Exploring the Browser-based Interface of an Altium 365 Workspace

Created: January 24, 2018 | Updated: February 18, 2022

Contents

Accessing the Interface
What's Provided?
- General Access Interface Elements
- Admin-Only Interface Elements

In addition to connecting to a Workspace through Altium Designer – interfacing to it through the Explorer panel and Components panel (for direct interaction with the managed components therein) – you also connect to it through a dedicated browser interface, with access to management interfaces for the various services available as part of the Workspace. Indeed, with some of these services your only interaction with them is through this browser interface.

Accessing the Interface

The browser-based interface to a Workspace is actually presented as a constituent part within the overall Altium 365 Platform Interface. Access to this interface can be performed in a number of ways. Refer to the section Signing in to the Interface, on the Altium 365 Platform Interface page for more details.

The quickest way to access the interface is by using the direct URL: https://365.altium.com.

What's Provided?

Within the Altium 365 Platform Interface, the area for the active Workspace provides a number of key technologies and services and can be coarsely divided into two groupings, as shown in the following image and listed thereafter.

The Altium 365 Platform Interface showing the active Workspace, which can be further divided into two distinct sets of interface elements. Shown here is the interface for the Pro level of access, attained through having a Pro Subscription Plan for your Altium Designer licensing. Hover over the image to see the interface for the Standard level of access – when on the Standard Subscription Plan.

Interface elements that can be accessed by any Workspace user. To access a page, click on its name within the left-hand navigation tree.
Interface elements that can only be accessed by a Workspace Administrator. A user is bestowed administrative powers by membership to the role Administrators. To access a page, choose the required entry within the Admin section of the left-hand navigation tree.

The actual pages presented and the features and functionality available will depend on your level of access to Altium 365 – determined by the Altium Subscription Plan you have. Take a look at the Full Plans Comparison page to see the differences. The level of access (or Subscription Plan level) is indicated to the right of the Workspace name, in the left hand navigation tree. When on the Pro Subscription Plan this will be indicated by the

icon. When on the Standard Subscription Plan there is no icon.

If you have access to multiple Workspaces, switch between them using the menu associated to the entry at the far right of the banner area, at the top of the interface (which shows your name and a picture). This menu also provides access to your own Personal Space (click My Personal Space), from where you can upload snapshots of designs in various supported formats, and manufacturing data (Gerber), which you can then share persistently with others as you wish.

General Access Interface Elements

The following sections summarize the elements of the Workspace's browser interface that can be accessed by all users of the Workspace – both administrators and standard users.

Get Started

This page provides access to a Quick Start Guide of sorts to give you an overview of, and get you up and running with, Altium 365.

Browse through the documents and videos for getting up to speed with Altium 365, directly from within the browser interface.

Click the

button in the banner at the top of the page, or expand the last collapsible section, to access a form with which to register for a free Altium 365 on-boarding session with the Altium Product team.

Projects

This page provides the interface to the Projects service, to create and manage projects in a central location, in a CAD-centric way, and share those projects for team collaboration as required. The page lists all managed projects for the Workspace. Managed projects target the development stage of the project lifecycle, simplifying the creation and ongoing workflow for version controlled projects. From here you can create new projects and open and manage existing ones. From this interface a project can also be shared, or rather its access permissions configured.

The beauty of Managed Projects is that they are version controlled by default and can be collaboratively worked upon without having to worry about shared drives, servers, agreements etc. Version control is handled courtesy of the Workspace's built-in GIT version control service. All managed projects are stored in a single Design Repository within a Workspace, named Versioned Storage (a Git repository). If your project is under external version control, you can migrate it to be a fully-managed project in the Workspace that hosts the design files in the server's own Git repository (effectively switching to the Workspace's native VCS). For detailed information on how to do this, see Moving from External VCS to Workspace Native VCS.

You can also keep your project unmanaged (a regular, or VCS-based project), but make a synchronized copy of it available online – sending it to your Workspace. Referred to as Simple Sync, this enables you to take advantage of the collaborative benefits offered through Altium 365.

Centralized management of your design projects – all part of your Workspace.

A project created through this interface, or through Altium Designer, will initially be available to the designer who created it (the Owner), all Administrators for the Workspace, and all members of the Workspace, in terms of full Read/Write access. To make it accessible to others simply share it, by configuring its permissions. You can change the default permissions for new projects from the Admin – Settings – Projects page of the interface.

You can also access a detailed, CAD-centric view of the project, opened by selecting the required project, clicking the control above the listing of projects, and choosing the Open entry on the associated menu. Alternatively, double-click directly on the required project entry in the list (or click on its name). The detailed management page for that project opens in a new browser tab incorporating the CAD-centric interface, which offers Design, Supply, Releases and History view options:

Design – display and navigate source project design documents, view design object properties and place review comments. This view uses the Web Viewer interface to present your design across four distinct data sub-views, to show the source schematic(s), board in 2D, board in 3D and Bill of Materials respectively. This view is for the latest version of the source project data, rather than a specified release from that project, and so could be considered to be a work-in-progress (WIP) view. You can review both the base design and any defined variant thereof.

You'll be able to search, select, cross-probe, and inspect components and nets throughout the design and across the various sub-views as applicable. And when viewing the board in 2D, you can even take measurements.

Supply – allows you to interactively examine work-in-progress (WIP) BOM data extracted from the design documents, including entries for Manufacturer and Supplier parts data derived from a project's populated ActiveBOM document.

Releases – view the releases for the project. Access is provided for opening the full release data, or a specific assembly package, which will be presented on a separate tab through a Manufacturing Portal. From this portal you can view and navigate the released file data, inspect the BOM, and view and comment on the snapshot of the design itself; the source for that released data. From either the Releases view, or through the Manufacturing Portal for a specific release, you'll have access to controls for downloading manufacturing data at various levels of granularity (from full data set(s) to individual generated output files). A chosen release can also be sent – as a Manufacturing Package – directly to your manufacturer. You even have the ability to compare Gerber data between releases or against a locally-generated file set, and compare Schematic data between releases or to commits.

The Altium 365 platform provides a dedicated Manufacturing Package Viewer – an element of the platform's Global Sharing support – which allows others to view a manufacturing package from any web browser – anywhere in the world – but outside of your Workspace, so that your designs themselves and other valuable IP are kept off limits. For more information, see Global Sharing and Manufacturing Package Viewer.

History – browse a progressive timeline of major events relating to the project, including its creation, commits, releases, clones and MCAD exchanges. Each time a supported event happens in association with the project, that event is added to the timeline as a dedicated tile with various actions supported where applicable. For release events, you even have the ability to compare Gerber data between releases or against a locally-generated file set.

For more information on using this view, see Management of a Specific Project.

Components

Main page: Workspace Components

This page gives you convenient access for browsing all of the managed components that are currently stored within your Workspace. Not only can you see, at-a-glance, what (and how many) components you currently have at your disposal (and gain detailed information about each and every component), but you can also view a summary of the health of those components. Delving deeper, you have access to view more detailed information regarding component health, through a dedicated Library Health dashboard. This provides greater detail on issues and enables you to quickly assess and fix components accordingly.

The Library Health dashboard feature is currently in Beta.

The page is comprised of three regions, as shown in the following image and listed thereafter.

Browse the managed components currently available within your Workspace from the Components page of the browser interface. The Library Health region provides a summary of the components and their health.

Library Health – this region of the page provides a summary of the health of your components since last running a health check. Access is provided to the detailed Library Health dashboard page, from where you can run health checks and inspect component health issues in greater detail.

The summary becomes populated once an initial component health check is performed. This is performed automatically the first time the Components page is accessed.

Components – when the page is first accessed this region presents a tiled array of the various component types, along with the total number of existing components of each type. From here you are able to drill down to see individual components and get detailed information about them.
Supply Chain Data Sources – this region of the page lists the supply chain data sources that are used. If you have a Standard Subscription Plan, your data source is Octopart. If you have a Pro Subscription Plan, you also benefit from IHS Markit® Parts Intelligence and the ability to connect to your own internal company parts database. For more information on these sources, see altium.com/part-data-sources.

Access to IHS Markit® Parts Intelligence is fully automated. There's no set up, enablement, or configuration involved – just enhanced data through a monthly sync with the IHS Markit® Parts database. This data includes manufacturer lifecycles, part alternates, component parameters (technical) and datasheets.

For many organizations, component supplier data is (and must be) sourced from an internal company enterprise system that provides a proprietary set of parts supplier data – which might be based on a tightly approved range of vendors and/or special pricing structures. This situation is catered for by the alternative Altium Custom Parts Provider, which when configured for synchronization through Altium Designer, allows the supplier data from a specified database source to be mapped to the Workspace supply chain data. This functionality requires Altium Designer 20.2 or later and a Pro Subscription Plan. For more details, see Supply Chain Database to Workspace Data Synchronization.

When browsing a specific component, you can also delete that component (provided you have editing rights). The action is actually a 'soft delete', whereby the component will be moved into the Trash area of the Workspace. You can also opt to delete the component's related items (e.g. symbol, footprint model(s), simulation model, datasheet). Note that these can only be deleted if they are not being used elsewhere (by one or more other components). A component can be restored, or permanently deleted from the Trash page. Permanent deletion is only possible provided it is not being used on a managed schematic sheet, or within a design.

Tasks

This page view allows you to access and manage all Tasks – job activity requests – that are currently active in the Altium 365 Workspace. Tasks are presented in a Kanban board flow style, with their progress state (ToDo, InProgress and Resolved) arranged as Task rows or 'swimlanes'. One row is reserved for General Tasks (see below), and each remaining row applies to Tasks for a specific project.

The Workspace Tasks feature is not available to those on a Standard Altium 365 Subscription plan, or those connected to an on-site server such as Altium Concord Pro. Also note that a NEXUS Workspace offers its own unique and advanced Tasks system based on Process Workflows.

The Tasks dashboard is populated with both General Tasks that are not associated with a Workspace design project, and those that apply to a specific design project. The latter is created when a project Comment Task is assigned to a particular user (Workspace member) or a General Task has been created for that specific project. ► See Project Tasks for more information.

In the global Tasks page as shown here, only General Task can be created. Select the button to create a new General Task, which is assigned to you by default. General Tasks created in this global Tasks view are not associated with a Project or Comment.

The Task page is also available to an individual project, where it includes only Tasks that apply to that project and its documents. General Tasks for the project also may be created in that space.

Although presented through a relatively simple interface, the Workspace Tasks dashboard offers a flexible and efficient way of both managing and tracking workflows within the actual design environment rather, than via an external system. Along with its inherent links to Workspace design data, the Tasks board interface also provides the following range of interactive features:

Drag and drop – drag a Task tile to a new row location to change its workflow status (ToDo, InProgress, Resolved).
Filtering – select a user icon at the top of the board to constrain the listed Tasks to those assigned to that user. Click again to unselect filtering for the user.
Task tile options – use the tile's ellipsis menu options to copy a link to that specific Task (Copy Link), cross probe to the related project Comment (Show in Design), or delete the Task if you are its creator (Delete).
Task details pane (hover over the above image for example content) – select a Task tile to access its sequential history in the pane, add a description, change its assignee to another user, add a description, change its progress status, change its priority, or add a comment note.
Cross-probing – with a project Task selected (that is, not a General Task) click the Show in design link to open the associated Comment in its host project document. To navigate back to its entry in the project Tasks board, select the Task reference name (ID) in the upper left corner of the open Comment or in its entry in the Comments and Tasks pane (show example).

Note that General Tasks are visible to all Workspace members, while project-related Tasks are visible to members who have access (View/Edit permissions) to those projects.

► See the Web Viewer page for information on assigning project comment Tasks in a Workspace.

► See the Altium Designer Comments and Task panel page for information on assigning comment Tasks on the design side.

MCAD CoDesigner

Related page: ECAD-MCAD CoDesign

This page relates to ECAD-MCAD CoDesign functionality. MCAD CoDesigner synchronizes the PCB design between electrical and mechanical engineers. It works directly with ECAD and MCAD data via the MCAD CoDesigner panel on the Altium Designer side, and a corresponding panel plugged-in to your MCAD software. The latter is provided through installation (and registration to the MCAD software) of the Altium CoDesigner plugin.

The following MCAD platforms are supported when using the latest Altium CoDesigner plugins:

Dassault Systemes SOLIDWORKS®
Autodesk Inventor Professional®
PTC Creo Parametric®
Autodesk Fusion 360®
Siemens NX® (for NEXUS solution users only)

The versions of MCAD tools officially supported will depend on the version of Altium CoDesigner plugin being used. This information can be found on the New in CoDesigner page for Altium Designer and NEXUS.

When using Altium Designer as your design software, the features available to you depend on your level of access to Altium 365 – determined by the Altium Subscription Plan you have. Take a look at the Full Plans Comparison page to see the differences.

The MCAD CoDesigner page provides an overview of the area, along with links to the MCAD CoDesigner Plugins and further educational material.

The page offers the following:

A control to play an Overview Video.
Highlighting of which MCAD Software platforms are currently supported.
A Link to the MCAD CODESIGNER PLUGINS section on the Downloads page of the altium.com site, for access to the plugin required to add this co-design functionality to your MCAD design software installation.
Quick guidance on how to start collaborating from the ECAD or MCAD side – hover over the control.
Links to further documentation and how-to videos. The latter is to YouTube, but the videos can also be found here within the documentation.

If your MCAD platform is not currently supported, click the Let Us Know link to access a window with which to tell us. This will help us to gauge the level of interest and help to determine which MCAD platforms to consider supporting next.

Part Requests

Related page: Part Requests

This functionality is not available with the Standard Subscription Plan.

This page enables you to create and manage requests for new managed components. An engineer can simply put in a request for one or more parts to be created and get notified when that request has either been completed, and the component(s) made available, or rejected (and why). The requestor supplies as much key information to support their request as possible (manufacturer and part number(s), description(s), any relevant datasheet (PDF or URL)). Stub Component Items can even be created that the librarian can then run with (and finish off).

You'll need to specify which role (or roles) should be used to fulfill the role of Librarians for your organization. In essence, you are configuring a set of users of the Workspace that can be assigned to a part request. This is performed by an Administrator, through the Admin – Settings – Vault – Part Requests – Librarians Role page of the Workspace's browser interface. As part of the sample data installed at the time of Workspace creation, this will automatically be set to the Librarians role.

Adding a new part request through the Workspace's browser interface. Hover over the image to see the form presented to receive the details of the request.

Initially, a part request is visible to the original requestor and all members of the nominated librarian role(s). Once the request has been assigned to a particular librarian, only the requestor and that librarian will see it, and receive notifications about it.

Upon creation of a part request the requestor, members of the Librarian role and Workspace Administrators, will receive email notifications – providing the Email Notifications feature is enabled. This is performed by an Administrator, on the Email Notifications page (Admin – Settings – Email Notifications) of the Workspace's browser interface.

Workspace Members

This page is used to create and manage a list of users; people who are members of the Workspace and have access to the Workspace and/or its associated technologies. User members can be those with AltiumLive accounts within your own organization, or those in a different organization (in the case of the latter, inviting them in as members of a Workspace does not mean they become part of your organization). You can also invite users who do not have an AltiumLive account (who will need to then register for one).

Only an Administrator for the Workspace can invite new members.

Determine which people are to have access to the Workspace from the Workspace Members page of the interface.

A team member that is currently accessing the Workspace is distinguished by a green dot (e.g.

). Use the Search field to quickly find a member within the list.

Trash

This page presents all items that have been 'soft deleted' – items that have been deleted, but not yet permanently so. The Trash is essentially a recycle bin into which any managed item within your Workspace can be moved (through a soft delete action). It is isolated from the rest of the Workspace and so any item in the Trash is not available for use and cannot be found through searching, or through pages in the Web interface, or from within Altium Designer.

Soft deletion from within the design software is supported in Altium Designer 20.2 and later.

You will know if a Delete-based command within the Workspace interface or Altium Designer is of the soft delete variety, as the subsequent confirmation window will confirm that the deleted item(s) will be moved to the Trash.

When you delete an item in the Workspace through a soft delete action, it will be moved to the Trash. The Trash page provides the interface to this isolated area of the Workspace.

You will only see items that you yourself have soft deleted. An administrator will see all soft deleted items in the Trash. Each item is presented in terms of the following information:

Its content type icon
Its name
Its description
Its revision
By whom it was deleted
The date and time at which it was deleted (sent to the Trash).

Sort by any of the columns – click on a column header once to sort in ascending order, click again for descending. Use the Search field above the listing to search across all content.

Select an item in the Trash, then use the controls at the top-right of the list to permanently delete that item, or to restore it, respectively. Corresponding commands are also available from the menu associated to the control (at the far right of the selected item).

For a Project, only the owner or an administrator can permanently delete or restore. For any other item, you will be able to perform these actions as long as you have editing rights.

Select an item, then decide whether to fully restore it for use again, or to permanently delete it (a 'hard delete' if you will).

Alternatively, to empty the entire Trash in a single, batch action, click the button at the top-left of the page. A confirmation window will appear alerting you to the fact that this action will delete all items permanently and that they cannot be restored thereafter. To proceed click the button.

When trying to permanently delete (hard delete) an item, you will be prevented from doing so if that item is used by a parent item – for example a component that is used on a managed schematic sheet, or within a design.

Admin-Only Interface Elements

The following sections summarize the elements of the Workspace's browser interface that can only be accessed by Administrative users of the Workspace – those who are part of the Administrators role. Access to these elements is through the dedicated Admin area of the left-hand navigation tree.

If accessing the Workspace as a non-administrative user, the Admin area of the tree will be hidden.

Admin – Settings

This page provides a collection of sub-pages for configuration of options relating to various features and services provided by, and through, a Workspace.

The Admin – Settings area, part of the admin-only pages within the Workspace's browser interface. Shown here is the interface for the Pro level of access, attained through having a Pro Subscription Plan for your Altium Designer licensing. Hover over the image to see the interface for the Standard level of access – when on the Standard Subscription Plan.

When changing any settings, be sure to click the

button, at the top-right of a page.

The left-hand side of the page provides a navigation tree with which to quickly access various sub-pages of settings. The following pages are available:

General – use this page to change the name, server address and description for the Workspace as required. The page also provides read-only information about the Workspace's type and its location. Changes can only be made by the Administrator who is also the Owner of the Workspace and not by any other Administrator of that Workspace.

Projects – use this page to specify the default path (within the Workspace's folder structure) for newly-released projects. You can also define default sharing permissions for new projects, so that the right users and/or roles have access to those projects from the moment they are created.

Email Notifications – this page provides a control to enable the Workspace's email notifications feature. This facility flags a variety of events to key stakeholders, relating to component Items, managed projects and part requests.

Altium 365 uses the Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) as the sending email server. This is the same service that is used by Altium to send emails regarding AltiumLive (e.g. account activation).

Vault – not a page, but rather a structural entry for gathering together settings related to specific functionality within the Workspace itself.
- Part Requests (not available with the Standard Subscription Plan) – a structural page to gather the following sub-pages related to the Part Request feature:
  - Librarians Role – use this page to specify which role (or roles) should be used to fulfill the role of Librarians for your organization. In essence, you are simply configuring a set of users of your Workspace that can be assigned to a part request. The sample role Librarians will already be prefilled here.
  - Custom States – use this page to customize opened and closed states for the Part Request feature.

For more information, see Part Requests.

Lifecycle Definitions (not available with the Standard Subscription Plan) – use this page to define and manage your Workspace's lifecycle definitions, complementing the ability to do this through Altium Designer. Providing better visibility of the states and transitions involved, each lifecycle is built in a graphical way, showing at-a-glance the flows involved.

For more information, see Lifecycle Management.

Components – use this page to define default target folders in which new models should be created, when creating a new component in the Workspace. To change a default folder, click the button. The Explorer window will appear with which to choose the desired new default target release folder for that model type. Once chosen, click OK to close the window and return to the Components page, with the applicable field updated with the new folder path.

You also can control whether the custom pin-to-pad mapping functionality is enabled or not, using the Enable Pin Mapping option. When enabled, the pin mapping functionality will become available when editing a component in the Component Editor (in its Single Component Editing mode). Mapping is driven through the dedicated Pins panel. By default, the numbered pins of the symbol will be mapped to the same numbered pads/pins in the referenced footprint and simulation models. Change the mapped pad/pin targets directly by clicking on a cell of the model and entering the required value. This allows for custom pin mapping.

Be aware that custom pin-to-pad mapping is not backward compatible. If this feature is used for your components, the mapping will not be interpreted correctly when performing an ECO in a version of the software earlier than Altium Designer 21.

Data Cleanup – use this page to quickly delete data items from your Workspace. This is particularly useful after having experimented with creating and releasing content into your Workspace, for example when trying out the migration of unmanaged libraries, and now you want to 'flush' such experimental data. This functionality works on any and all Item types in your Workspace.

Use the available checkboxes to determine whether to delete all data items (All) or specific item types. With your cleanup strategy configured, click the button. A window will appear asking for confirmation, and alerting you to the fact that this action cannot be undone. To verify and proceed, enter the text Delete my data permanently into the field and then click .

Note that child items cannot be deleted if already referenced (in use) by parent items. The parent items must be deleted first. For example if a component is being used on a managed sheet or within a managed design project, the managed sheet and/or managed project would need to be deleted first.

Remember that data cleanup is an action that cannot be undone. A snapshot of your Workspace will be created automatically prior to data removal. Note also that data cleanup operations can take a while to process, depending on the amount of data involved.

MCAD CoDesigner (not available with the Standard Subscription Plan) – this page provides controls to enable component recognition between the ECAD and MCAD domains, when using the ECAD-MCAD CoDesign feature. This facilitates the use of native components when a design is pushed and pulled between the two domains. The following options are available.
- Specify how transferred ECAD models are named – set the naming convention used for models during the initial transfer to the MCAD domain. This is set to <FootprintName><ComponentID> by default, and can be changed to <ComponentID><FootprintName> or <CustomComponentProperty><FootprintName>. In the latter case use the Custom Component Property field (otherwise set to PARTNO) to define the custom property you wish use in the MCAD component name. This option allows engineers to include meaningful information, such as detailed part number data, into the component identification.
- Recognize models placed in MCAD and use true electrical components in ECAD instead – enable this option to support use of native components when the board is being Pushed from MCAD and Pulled in to ECAD. The MCAD 3D model is linked to the equivalent Altium Designer component, so when the board is pulled into Altium Designer the MCAD 3D model can be replaced by an instance of the fully-defined Altium Designer component footprint, complete with a 3D model. Use the two sub-fields to determine the MCAD model property and the ECAD component parameter, used to identify components in the two design domains. By default, these fields are populated with the entry PARTNO. The MCAD model property can be your own custom property, or choose MCAD model name from the drop-down. The ECAD component parameter can also be your own custom parameter. These fields are required if the parent option is enabled. If one or both are left blank, the button will be disabled.
- Use models from data management system on MCAD side when creating PCB assembly – enable this option to support use of native components when the board is being Pushed from ECAD and Pulled in to MCAD. The MCAD software gets the model of the component from the MCAD's data management system (by the model’s name) and then places that component on the MCAD PCB assembly, instead of the model that came from ECAD. Use the sub-field to determine the ECAD component parameter that will be used to store the MCAD model name.By default, this field is populated with the entry MCADModelName. This field is required if the parent option is enabled. If left blank, the button will be disabled.

MCAD-to-ECAD component linking is available for all supported MCAD platforms (except Autodesk Fusion 360^®). ECAD-to-MCAD native component linking is currently only supported in:

SOLIDWORKS – requires SOLIDWORKS be connected to a SOLIDWORKS PDM system. The MCAD component must be defined in the ECAD component as a parameter, in the form "<vault>:folder\folder\component.sldprt", where <vault> is the name of the PDM vault. Consult your SOLIDWORKS documentation for information on how to connect to a SOLIDWORKS PDM system. If the component is not available in the SOLIDWORKS PDM system, CoDesigner places the model transferred from the PCB editor and saved in the Altium 365 Workspace instead.
PTC Creo Parametric – requires PTC Creo to be connected to a PTC Windchill^® server, with the ECAD components stored in a Windchill Workspace. Consult your Creo documentation for information on how to connect to Windchill. If the component is not available in the Windchill Workspace, CoDesigner places the model transferred from the PCB editor and saved in the Altium 365 Workspace instead.

CoDesigner checks these settings on startup (from Altium Designer and from the MCAD tools). Restart your design software if the settings have been changed in your Workspace.

Admin – Roles

This functionality is not available with the Standard Subscription Plan.

This page is used to create and manage a list of roles; roles allow you to further organize your user members according to, for example, the particular section of the organization in which they are involved, or the design team they are in. Roles also make the sharing of Workspace content, and the configuration of other served technologies, more streamlined.

Access and manage the roles defined for your Workspace from the Admin – Roles page of the interface.

Several sample roles are defined for a Workspace. This includes the role Administrators. This role gives administrative privileges to its members. Anyone who is a member of this role has complete access to to the Workspace and all associated technologies and services through its browser interface.

Admin – Sessions

This page is used to quickly assess which of your user members are currently accessing the Workspace. Provision is made for an administrator to terminate a user's access to the Workspace by effectively 'dropping' their active session. This would then allow the administrator to remove that user from the Workspace (something that could not otherwise be done if the user were actively using the Workspace).

As an Administrator for your Workspace, you have the ability to not only view active Workspace sessions (connections), but also the ability to terminate a session for any user currently accessing that Workspace.

Admin – Part Providers

Related page: Part Source Configuration

This page enables you to define a Part Source – facilitating centralized supply chain management, with designers across the entire organization using the same approved list of Suppliers, with which to source supply chain intelligence for parts used in their designs.

The following part sources are available for a Workspace:

Altium Parts Provider – an aggregate supplier data service that provides access to live component information from a comprehensive range of parts suppliers.

The Altium Parts Provider settings that are established in a Workspace will override those in Altium Designer when a user connects to that Workspace.

Custom Parts Provider – for situations where component supplier data is (and must be) sourced from an internal company enterprise system that provides a proprietary set of parts supplier data, which might be based on a tightly approved range of vendors and/or special pricing structures. This part source is actually configured for synchronization through Altium Designer – using a Custom Parts Provider Synchronization Configuration document (*.PrtSync) – allowing the supplier data from a specified database source to be mapped to Workspace supply chain data.

This functionality requires Altium Designer 20.2 or later and a Pro Subscription Plan. For more details, see Supply Chain Database to Workspace Data Synchronization.

The actual supply chain intelligence – comprising Manufacturer (and part number), Supplier (and part number), Description, Pricing and Availability – is sourced from the Workspace's local Part Catalog and the relevant Part Source.

Each Workspace instance has its own dedicated Part Catalog. This is a managed part catalog database, dedicated to the management and tracking of manufacturer parts and their associated supplier parts. The catalog is installed as a service (Part Catalog Service), provided through the Altium 365 platform, and works only with the Workspace. The Part Catalog stores items representative of actual Manufacturer Parts, along with one or more items representative of Supplier Parts – the incarnations of those Manufacturer Parts, as sold by the Suppliers/Vendors. Each Supplier Part is a reference to an item in a parts database – either the aggregate parts database of the Altium Parts Provider (which itself interfaces to, and gathers the parts from, enabled Suppliers), or a linked local parts database (available with a Pro Subscription Plan).

Enabling required Suppliers and determining Location/Currency ranges for the Altium Parts Provider.

Admin – Component Sync

Component Synchronization functionality is not available with the Standard or Pro Subscription Plans. It is currently only accessible to existing Pro Subscription Plan users who have actively engaged in this area previously.

This page provides the interface to the Component Sync Service. It is from here that you define the connection to an enterprise system instance, including configuration file, and enable/configure synchronization of your enterprise system components with those in your Workspace.

The Workspace facilitates the uni- or bi-directional synchronization of component data with your enterprise systems. A configuration file allows you to specify the direction of synchronization and therefore which parameters are mastered in which system. Component data synchronization between the Workspace and the target enterprise system uses a built-in synchronization process which may be manually triggered or set as timed repeating event.

The Workspace does not offer full PLM integration – this level of integration is only available through Altium NEXUS. Note also that synchronization of Part Choice data is unidirectional – from the enterprise system to the Workspace only.

The Workspace currently provides direct support for component synchronization to the following enterprise systems:

Arena^® PLM
PTC Windchill^® PLM (PTC Cloud)

Interface configuration is performed through the Workspace's browser interface, with the connection setup and parameter mapping defined within an XML-based configuration file (uploaded to the server). To create a new interface instance, click the button. As many instances can be defined as required, to interface your Workspace to various different enterprise system instances. For example, your components might reside in one instance, or perhaps different divisions are using different instances. Each instance must be uniquely named and have a configuration file. To test the connection for a defined instance click the button, then use the button to enter and validate your enterprise system connection credentials. .

Sample configuration files are provided – click the Download sample configuration link (under the Configuration tab) to obtain the zip file ConfigurationSamples.zip. This zip contains basic configuration files for Arena and Windchill PLM (PTC Cloud) systems. Modify these to suit your company's requirements.

Add and configure the interface to your company's enterprise system. With a valid connection you can schedule synchronization of components between that system and your Workspace.

Synchronization of components between the Workspace and the connected enterprise system instance – or to be more specific, their parametric data – is very flexible, and involves the following:

Configuring the synchronization for each component type. This involves:
1. Determining the direction of synchronization.
2. Determining which components are involved, and where new components are to be created.
3. Configuring parameter mapping.
Performing the synchronization.

The first item is handled in the configuration file used for the connected enterprise system instance. The synchronization itself can be performed on-demand from the Component Sync page (click the button associated with an enterprise system instance) and/or can be scheduled – automated synchronization at periodic intervals, defined when configuring the connection to the enterprise system instance.

Perform a sync on-demand, or set up automated synchronization as part of the interface configuration.

To perform synchronization requires you to provide valid credentials (for your enterprise system). If not already in place, click the

button and enter your User name and Password into the subsequent PLM Credentials window. Without valid credentials, scheduled synchronization will remain in the OFF state. On-demand synchronization will also not be possible.

Admin – Explorer

Related page: Managing Content Structure & Access

This page gives you access to the structure of the Workspace, and is similar in presentation and layout to that of Altium Designer's Explorer panel. From here, you will be able to browse the folders and Items within the Workspace. And although you can't create or edit Items from within the browser interface (you can remove them), you are able to create and edit folders, and so build the structure of the Workspace, without having to be connected to that server through Altium Designer.

You can also define folder-level and Item-level sharing from this interface – controlling who is able to see what content in the Workspace and, at the folder level, whether other users can simply view a folder and its content, or also edit it (effectively releasing/committing/uploading design data into it).

Content can also be downloaded from the Workspace, directly from this interface.

Browse and define the structure of your Workspace as well as defining access to, and being able to download, content therein.

You can soft-delete folders and Items from the Admin – Explorer page – sending them to the isolated Trash area for the Workspace.