Customer Onboarding Guide

Created: March 6, 2025

Welcome to Altium

This onboarding guide is designed to give your team the tools and collaboration capabilities you need to modernize your electronics design workflow. After completing the steps in this onboarding guide, you’ll be able to:

Provide access to best-in-class design technology in Altium Designer for up to 10 team members with Pro Subscription benefits.
Enable seamless global collaboration across ECAD, MCAD, and Supply Chain specialists with Altium 365’s cloud-based applications.
Align Project Management, Design, and Procurement with accurate, real-time data using Jira integration and unlimited cloud storage.

How to Get Help

Your bundle also provides access to real-time support, user communities, comprehensive product documentation, training videos, and a knowledge base of targeted solutions for common user experiences.

Your Support Resources:

Getting Started

We recommend following the steps below to get started with Altium Designer and Altium 365’s cloud-based applications that are included in your bundle. Each step builds on the one prior to ensure a smooth onboarding experience for you and your team members.

You can also explore these two Getting Started Guides to supplement your learning:

Step 1: Account Activation & Downloads

In this step we’ll cover creating your Altium Account, installing Altium Designer, and activating your team’s Altium 365 Workspace.

Onboarding Objectives	Resources
Create your Altium Account	Register here
Download and install Altium Designer*	Download here
Activate your team’s Altium 365 Workspace	Activate here

*Note: You sign in to the Altium Account created above during the installation process.

Step 2: Environment & Access Setup

Now that you have access to Altium Designer and Altium 365, you can invite your team members and get familiar with both the desktop and web interfaces. (Also covers importing existing component libraries.)

Onboarding Objectives	Resources
Invite team members to your Altium 365 Workspace and learn how to manage content access	Documentation: Managing Workspace Membership
Get familiar with your Altium Designer environment & system preferences	Elements of the Environment; Accessing, Defining & Managing System Preferences
Get familiar with your Altium 365 Workspace	Documentation: Altium 365 Platform Interface
Define and manage lifecycle definitions for your Workspace	Documentation: Lifecycle Management
Configure part sources for your Workspace	Documentation: Part Source Configuration
Configure global operation permissions for your Workspace	Documentation: Setting Global Operation Permissions for a Workspace
Learn how to use version control in Altium Designer & Altium 365	Documentation: Using Version Control

Step 3: Importing Libraries & Using Cloud Libraries

Onboarding Objectives	Resources
Import existing libraries to your Workspace	Documentation: Importing Existing Libraries to Your Connected Workspace
Learn how to create new components in Altium Designer	Getting Started Guide: Creating a New Component

Step 4: Creating & Managing Projects

Once team members have been invited and component libraries are imported, you can begin working on your projects with commenting and task management.

Onboarding Objectives	Resources
Learn how to create a new project or upload existing projects to your Workspace	Documentation: Workspace Projects
Learn how to create Project Templates	Documentation: Creating a Project Template
Learn how to create Schematic Templates	Documentation: Creating a Schematic Template
Learn how to share a design with team members and modify existing access rights	Documentation: Sharing a Design; Documentation: Modifying Access Rights for Existing People
Learn how to create and manage Comments in your project documents	Documentation: Document Commenting
Learn how to create and manage Tasks in your Workspace	Documentation: Working with Tasks
Learn how to use Project History to see a complete view of a project’s development journey	Documentation: Project History

Step 5: Improving Cross-Team Collaboration

Extend your electronics design workflow to collaborate with MCAD, procurement/supply chain, project management, and simulation specialists.

Onboarding Objectives	Resources
Learn how to collaborate with mechanical engineers using MCAD CoDesigner	Getting Started Guide: Introduction to Altium MCAD CoDesigner
Learn how to collaborate with Ansys simulation specialists using Ansys CoDesigner	Documentation: Ansys CoDesigner
Learn how to enhance your BOM management workflow with BOM Portal	Documentation: BOM Portal
Learn how to enable bi-directional synchronization between Altium 365 and Jira	Documentation: Jira Application

Closing Thoughts

After completing all the steps in this onboarding guide, your team should be well-equipped to design electronics using a modern workflow in Altium. We hope this journey continues to be transformative for your team and that you discover new ways to save valuable engineering time.

If you need any help at any time, please contact your Altium Support team.

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