Design Libraries

Comparing Electronic Prices with Supply Chain Visibility

Comparing Electronic Prices with Supply Chain Visibility Thankfully, I’m no longer a broke college student that has ramen every other day for dinner. But the spending and budgeting habits I developed during that period of my life have stuck with me and served me well into adulthood. I’m not eating ramen anymore, but I still keep an eye on my monthly budget. If you’re considering which components to include in your next PCB and are trying to formulate a production budget, you’ll need access to supply Read Article

Preparing for Manufacturing with PCB Panelization Software

Preparing for Manufacturing with PCB Panelization Software If you work in manufacturing or you plan to produce a new product, productivity is the name of the game. Ever since the Industrial Revolution, the focus has been producing more widgets per man hour, and PCBs are no different. When you’re bringing a new product to market, why pay more for your order than you need to? One way to improve productivity in a PCB manufacturing process is to use the proper panelization scheme. If you have the right PCB Read Article

Optimizing Electronic Product Documentation for Assembly and Manufacturing

Optimizing Electronic Product Documentation for Assembly and Manufacturing I’m the kind of person that can get overwhelmed with too much information. If my wife gives me a choice of restaurants to pick from when we go out to dinner, it feels like my head might explode. Burgers, pizza, tacos, chicken, deli sandwich, family-style, Lo Mein, seafood, steaks… my usual response is to look at her and say; “what were my choices again?” She has learned over the years to instead say; “I’m hungry, do you want a burger or some Lo Read Article

The Right Tools Will Help Your PCB Layout Time Estimation

The Right Tools Will Help Your PCB Layout Time Estimation To accurately know how to plan for your PCB design, you need the right tools to help with your PCB layout time estimation. ALTIUM DESIGNER Giving the most accurate results from a PCB design software out there. When exploring a new printed circuit board design, it is beneficial to estimate how long it will take to complete the layout. This will allow for production and test to be properly scheduled plus synchronize the release of the design with Read Article

Choosing Equivalent ICs in Your PCB

How to Find Equivalent ICs in Your PCB When I was younger, I would routinely open up old or broken electronics just to see how they worked. I didn’t start to understand how they worked until I was older, but I always marvelled at the mass of components and the complexity with which they were laid out on a circuit board. I would even have fun connecting from different devices in the hopes that I could resurrect a broken device. ICs in your PCB have a number of specifications that must Read Article

Adding Fabrication Tolerance Options to Your Manufacturer Deliverables

PCB Manufacturing Tolerances: Adding Fabrication Tolerance Options to Your Manufacturer Deliverables Much as we would like, no manufacturing process is perfect. Every process produces slight errors in part sizes or placement, and PCBs are no different. Since some PCB applications have very tight tolerances, you’ll need to specify your tolerance requirements for your manufacturer. Let alone maintaining secure understandings of solder mask and solder placement, material thickness specifications, or any surface mount components - designating your Read Article

Take Charge of Your PCB Design with This Bill of Material Software Free Trial

Take Charge of Your PCB Design with This Bill of Material Software Free Trial New Year’s resolutions are often the focus of humor as people admit that they are difficult to keep. The old joke is; “last year I resolved to lose 15 pounds, only 20 more to go.” The important thing about resolutions though is that they show that you are taking charge of something in your life. Diet, exercise, learning, or whatever, the point is that you have seen something that needs to change and you are committing yourself to make it happen Read Article

Thomas Wischnack on Copy and Paste Libraries Watch Video

24:13 New Experiences of Part and Library Component Search Watch Video

2:18 How to Setup and Use PCB Courtyard Layers, Assembly and Other Component Layer Pairs in Altium Designer 19 To learn more about Altium Designer 19, listen to Altium Engineer David Marrakchi discuss this latest Altium Designer release with Judy Warner on the OnTrack Podcast. Or follow us on the Altium Designer Youtube Channel to stay up to date with the latest. Watch Video

1:03 How to Use Altium Content Vault in Altium Designer 19 To learn more about Altium Designer 19, listen to Altium Engineer David Marrakchi discuss this latest Altium Designer release with Judy Warner on the OnTrack Podcast. Or follow us on the Altium Designer Youtube Channel to stay up to date with the latest. Watch Video

1:34 How to Set Up Custom Grouping in Components Panel in Altium Designer 19 To learn more about Altium Designer 19, listen to Altium Engineer David Marrakchi discuss this latest Altium Designer release with Judy Warner on the OnTrack Podcast. Or follow us on the Altium Designer Youtube Channel to stay up to date with the latest. Watch Video

1:51 New Components Panel Watch Video

1:28 How to Use Stack Up Materials Library in Altium Designer 19 Learn how to use and leverage Altium Designer’s large array of predefined material definitions, and ensure your boards are always built with only compliant materials. To learn more about Altium Designer 19, listen to Altium Engineer David Marrakchi discuss this latest Altium Designer release with Judy Warner on the OnTrack Podcast. Or follow us on the Altium Designer Youtube Channel to stay up to date with the latest. Watch Video

Keep Track of Your Components with Electronic Component Database Software

Keep Track of Your Components with Electronic Component Database Software Believe it or not, everyone eventually finds themselves in a situation where they can’t find something they need. You make a list of things you need to get from the grocery store, only to find that your favorite brand is out of stock. Thankfully, grocery stores give you plenty of options right there on the shelves, but you can run into long production delays if this happens when you go to manufacture your next PCB. Sourcing electronic components Read Article

Pipelining Your Design File Process; Component Selection

Pipelining Your Design File Process: Component Selection Using automated PCB component selection features, you can pipeline your design file process. Learn how the Manufacturer Part Search panel can help simplify PCB design. Read Article

Electronic Component Distributors Harnessing the Power of One-Stop Shopping

Electronic Component Distributors Harnessing the Power of One-Stop Shopping Every year, I spend time working on my house and car to keep them maintained. Trips to the hardware store include adding parts to my stash at home and I try to keep the trips to a minimum so I can enjoy my downtime. There’s nothing worse than chilling to tunes in my garage on a warm summer day only to find that I don’t have a part. Dropping everything to make a run to the hardware store means completely disrupting my afternoon. So managing my Read Article