In the left-hand navigation pane, expand the tree and select Installation Manager .
Altium Designer is a powerful EDA tool, but in secure, high-reliability, or air-gapped environments, internet connectivity is restricted. While Altium's "Extensions and Updates" page works seamlessly with an active internet connection, it becomes unusable when working offline.
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Locate the section on the right side of the window.
A progress bar will appear. The software will unpack and install the extension locally without sending out network requests. altium extension offline install
Step one: find the extension package. The vendor’s site offered a .zip containing the extension and a manifest. The download page warned to match versions with Altium’s current build. Mira checked Altium’s Help > About and noted version 23.0.1. She carefully downloaded the matching extension package and verified the SHA256 hash listed on the vendor page against the downloaded file—an old habit from firmware updates. Hash matched.
There are two main categories of extensions:
If you encounter issues during the offline installation process:
Download the executable for your specific Altium Designer version. This file contains the core platform and all official extensions. Step 2: Transfer and Extract the Files In the left-hand navigation pane, expand the tree
It's important to distinguish between the two primary ways to install extensions offline:
Method 2: Using an Internal Altium Infrastructure Server (AIS)
Download the core software zip files along with any specific extension bundles required (such as advanced simulation tools, PDF 3D exporters, or specific CAD importers).
Click to restart Altium Designer and finalize the installation process. Troubleshooting Common Errors Error: "Repository Not Found" I can provide tailored steps or file paths
Step two: verify dependencies. The extension’s manifest mentioned a helper DLL and a third-party signal library. Mira unzipped the package and inspected the manifest.json. The DLL was present and built for the correct platform. The library license required installation to a shared workspace path; however, company policy restricted writing to network shares without approval. She adjusted the plan: install per-user into Altium’s Extensions folder.
Select the relevant extension installation package (the .zip or configuration file) and click .
Expand the folder and select Installation Management . Locate the Repository Location settings. Change the source from Altium Cloud to Local Folder .
You set up a single AIS server on your local network that has internet access. This server acts as a local repository, downloading all the necessary products and extensions from Altium's Cloud Repository once. From there, you can create a deployment package . Network workstations can then be configured to get their extensions and updates from this local server, effectively enabling a "controlled offline" environment.