replacing parts

[Simon]

If say I decide I want to change a resistor value in my project, can that be done without deleting the part from the schematic and hand wiring in a new one ? so say I have already got to the PCB stage and made a prototype and find I need to change a value, a way of swapping a part with the same footprint with a same part but different value would be ideal.

[Joel_l]

The two ways that work for me are to just double click on it to bring up the properties window or right click on it and select properties. It seems to be picky about exactly where the cursor is when you right click or double click.

Right clicking or double clicking on the component body brings up the more complete properties window ( look in the parameters pane ). Right clicking or double clicking on the value text brings up a more abbreviated properties window. Both let you change the value.

Joel

If say I decide I want to change a resistor value in my project, can that be done without deleting the part from the schematic and hand wiring in a new one ? so say I have already got to the PCB stage and made a prototype and find I need to change a value, a way of swapping a part with the same footprint with a same part but different value would be ideal.

[Simon]

This does not help really, yes I could change the part numbers I suppose but I was hoping to swap with existing library parts to ensure I kept the BOM up to date and don't screw up the PCB is one is already layed out. I suppose Your suggestion would work as a last resort.

[Simon]

The content vault is a waste of time as contrary to what is infered by the name it has very little content.

On element14 they say it's possible but I'm not sure if they are talking about AD rather than CS. I also wondered if keeping the unique ID would make it work.

[ahbushnell]

The content vault is a waste of time as contrary to what is infered by the name it has very little content.

On element14 they say it's possible but I'm not sure if they are talking about AD rather than CS. I also wondered if keeping the unique ID would make it work.

The vault works for me.  I have been able to find parts and move to a local library.  It could be easier to do but not to bad.

[Simon]

I've struggled to find stuff, often only one of a whole range is available, it's like it was created by one person that only put in the parts they happened to use. The altium libraries are as bad. I downloaded the samtec headers one, it just happens to have random parts in it but not the whole range of part numbers, so they have the standard 0.1 pitch 10 pin header but not the 3 pin in the same range. If they are that patchy I can just do my own library's with the part I use.

[electrolust]

I didn't notice a way to do this in CS.

Wait, you can't just drop the replacement part right on top of the old part?  I've only played with CS for a few hours but I'd swear I did just that.

[electrolust]

I haven't used the free content vault at all yet on CS and did not use it heavily with full Designer.

eh?  There is no free content vault I'm aware of.  The Altium Live / designcontent thingy is a paid subscription.  It happens to come for 1 year with your purchase of CS.

Someone did post a script here on how to download the entire vault locally though.  It worked a treat for me.  Even though I have 3 yrs CS support in my particular setup it's much nicer to have the vault content locally.  [minus the fact, as Simon laments, that the content itself is spotty, dependent on manufacturer]

One problem I consider "fundamental" in Altium Designer and also CS and also every other PCB CAD package I have used is that they're *so* strictly focused on ECAD that they are darn near useless at even the most fundamentally necessary and trivial aspects of MCAD or let's call it  "library science".

... [ parametric data is not retained ] ...

Well luckily there's this easy to use program called library expert which does exactly that.  Now of course, the parameters used to construct a footprint aren't visible in your ECAD software but by naming the footprints systematically you can instantly verify the parameters by the footprint name.  Otherwise you do have to fire up the library expert tool, but the consolation is that when you switch ECAD packages you aren't a slave to their different footprint tool, you just can rely on what you did in library expert and so you gain portability.

[electrolust]

I just tried it on my existing schematic (using self-made schematic symbols and components / footprints) and all it did in the schematic anyway was to plop the new resistor schematic symbol literally on top of and electrically in parallel with the old one.

Thanks for confirming.  ugh how awful!  Guess that's the final nail in the CS coffin for me.  I'll revisit when 1.5 comes out.

[tarribred61]

You can place in the replacement component as a new part near the old one and then renumber the designator to match.  If it uses the same footprint it should match up.  There is actually a unique ID field in both schematic and PCB instances that are used to synchronize them.  You can manually copy the unique ID from the old schematic part to the new one but it may not be necessary as it will fall back to use the designator.