Electronic – split a PCB using Altium

altiumpcb-design

I'm starting my first PCB using Altium and I want to take advantage of small dimensions PCBs cost in order to make my PCB cheaper. As an example take the image below. On the left there's the full PCB and, on the right, I'm splitting it just to make it cheaper (that's not my design, just an example).

enter image description here

Let's assume that the new PCBs follow manufacturer rules, I'm just wondering if, in order to use those small PCBs discounts, I have to design 4 different schematics.

EDIT
Let's take an example. There's a really low price on 10×10 PCBs but yours is 10×20 (which costs 4 times more then a 10×10), but it can be split in half (two 10×10 pcb). Instead of paying the much higer price for the 10×20, I want to able to design a line in Altium and, somehow, make it generate 2 different PCBs.

Best Answer

Yes.

It's not really clear what you are asking, but the answer is "yes" because Altium can do anything regarding PCB sizes.

Either...

...you mean that you have an existing design and want to "dice" it. In that case, just use cut/paste, as you would in any other software, to move whole sections of layout into a new PCB document.

Or...

...you mean that you have 4 smaller designs in your head and you want to draft them. In that case, create a separate PCB project for each.

Update: Re: Question Edits

From a pure manufacturing basis two 1 unit x 1 unit designs should never be cheaper than one 1 unit x 2 unit design ceteris paribus and assuming they all fit in one panel (which is almost always the case). If you are encountering cost anomalies with your vendor, contact your vendor and negotiate or switch vendors.

That said, there is no built-in functionality to auto-partition a design in the manner you have suggested because there is an insufficient business case for Altium (or any EDA company) to develop such functionality.

Cut-Paste will work fine, but as others have suggested, it's probably best to leave it as one larger PCB.