Design Libraries

PCB design libraries offer improved efficency for your design team. Browse our resource library to learn more about library management and access free PCB design libraries.

The What, Why and How of Data Management More than 15 million components to choose from to design your board, where do you begin? Watch and learn from the Library Management expert himself John Watson. Read Article

Using Flyback Diodes in Relays Prevents Electrical Noise in Your Circuits Engineers sometimes have the tendency to over complicate a problem instead of focusing on simple logical solutions. For example, my friend’s motorcycle broke down and he spent hours checking on the battery, carburetor and the electrical system. It turns out that this was all done in vain. We were pretty amused to find out that this mayhem was caused by a faulty fuel indicator that let his fuel tank run empty. In electronics, what might seem like Read Article

Complete Guide to PCB Design Reuse in the Cloud Isaac Newton once said "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." Not all designs need to be remade from scratch, and if you organize your designs properly you can easily reuse your old design data in a new project. PCB design reuse practices are great for cutting down design time and ensuring all your products live up to the same level of quality. It’s all about making sure the knowledge you’ve gained from building Read Article

Altium DbLibs and Electronic Components in the Cloud with Altium Designer 20.1 Industry expert Davide Bortolami discusses what DbLibs are, how they work, what they can help you achieve, and how to integrate them with Altium 365. Spoiler alert: it’s disgustingly easy. Read Article

PCB Design Review and Collaboration in Altium Concord Pro Remote collaboration tools are everywhere these days, and now designers have access to a convenient collaboration system for electronics design. Whether you’re part of a design team, or you need to quickly execute any design changes recommended by your manufacturer, you need cloud collaboration tools that are immediately accessible within your PCB design application. Now with Altium Concord Pro, you’ll have access to a cloud-driven design Read Article

Why you should be using Concord Pro? Introduction A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, or so the aphorism goes. I think it’s worth noting that the first step is the most difficult to take. In my experience, the best engineers suffer from a condition in which they, before even taking that first step, endlessly consider “What if?” scenarios. You know what I am talking about here... “What if we do this and something happens?” This issue is so prevalent in our Read Article

Setting Up Concord Pro- Roles and Permissions Precursor To help PCB Designers to become better at what they do, the series of Blogs on Concord Pro are broken down by category. Each category walks through the entire process of setting up and efficiently using Concord Pro. Furthermore, at the end of each blog are practical steps that you can take to get organized and get the most out of Concord Pro for your PCB projects. Introduction Once you’ve taken the giant first step of opening the box Read Article

Evaluating Concord Pro I’m working on several projects that require new PCB assemblies, and this presented a great opportunity to try Altium’s new product: Concord Pro™. Concord Pro is a component management system which makes component creation and organization much easier than using the current workflow. One of the PCB assemblies I need is a high-current voltage regulator that I will be using for a DC motor controller, and this is the PCB design I will use to Read Article

PCB Functional Testing and The Role of Manufacturer Collaboration Getting your PCB functional testing requirements correct is easiest when you collaborate with manufacturers during the design phase. Read Article

How to Manage a Remote Team for Electronics Design Collaboration with your remote design team takes the right management tools. Here’s how to manage a remote team with Altium Concord Pro. Read Article

49:24 New Product Overview: Altium Concord Pro There are many risks if your library and component data are not managed efficiently and effectively. Inefficiency occurs when multiple Watch Video

Advanced PCB Library Management A previous article from Altium’s PCB design blog showed everyone how to get started with integrated PCB library management. In the previous article, you can get a look at creating an integrated library project and how to compile schematics and PCBs into their own libraries. You can then take schematic libraries and your PCB libraries and compile them into an integrated library. This allows you to package sets of important design and component Read Article

Effective Integrated PCB Library Management with Altium Designer PCB library management by hand is over with Altium Designer If you’ve been designing for awhile, you’ve probably accumulated a significant amount of designs, including schematics, arranged boards, and proprietary components. Keeping track of all of this important information in your operating system’s file structure or on a network drive can leave you prone to careless mistakes. If someone moves or renames a single file, it can have a far Read Article

Am I Big Enough for Data Management? In this episode of the OnTrack Podcast we echo the style of “Ask me Anything” and feature Ben Jordan and Judy Warner who will mine the AltiumLive forum for questions. Ben will answer your questions about Engineering and PCB Design and Judy will respond to topics related to manufacturing and supply chain. Join us today as we tackle the question: If we have only one or two EEs, do we really need data management? For future episodes, you can submit Read Article

Using Library Search Features for Easier Component Selection Components are those critical elements in your PCB that keep it ticking along and doing its job. Your component libraries contain all the information about available components in a single location, making it easy to add components to your board and use component information with your simulation and rules-checking features. Other design software packages like to separate these features into different programs, or they force you to use an external Read Article

How to Use Libraries in Altium Designer 19 To learn more about Altium Designer 19, listen to Altium Engineer David Marrakchi discuss this latest Altium Designer release with Watch Video

How Integrated Libraries Help You Manage Your PCB Supply Chain If only sourcing PCB components worked like e-commerce. Recommendation engines are great in that they can help you decide what to buy when your preferred item is not available. Most PCB design packages don’t have this type of functionality, which would save a massive amount of time when planning a manufacturing run. Whether you’re sourcing electronic components or some other parts for your next product, you’ll need access to updates supply chain Read Article