2.4 Project Creation

Owned by Logan Hartford
Last updated: Feb 04, 2023
4 min read

To ensure that your project follows the same formatting and design standards that our team uses, please follow this guide when creating new projects.

When creating new projects, we copy an existing project in the repository, rename everything, and clear the project out. This ensures that your project will come with all the correct preferences and design rules that are used by our team.

  1. Start by selecting a recent project in your local clone of the repository, and making a copy of the project folder. Don’t copy the 24V Multiphase Buck project. Copy a recently modified project.

  2. Rename the project folder to the new project name. Enter the folder. If there are sub-folders with multiple revisions, delete all but the first one, else skip to the next step.

  3. Enter the project subfolder. Delete everything in the folder except for 1 of the .SchDoc files, one of the .PcbDoc files, the .PrjPcb and the Project Outputs folder. Rename the remaining files with the new project name. Delete everything inside the Project Outputs folder.

  4. Open Altium. Go to File > Open Project… and then select the PrjPcb file you just renamed. You will probably get a bunch of error messages but just ignore them from now, they shouldn’t happen again once you save the project and re-open it.

  5. In the Projects panel on the left, right-click on the .PrjPcb file and select ‘Add Existing to Project…’ select the .SchDoc file you renamed and click open. This will add the document to your project.

  6. Repeat the same process for the .PcbDoc file you renamed. Both files should be added to the project now.

  7. Open the SchDoc. Do: CTRL + A, Delete. You should now have a blank schematic sheet.

  8. Open the PcbDoc. From the top menu go to Design > Import Changes from YOUR PROJECT NAME.PrjPcb. A window will open, select Execute Changes. Once the execution is done you can close the window.

  9. To clear the rest of the PcbDoc, CTRL + A then Delete. You should now have a blank PCB. Save the project (Save All).

  10. Return to the SchDoc. Right-click on the PrjPcb document, click ‘Add Existing to Project…’, and navigate to the libraries folder of the GitHub repo. Select the .SchLib file and select Open. Those who completed the instructions in for their new project, skip to step 12.

  11. Repeat for the .PcbLib file. Both libraries should now be added to your project.

  12. Open the components tab. From the dropdown menu at the top of the panel you should now be able to select UWRT_Schematic_Library_2020.SchLib from the list.

  13. Select any component from the Component panel and drag it into the schematic.

  14. Open the PcbDoc. Like before, go to Design > Design > Import Changes from YOUR PROJECT NAME.PrjPcb. You should see the part you added to the schematic in the list. Execute Changes and close.

  15. You should now see the footprint of the component show up in your PCB document.

  16. Congratulations! If this worked, then it means your project is set up and properly connected to the UWRT libraries. If you had any trouble getting to this point, please reach out to someone on the team.

  17. Now that you have created a project, let’s go over how to create parts that are compliant with UWRT standards