Altium 19 - Variant, footprint overlap, unconnected traces?

[martin1454]

Hi there!

Once again I have a issue with Altium "variants".

I have 2 footprints for a pin header ( different amounts of pins) but the 2 footprints are placed on the same location -

My problem is that the alternative footprint is showing "unconnected", but I cant route from it since it is overlapping, and it says that it is unconnected?

Can I change that somehow? they should both be connected to the same net, but it still complains

[tszaboo]

Variants are really only for BOM change, not for difference in the routing. So design in the bigger pin header, make the schematic according to that.

[free_electron]

you do not understand what variants are for and how they work

Variants are for two scenario's
- different component with SAME footprint.
- different footprints for same component.

The first one is easy : Example : a 100K resistor becomes a 220K resistor. This is handled in the variant manager by assigning a different part to the same DESIGNATOR. it is important that both parts use the same footprint in the same library.

The second one is a bit more involved.
you need to draw BOTH components in the schematic and wire them properly.
in the variant manager you toggle the component to 'not fitted' depending on which flavor you want.

In your case you woudl draw both connectors in the schematic and wire them. Lets call them J4 and J5
in variant 1 you set J5 to not installed , and in variant 2 you set J4 to not installed.

on the pcb both footprints will show up. And you will be able to wire it properly.