PCB Components

How to use Schematic CAD Drawings for Cable Assemblies: Part 1

How to use Schematic CAD Drawings for Cable Assemblies: Part 1 The need for computer-aided cable assembly drawings often falls to the electronics design team, but for many, the use of high-cost dedicated cable design software is simply out of reach and overkill. The solution? Use the Schematic Editor! Most electronic engineers work on products that require Printed Circuit Board designs to be interconnected by cable assemblies. As you might have already noticed, some dedicated tools that primarily focus on Read Article

Practical Steps to Create Embedded Side-Emitting LEDs in a PCB

Practical Steps to Create Embedded Side-Emitting LEDs in a PCB Embedded PCB cavities can be used along the edge of a PCB to provide side access to components, such as LEDs. Read Article

What's in a Name - Component Development Part 2

What's in a Name - Component Code Development Part 2 In this blog, I outline how Altium Designers Content Team names printed circuit board (PCB) components, symbols, and footprints. This seems like an eminently boring place to start, but something I’ve noticed is that figuring out a way to name circuit board components in engineering land often makes for an animated discussion. Parametric information about the component is elevated to the row in the cmplib. This gives us the freedom to name the Read Article

Component Development best practices - Part 1

Component Development best practices - Part 1 During the coming weeks, we’d like to post details about our PCB component development standards, practices and processes. Along the way, I’d like open discussion about how you develop libraries, and where do you see challenges. We’d like to pull everything together into more formal best practices and standards guide. With solder paste, a solder mask, printed circuit assembly, and PCB fabrication, there is so much to consider so let's dig in! Hi Read Article

What's the best way to make a library searchable? Parameters - Component Development Part 3

What's the best way to make a library searchable? Parameters - Component Development Part 3 It's one thing to make great components, but it's quite another to make them easy to find. With reusable components, ui component, software engineering and various component based development, things can be complicated to hunt down. In this blog I explain how we handle component parameters, why they are important, and how we kick off our component development process. Looking at the discussion spawned from my first two blogs, I’ve a feeling this Read Article

How to Save Time Managing Your Component Libraries

How to Save Time Managing Your Component Libraries Component management is a time-consuming and frustrating process that takes valuable time away from other important tasks, but what if there was a way to auto-fill the necessary information for your components? Read on to learn how Altium Vault^® mitigates the management process with the use of a component template. Let us take a look at a pattern library and our component definition. Perhaps one of the most tedious jobs in the ECAD world is Read Article

Defining PCB Library Types and Methodologies for Your Design Process

PCB Libraries: Defining Library Types and Methodologies for Your Design Process There are various PCB library types and methodologies out there, and selecting which to implement into your design process depends on a number of factors. But how do you know which library methodology is the best? Read on to find out. There are various types of PCB libraries and methodologies out there, and selecting which to implement into your design process depends on a number of factors. While some small business users may require only a bare Read Article

Supply Chain Management: Ensure Component Availability at Design Time

Supply Chain Management: Ensure Component Availability at Design Time Component availability can result in missed deadlines or render a design unproducible. Learn how to the supply chain management capabilities (SCM) in Altium Designer^® can mitigate these issues. Read on to find out more about our supply chain management program, raw material, logistics management, and the supply chain manager. Not having insight into component availability can result in a product being late, missing a market window, or not even Read Article

How to Easily Reverse Engineer PCB Project Libraries

Reverse Engineering PCB Project Libraries Receiving PCB design files from clients isn’t always as smooth a process. Clients may send incomplete project files, project library files with unstandardized component libraries, or other files that don’t match what you actually need. When that happens, how do you proceed with the project? Outsourcing has become the de-facto solution for companies seeking to cut costs and increase their profit margins. Rather than consuming their own resources Read Article

Creating Project Libraries from the Schematic

Creating Project Libraries from the Schematic When you are using an outside manufacturer or sharing a design with another party that does not have access to your internal installed libraries, creating a project makes the data easy to share. No matter how you created your — from already installed libraries, Altium ^® libraries, or even manually using a supplier search, you can localize the files for easier creation. This allows for more portability of your design for external sharing. There Read Article

New User's Guide to Defining a Library Methodology

New User's Guide to Defining a Library Methodology When choosing a PCB library methodology, there is no universal solution for all users. While some small business users may require only the bare essentials, enterprise users may require a highly specific read-only representation with links to the supply chain. Many diﬀerent types of users in between may have yet entirely diﬀerent requirements altogether. Consequently, there are several diﬀerent library types and methodologies to meet this wide Read Article

Customize BOM Reports for Consistent Documentation

Customize BOM Reports for Consistent Documentation Learn how to clearly communicate proper board assembly with multiple variants with BOM customization in Altium Designer. Upon completion of a design, the project enters the assembly process where the assemblers and/or purchasers rely on trustworthy documentation to provide a list of components, materials, and parts necessary to produce the board design. This document, called the bill of materials (BOM), lists all of the required materials needed Read Article

Quickly Create Project Libraries from the Schematic

Quickly Create Project Libraries from the Schematic Learn how to quickly create project libraries from the schematic for easy external sharing using the Parameter Manager in Altium Designer. When you are using an outside manufacturer, or sharing a design with another party that does not have access to your internal installed libraries, creating a project library makes the data easy to share. No matter how you created your library — from already installed libraries, Altium Vault libraries, or even Read Article

Design Data Management Part 2 — The Supply Chain

Design Data Management Part 2 — The Supply Chain Learn how to verify PCB component availability and pricing directly from your design environment in Altium Designer. To learn more about this topic please see the full solution - Ensure Component Availability at Design Time - at Altium.com. Read Article

Reverse Engineering Project Libraries

Reverse Engineering Project Libraries Outsourcing has become the de-facto solution for companies seeking to cut costs and increase their profit margins. Rather than consuming their own resources on a particular task, companies farm it out to other firms that specializes in that particular area, leaving them to focus on what they do best. New product design often gets contracted out to separate design firms. If that’s you — your company outsources PCB design or your company is a PCB Read Article

Standardize Your Component Libraries with Component Templates (Vault Component Template)

Standardize Your Component Libraries with Component Templates (Vault Component Template) Read Article

Unifying Your Component Management Workflow (Design Data Mgmt)

Unifying Your Component Management Workflow (Design Data Mgmt) Unify component management for better design data management. No more main components on backorder, or worse yet, in obsolescence! This Altium whitepaper can help. To learn more about this topic please see the full solution - Unifying Your Component Management Workflow - at Altium.com. Read Article