Altium 09 and Windows 10

[User1265]

Hello

I was using Altium Designer 09 for many years, installed on Windows XP. Now I am forced to use Windows 10. AD09 is working on Win10, except trere are no pin names and pin numbers in schematic editor.

This is how it looks like in Windows XP



and this is on Win10



I do not want to try new version of Altium Designer because I have many pcb projects and I do not want to redesign them all.
Is there any setting or registry entry or whatever, that can be used to show pin numbers and pin names?

[free_electron]

that looks like a missing font ...

[T3sl4co1l]

Tools/Preferences, Render Text with GDI+

Also affects PDF printing, the usual problem people get with it.

Hah, this option might not even exist in AD09, I don't even remember.

You can always keep using XP on an air-gapped machine.  Heck, I don't know that there's a lot of active exploiting going on these days, simply because there are so few left; but the few that are, are probably low-hanging fruit, so yeh.  Of course, if this is by corporate decree, that may not be so easy.

Tim

[User1265]

Hello, thank you for your answers.

that looks like a missing font ...

I don't think that font is missing because same font is used in component name.

Tools/Preferences, Render Text with GDI+

That option does not exist in AD09.


Do you know what is the oldest version of Altium Designer that successfully works on win10?

[T3sl4co1l]

I don't know but probably 14+ and they're not much different from 09.  Last version with same UI is 17, if that's what you're afraid of.

Tim

[User1265]

I would like to use an older version mostly because of the hardware requirements and also because of the different user interface.
I do not know if I could edit old PCB projects without changing design rules. I have also created my own component library which I'm not sure if I can use in a newer version.

[T3sl4co1l]

Libraries have been (and continue to be) compatible all the way back to the Protel days; SchDoc and (mainly) PchDoc have added minor features over the years but almost always a usable state will be seen by older versions.  Example: length tuning accordions are implemented by a specially tagged union, or something like that I think; their component traces/arcs behave just as any others do, but in supported versions, can also be edited as the special object type.

And that's backward; I think the only forward compatibility change was, when object clearance was changed to a type matrix by default, the bottom row is sometimes zeroed out.  Just reset it to the default value and use design rules instead of the matrix, no big deal.

Even with the UI change of AD18, things are largely similar and compatibility remains a priority.

Tim

[User1265]

@Tim, Thank you, you have given very useful information. Now I need to try some other version of AD.
Thanks again

[krokodyl1220]

Altium 10 works fully out of the box.

[free_electron]

Libraries have been (and continue to be) compatible all the way back to the Protel days; SchDoc and (mainly) PchDoc have added minor features over the years but almost always a usable state will be seen by older versions.  Example: length tuning accordions are implemented by a specially tagged union, or something like that I think; their component traces/arcs behave just as any others do, but in supported versions, can also be edited as the special object type.

yup. i can even open old autotrax designs. you do get a warning that you will lose some features if you save in the older formats. but reading is not a problem.
Internally there are new object types but the software is set up in such a way that it skips over blocks it doesn't understand. so using an older version to read a new file will give a warning that it has features it does not recognize but it simply skips over those. it will load. As long as you don't save nothing is lost.
There's multiple via and pad types. The database behaves like overload classes. Via2 extends the via type. So a newer version simply loads a via into the via2 class. An older version will load the via into the original class and drop the features it doesn't know how to handle. All primitives behave that way. Over the years i've developed tools to dig into the database structure and i know a fair bit about how it works internally.

[PlainName]

If this were happening to me in the schematic libary the first thing I'd suspect is the drawing order - the symbol box is on top of the pin names and obscures them. The fix is to 'send to back' the boxes, but obviously that's when you're creating them rather than using them. But I wonder if it could be something like the Z-order changing with the different Windows drivers.

[free_electron]

If this were happening to me in the schematic libary the first thing I'd suspect is the drawing order - the symbol box is on top of the pin names and obscures them. The fix is to 'send to back' the boxes, but obviously that's when you're creating them rather than using them. But I wonder if it could be something like the Z-order changing with the different Windows drivers.

that was my first thought as well. but Z-order was implemented earlier than his version so it should not be a problem.... unless those libraries are really old and come from a version prior to z-order and transparency.

[JDubU]

May not be relevant, but I have AD 6.0 running on Windows 10 and have never encountered this problem.
I can try opening your schematic file with it if you post it here.

[User1265]

Thank you all for the tips.
Here's one of my mini projects.

[PlainName]

Altium Viewer 09 shows the schematic symbols with the names as it should on Windows 7 (at least, for me).

A strange thing is that the silkscreen is drawn under the pads even when the silkscreen layer is selected. But the silkscreen appear on top if 'multi-layer' is selected (which is the pad layer(s)). Seems to be some z-order screwup there.

[T3sl4co1l]

Viewer 09 maybe/probably has some weird default settings; AD at least, draw order is a user setting (or, maybe it's PCB after all? not sure really).  Also, does it look okay with transparent layers?  (I forget if transparency was available in 09..)

Tim

[JDubU]

User1265:

Your '93C46 Rotated Adapter' schematic shows the pin labels properly when opened in AD6 on Windows 10.
The PCB file displays an incompatible/do not save warning.

[PlainName]

Also, does it look okay with transparent layers?

I think so. Selecting either side layer brings that on top of the other, but the silkscreen remains on top of either (but below the pads). Perhaps not something I'd noticed if I wasn't specifically looking for it.

3D mode seems to be OK.

[ajawamnet]

Same here on Win 10 and AD6.9

[User1265]

Thank you all for the info.
I am even more confused now. I do not know what could be the problem with my installation of AD09. It was installed on fresh Win10.

[c64]

You can also use it inside WinXP. But 3d view will not work. Legacy 3d works no problem

[User1265]

I tried to use Altium Designer 09 in VirtualBox with WinXP. Everything works as it should, but it is very slow.

[c64]

Slower than on the Win 10 on the same computer?

My experience with Virtual Box was very positive. Running same Altium 09 in Win XP VM on Windows 10 host and Windows 7 host

[User1265]

Slower than on the Win 10 on the same computer?

Yes, on the same computer.
AD09 is running fastest on WinXP, slower on Win 10, and slowest on XP in VirtualBox.