Create new components the smart way

The often laborious job of creating new library components eats into the time you could be spending creating great designs. And it’s particularly arduous when manually transfer ring component information from data sheets, or from another design tool.


Altium Designer offers a great, efficient way to bypass the normal painstaking method of bringing component object data into the design space from other applications – the Smart Grid Insert feature in the Library List panel.

Take a look at this video to see how to add component pins straight from a data sheet, and how Smart Grid Paste and Smart Grid Insert make creation of new components very fast and easy.

Managing those tricky non-electrical parts

Every design includes items that are non-electrical, and sometimes these are critical parts of the design.

If your design includes non-electrical components, such as logos, a heat sink or fiducials, and you’ve been wondering how to manage these types of components, take a look at this design secret to learn how it's done.

Watch the video, where I'll show you how Altium Designer has the all component property features you need to make it easy.

Add supplier search data to your component database!

In a recent blog entry, there are details of out a mini webinar showing you how to use the Supplier Search Panel in Altium Designer to add purchasing information directly to your schematics and BOM. If you missed out on that, click here.

So, Library Managers and Designers now know how easy it is to add supplier search information to component symbols on the schematic, but what if your company uses a SVN DBLib for component management? A few people have emailed me asking if this functionality is possible with Database-driven libraries (DBLib and SVNDBLib), and the good news is that it is!

Watch the video featured here, where I'll show you how easy it is to add supplier search links to a corporate component database.

The fast, easy way to create 3D component bodies

Do you want to design your PCB in 3D, but can’t source STEP models for all the components?

You can create your own 3D component models in Altium Designer by building up simple 3D body objects. By knowing when it’s best to work in 2D or 3D, how to switch between those modes, and how to adjust the properties of the 3D Body objects, you’ll be quickly creating suitable 3D mechanical bodies in no time.

Watch the video, where I'll show you how easy it is.

Live-linking schematic components to supplier data - Mini Webinar

The drudgery of sourcing the right parts for a design, or ensuring the parts available from the ‘company library’ are suitable, can leave you frazzled, dazed, and numb.

It may be easy to source the more obvious parts (ICs and major semiconductors) but it can still take hours or days for a purchasing officer to wade through the BOM in a feedback loop with the design team, looking for all the smaller, seemingly insignificant parts.

Altium Designer solves this problem by providing built-in ability to link component data sheets and reference information right in the schematic symbols. It has a unique and powerful supplier search tool that, once you've found the components you need, gives you the ability to directly call up the order codes, pricing and even supply multiples, right in the BOM and other reports.

Searching for the right parts should be quick and easy - now it is!

Customising Altium Designer - Mini Webinar

Altium Designer provides unprecedented interface flexibility, enabling you to reorganize and restructure the user interface in ways never before possible.In this webinar, learn how to shuffle things around, reorganizing menu and toolbars. See how to create custom keyboard shortcuts, and create whole menus and toolbars. You’ll also learn how Altium's powerful scripting system can be used to create everything from simple automations, to rich GUI-driven application components that even interface to other applications.So, take control of your design tools! And prepare to be blown away by a litany of tips and tricks that help you configure Altium Designer to the way you want to work. We promise you will NOT be disappointed!