octopart / findchips

[Simon]

I thought I'd upload my project BOM and see just what find chips made of it. Well it didn't want to make anything of it having failed to read the excel file it claimed to be capable of reading and me having to upload a csv file it then demanded $49 a month. This seemed a bit ridiculous considering half the links don't work like contacting them or requesting an extension to the trial i never used because it was seriously buggy back then - what a joke.

then I remembered octopart and thought I'd see what that does. to my surprise it actually took the bom and priced it up for me without even needing an account. Pretty neat, at the press of a button i get full costing and warnings on availability etc.

Has anyone used any of these tools? are they actually any good? ultimately if I make 100 of something I'd just sub it out and assume the subcontractor is doing something like this.