Whenever creating a new PCB, more often than not you will need to add multiple components to our team's schematic and footprint libraries. This page discusses the easiest way to do so while following most of our library standards. Be sure to always keep a personal checklist of components you have added while completing the PCB, as knowing which ones will be essential when merging your PCB with master. This page will also take you through a step-by-step guide I suggest you follow if it is one of your first time's adding to a library.
Libraries
Types of Libraries - httphttps://techdocswww.altium.com/documentation/18.0/display/ADOH/Component,+Model+and+Library+Concepts#Component,ModelandLibraryConcepts-LibraryTypesADES/IntegratedLibrary_Pnl-Libraries((Libraries))_AD
Integrated Libraries (Still need to set this up) - httphttps://techdocswww.altium.com/display/ADOH/Building+an+Integrated+Library
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((Working+with+Integrated+Libraries))_AD
Schematic Component Creation
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Creating a New Schematic Component
Using Supplier Search to add Component Parameters in Bulk:
- Open Supplier Search from the System tab:
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The above links mainly will give a step by step procedure on how to create a schematic component. In most cases, it is fairly simple to do the following step-by-step as well to produce a well set-up component.
Finding your part on Digi-key
First, go to Digi-key (our main electronics supplier) and search for the part you want. For this step-by-step, I will be looking for a 2.2uF ceramic capacitor with a +-5% tolerance and rated for 50V. When searching on digi-key it is always important to search with keywords only defining the exact parameters you want for your component. If you aren't sure exactly how to phrase the parameters, do the following.
- Type in the component parameters you are certain of
- Not very specific entries will take you to a page like this:
- Since I want a ceramic cap, I will be choosing the first link/subcategory. I will then get to a page like this where all the components will be listed and further parameters can be selected.
- There's still about 5000 results, so I will keep defining my parameters as much as I can. As I select a parameter, I will be able to see a change in the available components as a number near the apply filters button.
- Note: In general, always have the in stock and active filters applied (in stock is a tick box near the bottom). We cannot obtain components that are not in stock and active components mean they are still in production, and so can be used in the future. Also for most small passive components, we like selecting Cut Tape packaging as we do not have to order the parts in bulk. After pressing Apply Filters, we get the following three components.
- In many cases you might have many more components to choose from than the mere three that are listed here. In that case, it may be harder to choose from and you can do 2 things: 1, you can try to find more parameters specific to what you need on your PCB to filter by, or 2, you can start sorting the components by column. For example, if I press the up arrow on Unit Price CAD, I will get a list in descending order of cost like the following image:
- Note: for this step-by-step, I more or less chose a random sample component. You might notice that the cheapest one is about $1.8. That's pretty expensive for a cap, unless I specifically needed all the parameters for a design guide or something of the sort. If I lowered things like the tolerance or voltage rating, I would for sure find a cheaper cap that could still fulfill my purposes. Keep that in mind.
- Anyways, from the three I have to choose from, I will glance over at the first one's manufacturer. KEMET is a well known company (is not sketch) and it should be fine if I get the capacitor from them. Therefore I choose the first, cheapest one and press on it's image.
- I have essentially chosen the part on Digi-key, time to add to the libraries
Adding to your Schematic Library & Defining parameters using a Supplier Link
- In Altium, I will open my Schematic Diagrams library
- It's often useful to have the properties and SCH Library panels open as displayed in the above image.
- Let me begin by noting that there are two general ways that I currently know to add all the parameters and diagrams to a certain component. The first method is the mostly automatic one, and will work for well documented components, but is tbh still kind of annoying to do. The second method is manually adding all the necessary parameters and diagrams, which can take much longer. Unfortunately until we set up an altium nexus or concord server, I find these effective methods.
- For the first method, make sure you are still active in the schematic diagrams window. Choose any component, and select add in the supplier links tab. You will find that a search entry might already be added, so clear that by hitting the X, and copy and paste your Digi-key part number(a.k.a supplier part number) in the search field (this number is found on the page for your component). Once you search it you will see something like this.
- now press on the SPN drop down and select the digikey component card. Then make sure to select the i icon in the top right of the window. You will notice that in the previous image I have already selected the icon, so make sure you do as well. Now glance through the column. It should display many parameters schematic diagrams and maybe even footprints. We want all of these things. If you do have most of this information, the following procedure is the best way to get all/most of the parameters.
- Now right click on the card with the image of the part, and select copy with header. Go to our library, and select a component to make sure you are active in the SCH Library. Control + V to paste the part which we will be editing.
- You should see the new component be added. Before we do anything, make sure to change the design item ID to the description found on digi-key, and the description parameter to the detailed description found in altium, just to follow some of our team's naming conventions. Also ensure that the designator is right, (for caps it should be C?).
- You will now investigate the parameters that were inserted. It is probably missing Manufacturer 1, Manufacturer Part Number 1, Supplier 1 and Supplier Part Number 1. You will need to add Manufacturer 1 and Manufacturer Part Number 1. Use supplier link and do the same thing as before except don't download and press ok. This will give you the supplier numbers. Add the manufacturer numbers manually using the add button in the parameter tab in the properties tab for the component. Now check if the footprint for the component you have added already exists in our library. In our footprint library we have a part for a 1206 package for a cap, so I will just link it in the general tab. In case we don't already have the footprint, we will copy the footprint (if made available to us) from the zip that is received by right clicking on the SPN when adding a supplier link. This footprint will have to be separately extracted from the downloaded zip, opened in altium and then added to the component using the general tab. If the footprint is not available, we will have to create it using the land assembly provided to us in the data sheet. Please refer to footprint creation if this is the case. With that I have essentially completed adding a component, and will keep track of the component+schematic diagram and footprint (if I made one) so that when merging with master, I will know which components were added.
The other method of making a component is purely manual from adding the parameters to drawing the schematic diagram to creating the footprint.
Footprint Creation
PCB Footprint (Physical representation of the space taken up by a component on the PCB). The following explains what they are and more on how to create them. Always remember to refer to the datasheet when creating footprints, and use the IPC compliant footprint wizard when you can.
https://techdocswww.altium.com/documentation/15.1/display/ADOHADES/((Creating+Librarythe+Components+Tutorial#CreatingLibraryComponentsTutorial-ManuallyCreatingaFootprintPCB+Footprint))_AD
More Details on Libraries and Components - https://techdocs.altium.com/display/ADOH/Library+and+Component+Management
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