Quickest Way to Find Components in a Database. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: mengfei
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2024, 09:29:47 am
content: has anyone here found the fastest way to search for components inside your database?So we have switched to use database library where each component has it's own MPN & company PN except for resistors which uses 1 to many type of part numbering.now we are having a big uproar on how hard & time consuming it is to find a simple resistor since they have to Filter out all the parameters & parametric data of the part they are looking for.Altium component search is so dumb that even a space in front or back wont generate any results.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2024, 04:18:55 am
content: let's say you need to find a 74hc123 , but you don't know if it is sn74.. , dm74... m74... simply use *the search understands wildcards. the * is implicit at the end of the search, but it is not at the beginning*1k*805will find any part that has 1k and 0805 in the description.likeRES, SMD, 1K, 1%, 1/10W, 0805

author: mengfei
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2024, 09:14:49 am
content: thanks for the reply but it doesn't seem to be working on my side, do I have to set something else?i copy paste this > *1k*805 but no go, even with different variations of the *

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2024, 09:29:08 am
content: I have separate libraries for different size resistors and capacitors. Sounds like a lot, but It's just 12 libraries for the 99% of the parts used.Then it's just one type of parts in the library. Vishay CRCW resistors. This might change as Vishay in their infinite wisdom is deleting the markings but that's not the point. Library shows "Value" first, and is sorted on that. Takes like 2 seconds to find the part. Altium sorting understands "K" and "M" suffixes.

author: ajb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2024, 05:51:42 pm
content: The search function is pretty limited, but using column grouping/sorting helps a lot. Couldn't find the current doc page for it, but here's a video:https://youtu.be/7id84tbtCPQ. The same functions are available in the Components side panel as well. You could, for example, group all of the resistors by package size and resistance, then quickly drill down to the specific combination. Since you have different tables for different kinds of parts, you'd need to set up the column grouping for each.

author: twospoons
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2024, 03:15:07 am
content: Its the same for me : "*" does nothing, its not used as a wildcard in the search, you can only find consecutive sets of characters. Pretty dumb for such an expensive cad package. This is the sort of idiotic stuff they could stick an intern on and have it fixed in a day, but no they'd rather waste time on exotic features most people will never use.

author: mengfei
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2024, 08:42:55 am
content: Quote from: twospoons on August 16, 2024, 03:15:07 ameven these free browsers have intelligent search why couldn't this paid & now expensive AD not have this simple feature specially now that some companies are moving to Databased type libraries where you could have literally thousands of 1K resistor variations

author: mengfei
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2024, 02:26:43 am
content: ...also do you have the hyperlink inside the db lib linked to the component spec sheet? how was that done?

author: exmadscientist
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2024, 05:17:58 am
content: Quote from: mengfei on September 05, 2024, 02:26:43 amI rigged our library to point to Octopart, because I could do it by just making a URL with a simple string concatenation to search Octopart for the manufacturer part number. It's not the same as a direct datasheet link, but it's got its own virtues, and it was dead simple to do.

author: mengfei
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2024, 09:49:14 am
content: Bloody ell! i just want to search for a component & not wanting to be a programmerhttps://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/schematic-components-file-based-database-librariesAD24 has advanced search Altium365 workspace libraries but will cost you an arm & a leg & still not sure if it will do well with out dblib