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I have used the "Copy Room Formats" before in Altium Designer for PCBs that have duplicate circuits and it worked fine. But now for the first time I have placed in the PCB Room (that I want to copy) components on both sides of the PCB.

The Problem: When I copy the format: the traces, vias and bottom layer components are copied properly, but the top layer components are being copied in a crazy way best described as if you have flipped the PCB. A picture is worth a thousand words:

figure 1

(Notice in the copied room how the IC body (U14) is on the bottom layer but the pads are on the top layer.)

Question: has anyone faced a similar issue and how did you solve it? Does anyone know the proper way of copying rooms (with parts on both sides)?

Note: I'm working in Altium 15.0, and I have used Flip Board in View menu when I was routing the bottom layer.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I think you can try to copy components by selecting layers, one at a time. For example, select bottom layer, copy bottom layer components, and then repeat for top layer. \$\endgroup\$
    – Sachin
    Oct 9, 2017 at 7:57
  • \$\begingroup\$ i try it before and doesn't work \$\endgroup\$
    – fhlb
    Oct 9, 2017 at 8:01

1 Answer 1

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If I remember correctly, this was a nasty bug in Altium 15.0, where components were flipped on layer in some situations. This is through the "Flipped on layer" property, which was introduced in 14.3. This was a glitch, it should be fixed in 15.1.2 according to the release notes (6317 Undo of component layer flip no longer modifies the component's Flipped On Layer property.).

I don't know if there is a patched version of the 15.0.x release, because the release notes are no longer available (old releases until 14.3.x are archived, new documentation system starts with 15.1.x).

If you have access to a newer version, I suggest to try it.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ am already try it by a 16.1 version and doesn't work \$\endgroup\$
    – fhlb
    Oct 9, 2017 at 11:06
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    \$\begingroup\$ @fhlb ok, the Copy Room Format has inherently some issues. What also can lead to wrong behavior is when you added some parts later on and haven't imported all the parts at the same time because the channel offsets go out of sync and never resynchronize again. Are you matching the parts between the rooms by designator? Have you set up proper design channel classes? \$\endgroup\$
    – Manu3l0us
    Oct 9, 2017 at 11:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ no i didn't added some parts just i had change the distribution of some pins in the ic's. did you think that is the problem? \$\endgroup\$
    – fhlb
    Oct 9, 2017 at 14:16
  • \$\begingroup\$ normally, if you don't delete the parts in the PCB and reimport them from schematic, you should be fine. Anyway, this would be mainly relevant if you match the part instances in the different rooms by their channel offset. If you match them by designator, you should be fine. Also, I haven't saw the "Flipped on Layer" bug in newer versions. \$\endgroup\$
    – Manu3l0us
    Oct 10, 2017 at 6:00

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