I'm looking to export an altium PCB or full project but would like it to be "read-only" so that whomever I'm sending it to cannot edit it without my knowledge. They're looking to do a more in-depth analysis than just the gerbers/fab/assy files. Has anyone had experience exporting read-only projects with Altium?
1 Answer
No, there isn't any way to make your project read only in Altium, to avoid accidental changes you should simply lock all your components and features.
There are alternatives that I have used
Send a stripped down design or only the PCB file and a reference schematic
Send odb++ or an exported CAD data (e.g. legacy ascii fileformat) that makes it less trivial to pretend to be you while providing more data than gerbers and basic assembly data .
Find consultants you trust to respect your IP,
- \$\begingroup\$ Thanks, that was going to be an option: Just send the PCB without any traces so that it couldn't be produced without having to reroute it. What I ended up doing is sending the schematic and assembly file to them in pdf format so they could "ctrl-f" to find where each component is on the PCBA. Plus a 3D file (Step and PDF). Seems they were content with that. Thank you! \$\endgroup\$Alexandra Kaufhold– Alexandra Kaufhold2019-12-17 21:08:18 +00:00Commented Dec 17, 2019 at 21:08
- \$\begingroup\$ ODB++ or pick and place data along with Gerber is usually sufficient for assembler to program the SMT . \$\endgroup\$crasic– crasic2019-12-17 21:16:05 +00:00Commented Dec 17, 2019 at 21:16