Altium Lib

[grimmjaw]

Hallo ,

I got a alitum designer seat and been playing around with it.
It seem that the pre-installed lib are very limited.
I been looking for a USB B connecetor and a SIL-package relay foot print to no avail.
Do you guy create custom lib for standard footprint ?such as USB connector?
For 5000€ license I am expecting more.

grimmjaw

[AlfBaz]

For 5000€ license I am expecting more.

That's about the price for the IPC footprint wizard in mentorCadence!
Comes with altium for free(ish)

[Psi]

You could have made both those footprints in the time it took to make this thread.

ok, maybe not quite that quick, but yeah, its pretty fast to make your own once you learn how.

[grimmjaw]

Time to learn making custom footrptint then 

[Spikee]

Time to learn making custom footrptint then 

There are tutorials on youtube if you don't know how to.
Because Altium is used in high volume designs you cant have people make errors on provided footprints.
That's why most of the connectors etc you have to make yourself.

Almost all of the chip level stuff can be made quickly using the IPC footprint wizard in altium.

[senso]

There is a TON of libs in the Altium Wiki, and the most recent ones can be acessed via the Vault.
Here:
http://wiki.altium.com/display/ADOH/Download+Libraries

[strobot]

It is better to create your own libraries.  Doing so allows you to make sure the pinouts and footprints for the parts are correct and will let you take full advantage of Altium's Supplier linking features.  It is a marginal amount of additional work up front, but it really pays for itself once you go to generate the BOM for the project.  Your *.PrjPcb file ends up including all the necessary information for physically realizing your design, which is very powerful.

• Create your personal *.SchLib and *.PcbLib files for managing your parts.
• Go to your supplier website and search for the part you want
• Open your .SchLib file, System->Supplier Search, Right-click -> Import into .SchLib as XXXXX
• Add a part description following some standard
• Draw the schematic symbol or copy it from an existing part in your library.
  
• Add the footprint for the part by drawing it using the suggested footprint in the part datasheet, or generate it using the IPC Footprint wizard.
• Add the 3D body for the part.  If you generated the footprint using the IPC Wizard, this step has already been done for you.  Having the 3D body is incredibly useful if your design is compact and clearances matter, or if the PCB has edge-connectors, indicators, switches, pots, etc that the enclosure needs to account for.
  
• Link the footprint to the .SchLib part using Add Footprint

[Rufus]

It is better to create your own libraries.  Doing so allows you to make sure the pinouts and footprints for the parts are correct

It is also your chance to fuck them up the same as anyone else.

I am amazed how many people think they are the only ones who can create a correct library part. If you take and check someone else's library then a mistake requires two or more people to fuck up and there is a chance whoever made the library has proven the part in a design.

As for supplier links it is pretty much bollocks - who puts a board into production with a BOM sourced only from Digikey or Newark or Mouser? Vaguely useful for buying for a few prototypes.

[strobot]

It is also your chance to fuck them up the same as anyone else.

I am amazed how many people think they are the only ones who can create a correct library part. If you take and check someone else's library then a mistake requires two or more people to fuck up and there is a chance whoever made the library has proven the part in a design.

Assuming you can find a preexisting library that includes the part you want to use in the first place.  The point is that people can spend more time looking for a library part and have nothing to show for it compared to the time it would take to make the part themselves.   Sure, if you can find a library that has the large pin-count, tedious-to-make part you want to use, then great - by all means double check it and use it. 

But if you're making the part from scratch, I can't think of a good reason why you wouldn't want to link supplier data to the part if you could.  It literally takes a few mouse clicks.  I can double click the schematic symbol for any component in my design and have the part parameters visible within Altium.