altium docs.You also have GND symbols peppered around liberally, on wires that are all connected. This is redundant, not to mention ugly and confusing. A single connection only needs one net label, ever, and more than one produces a net naming conflict (check the Messages design workspace panel).Regarding PCB transfer: if you don't have any footprints assigned (or they can't be found in the path), nothing will appear on the PCB to assign nets to. Check the complete list of ECO items to see which are going wrong.Tim

author: ajb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2015, 04:25:56 am
content: Your life will also be much easier if you use designator prefixes, eg R1, R2, R3 for resistors, C1, C2,C3 for caps, etc. You can do this in Altium by setting the schematic symbol's "Default Designator" property to eg "R?" in the schematic library.More specific to your current problem, the "Unknown Pin: Pin 1-2" message means that Altium can't find a pad on the PCB that has the designator '2' and belongs to the component with designator '1'. This can happen if the footprint for component 1 hasn't made it to the board for some reason, or the footprint for component 1 doesn't have a pin named '2'. Did the footprints for all of your components get added to the PCB correctly the first time you pushed updates from schematic to pcb?

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2015, 07:07:32 am
content: first of all , make your sheet larger.O-D and select B or C sizeSecond. NEVER EVER simply slap net labels on pins. only the end of a pin is electrically active. That RESET net is NOT connected because it is not on a wire or an electrically active element.then do what the previous posters have already written.