Altium Designer Agile 26.1

Altium Designer Agile (often simply referred to as Altium Designer Agile) is an integrated electronics design environment that simplifies PCB design workflows for teams that require flexibility, rapid iteration, and robust collaboration tools. It combines the power of Altium’s core PCB design engine with enhanced lifecycle, design data management, and process control capabilities for agile product development environments.

Altium Designer Agile is not a stand-alone product – it is a methodology that combines the power of Altium Designer and cloud tools like Altium 365 with hardware-friendly agile principles. When implemented well, it dramatically improves iteration speed, team collaboration, and overall product quality in modern electronics development.

Altium Designer Agile Goal

Altium Designer Agile is built for organizations that need to:

• Faster design iteration cycles enabled by agile workflows.
• Easier collaboration between electrical, mechanical, manufacturing, and supply chain teams.
• Stronger management and tracking ensures that all design decisions, modifications, and components are properly documented.
• Reduce risk by identifying design problems early through robust simulation and rule-based systems.
• Reliable, production-ready designs that follow consistent standards.

In short, its goal is to support rapid but controlled PCB development from concept to production, especially in teams where multiple disciplines need to work together effectively.

Full Altium Designer Agile features

1. Integrated design environment

• Single user interface for schematic capture, PCB layout, documentation, and simulation.
• Real-time synchronization between schematic and PCB reduces inconsistencies and manual updates.

2. Advanced Schematic Recording

• Supports hierarchical and multi-page design.
• Powerful tools for component placement and checking electrical rules.
• Real-time cross-probe between schematic and PCB.

3. High-performance PCB layout tools

• Interactive routing, length adjustment, differential pair routing.
• Dynamic copper casting and multi-faceted management.
• Real-time 2D/3D visualization of board layout.

4. 3D PCB design and MCAD integration

• Integrated 3D engine with STEP import/export support.
• Two-way collaboration with MCAD tools (SolidWorks, Creo, Inventor, etc.).
• Detailed mechanical compatibility checks to prevent enclosure interference.

5. Agile data management and version control

• Integrated support for Git, SVN, and native design repositories.
• Controlled release workflow: component approval, revision tracking, and lifecycle status.
• Centralized libraries that ensure consistency across teams and projects.

6. Component and library management

• Central integrated component system with parametric indexing.
• Lifecycle of managed components (new, in use, obsolete, deprecated).
• Automated supply chain information such as availability, lifecycle, and pricing (if enabled).

7. Simulation and analysis tools

• SPICE simulation for analog and mixed-signal circuits.
• Signal integrity analysis, impedance calculation and PDN (power distribution network) review.
• Design rule validation for early detection of electrical and manufacturing problems.

8. Multi-board assembly design

Ability to design systems consisting of multiple interconnected PCBs. 3D visualization of multiple boards to check alignment, connectivity, and assembly constraints.

9. Production outputs and documentation

• Automatic generation of build files (Gerber, ODB++, IPC-2581).
• Designer documentation environment for assembly drawings, PCB views, and dimensions.
• Generate BOM with dynamic supplier links and cost estimates.

10. ECAD-PLM/ERP Integration

• Tools to link design data to product lifecycle management systems.
• Supports synchronization of project metadata, revisions, and compliance documentation.
• Increases traceability and ensures better coordination between engineering and production.

11. Collaboration and cloud features (if enabled)

• Real-time design sharing and feedback.
• Cloud workspaces for project storage and version control.
• Web-based viewer for stakeholders without Altium installed.

Conclusion

Altium Designer Agile brings together powerful PCB development tools with advanced data management and team collaboration capabilities designed for agile engineering environments. Its unified platform reduces design friction, increases accuracy, supports complex multi-board projects, integrates easily with MCAD and enterprise systems, and ensures teams can move quickly while maintaining control and traceability. With its comprehensive feature set and modern system architecture, it is suitable for both small design teams and large-scale engineering organizations looking for faster, more reliable electronics development workflows