Comment = Value

[jerry507]

So I've got a number of older projects and projects we've gotten from customers where they've set the Comment field to be "=Value" where Value is a parameter for the part. So far I've just been using the Comment field for passive values. Is there any advantage to this practice that I just haven't realized yet?

[gxti]

I think the simulator requires values in the value field, but I don't use it. They might also work with someone who is OCD about BOM formatting, and doesn't want anything other than part numbers in the comment field or something.

[Chris]

^Same we use =Part Number as we like the partnumber to be shown on IC's etc. You can do that with your database setup but I inherited the system so left it as is... I may change it in the future though, and leave the comment field blank.

[jerry507]

We eventually decided to just use the comment field for the value. On that note from Chris, we decided to move our designators to an assembly layer. We got tired of dealing with silkscreen anymore, especially with a lot of tight designs. We don't have our boards assembled in house anymore, and frankly it takes more time to make it look nice than it saves looking at your Altium files.

[Chris]

"A lot of tight designs" - Sounds like fun!

One thing of note if you do use DB libs is that you can set what is shown by default in the DB setup - might be worth looking at.

[jerry507]

We haven't started doing the DB stuff yet. It's on the list to look into, but it'll have to wait until a few current projects get wrapped up. We JUST started gathering a real well managed parts library