When designing an electronic schematic in Altium Designer, documentation plays a critical role in ensuring clarity and reusability across teams. While schematics are great for visualizing connections, sometimes a simple text table can concisely convey essential notes, configuration options, part details, or design summaries. Adding a text table gives your design additional context without cluttering the schematic graphics.
TLDR: Incorporating text tables in your Altium schematic helps to document project-specific information in a clean, structured format. These tables can include reference notes, part descriptions, or configuration settings. Altium does not have a native “table” tool, but users can cleverly combine text boxes and lines to build a custom table layout. With careful alignment and spacing, these tables can look polished and provide critical supplementary data right on your schematic sheet.
Why Use Text Tables in Altium Schematics?
Even though Altium Designer is a high-end ECAD tool built for complex projects, it doesn’t directly support tables like Microsoft Word or Excel does. However, engineers often have the need to document configuration jumper settings, firmware versioning, power requirements, or even a changelog alongside the schematic. These types of structured data are best represented in a table format.
Rather than turning to external documents, using text tables on the schematic page allows everyone who reads the design to quickly understand key design decisions—making the schematic more informative and self-contained.
Step-by-Step Guide: Creating a Text Table in Altium Designer
Since Altium Designer doesn’t provide a dedicated “Insert Table” feature, creating one is a manual process. Thankfully, it’s quite simple once the basic tools are mastered.
1. Determine the Purpose of Your Table
Before placing anything, think about what type of information the table will present. Here are some common use cases:
- Jumper/Switch function settings
- Power supply voltage configurations
- Board revision notes or changelog
- Connector pin-outs
- Peripheral or sensor memory addresses
This helps you determine how many rows and columns you need, and what formatting will work best.
2. Use Text Boxes for Content
Each cell in your “table” will actually be a text object. Here’s how to insert one:
- Open your schematic sheet.
- Go to Place in the top menu.
- Select Text String.
- Click on the schematic or press Tab before placing the box to edit the text contents and styles.
Align these manually to mimic rows and columns. To enhance alignment, consider using the grid and snapping features found in the Properties panel.
3. Draw Grid Lines Using Graphic Tools
Once the text cells are in place, you can outline your table using the Line or Polyline drawing tools:
- Navigate to Place > Line or Place > Polyline.
- Click to set the starting point of your line around text boxes.
- Double click to complete the drawing.
These lines can be configured to match your schematic’s style using the Properties window. You can use different line weights or colors for better visual cues.
4. Align Object Elements Properly
To create a professional-looking table, always align text boxes and lines. Here’s how:
- Select multiple text elements while holding Shift and clicking them.
- Right-click and choose Align from the context menu.
- Choose vertical or horizontal alignment as needed.
- Use Tools > Arrange > Space Evenly to distribute items equally.
This step gives your table a clean, readable format and ensures nothing looks out of place.
5. Group Table Elements
Once your table is crafted, it’s a smart idea to group the elements. Grouping allows you to move or duplicate the entire table as a single block without breaking alignment.
To group:
- Select all related text and line items.
- Right-click and choose Group.
Grouped items will retain their spatial relationship making future edits easier.
6. Optional: Save as a Reusable Snippet
If you anticipate reusing this table format in future projects, save it as a schematic snippet:
- Select the entire table layout.
- Right-click and choose Create Snippet.
- Provide a name and description for your snippet.
This saves time and promotes consistency across projects or team members.
Best Practices
- Keep text legible: Use standard fonts like Arial or Tahoma, sized appropriately for printing.
- Limit visual clutter: Avoid over-decorating tables with bold lines or excess cells.
- Use layers: Place tables on a dedicated mechanical layer to toggle visibility when printing or exporting.
- Document table meaning: Include a brief title or note on top of the table to explain its purpose.
Common Use Cases for Tables in Schematics
Text tables can be especially valuable in scenarios such as:
- Power Supply Mapping: Indicate voltage rails associated with different boards or ICs.
- Boot Mode Configurations: Show binary settings for microcontroller startup bits.
- I2C/Address Allocation: Display reserved address ranges for multiple slave devices.
- Change Management: Preserve a version history within the schematic to show design evolution.
Conclusion
Though Altium Designer doesn’t come with native table features, building text tables with text boxes and lines is a clever workaround that enhances schematic readability and professionalism. By aligning and grouping elements correctly—and utilizing snippets—you can save time while creating high-quality visuals. Whether you’re capturing power rail details or a revision history, text tables empower your schematic with organized, accessible information.
FAQ
- Does Altium Designer support tables natively?
- No, Altium Designer does not have a built-in table object like a spreadsheet. Users must construct tables manually using text and graphic line tools.
- Can I copy and paste a table from Excel?
- While copying text from Excel is possible, formatting will not be preserved. For simplicity, you may paste cell content into Altium text objects manually.
- What is the fastest way to align multiple text boxes?
- Right-click after selecting multiple text boxes, choose Align, and use the alignment options such as Align Left or Align Center.
- How do I reuse a table layout across different projects?
- Save the table as a schematic snippet, then drag-and-drop into other projects from the Snippets panel.
- Can I make my table visible only in documentation prints?
- Yes. Place the table on a specific mechanical layer and configure print settings to control its visibility.