Standard template for library component properties and a few more lib questions - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Ysjoelfir
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2016, 08:06:08 am
content: Hi everyone,I started to get used to altium after fiddling around with eagle for over a decade, so please be gentle if there is a somehow obvious solution for my questions.I followed the quite nicely made altium beginners tutorial a while ago and designed a KBJ-whatever rectifier which worked fine, but didn't touch altium for quite some time after that. Now I am working on a bigger project where I am going to do lots of custom parts (mainly for learning purpose, since I could also use the AD10 lib files for most of them, but where is the fun in that?). Sadly, AD somehow saved the component properties I made back then for the KBJ rectifier, so everytime I create a schematic component it suggests to me a Default Designator "BR?", Default Comment "KBJ30*" and the Descriotion "KBJ40* Rectifier 4A with different voltages" which I made back then. Also, it gives me an empty parameter list. So I guess I must have overwritten the standard template for new components - but how? And how do I get the original Template back or change it to something more usefull?Also, is there a way to link a datasheet to a specific component? And where can I find information on how to integrate suppliers for parts to create a nice BOM after I am finished with my design? I did a google search for hours now but either I am to dumb to look for the right words or there aren't any good sources where this is explained...thanks!

author: Miles Teg
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2016, 05:02:16 pm
content: Would like to help, but your post is laking of explainations of the steps you are doing to create this schematic part.Anyway for Altium I would recommend you to use the DBlib function in relation with at least excel sheets or a simple acess database.It will really help you to control the content of every components and insert external or personnal informations.https://techdocs.altium.com/display/ADOH/Using+Components+Directly+from+Your+Company+DatabaseI hope I didn't misunderstood your needs.

author: Ysjoelfir
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2016, 07:12:12 pm
content: I am sorry if I wasn't describing the problem in enough detail, I'll try again. But also thank you for your link, I already heard the term "DBLib" some time but didn't really care to investigate what it is since I am just starting with altium. Reading the techdoc is quite interesting, I guess I will use that technique in the future after getting used to altium.My actual problem now is the following: i am creating a part, which works fine, but somehow there are given standard values (which are the values I used in my first part ever created) that reappear for every part.In steps I do the following:- create my footprint in a PcbLib file- switch to my Schlib and start creating the schematic symbol for my part- want to place a pin, press tab to change the parameters and it suggests me the parameters I used for my very first part - which is the opposite of what I want to use at the moment.- I change the parameters to what I think fits my purpose right now- Now I am done creating my schematic symbol and would like to fill in my values for the component parameters like the default designator, description and name as well as some custom parameters like a link to a datasheet. So i couble click on the already highlighted name of the component in the library overview- and again, standard values from the first device I made....- have to change everything over again, add my parameters, configure footprints and so on. after that I am basically done.My question now is: why does altium ALWAYS suggest the values I used for that darn rectifier? Why cant I/where can I configure standard values that suit my style of creating components so that I don't have to retype those all over and over again for every single part and every first pin of a part I create? How can I change this behaviour?Hope that made it clearregarding my question about the datasheet integration: i decided to just place a link to a datasheet in the parameter section, as shown in the last picture. Is there a better way to do this? Like the integration of a supplier, just for datasheets?thanks.

author: ajb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2016, 07:29:15 pm
content: Preferences->Schematic->Default PrimitivesChange the defaults for "Part" and "Pin" objects, and those settings should be reflected in any new objects. Note that you can change defaults for damn near any sort of object in this window, and there's a corresponding page under "PCB Editor->Defaults" for PCB objects.If that doesn't work...are you using AD17? I've just done a fresh install on this PC and found that some settings have been lost, even after saving and reloading them from another PC, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's some overall bugginess in the settings/defaults system.edit:QuoteIf you add pairs of parameters in the form of "ComponentLink1Description" and "Componentlink1URL", these will appear in the context menu for the component in the schematic (right click->"References"). You can add multiple references this way to whatever information you want.

author: Ysjoelfir
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2016, 07:42:26 pm
content: Quote from: ajb on December 08, 2016, 07:29:15 pmThank you very much! I remember that I was in the default primitives menu once as the tutorial told me to do some adjustments there and safe them, but I fiddled around with the part before and I guess I somehow clicked on something that read the current status of my part and saved that in addition to the adjustment suggested by the tutorial. I resetted all values right now and it seems to be fine, very nice!

author: Ysjoelfir
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2016, 11:15:15 pm
content: Right now I tried using the DBLib thing. Works a treat, but I am not quite sure what would be the best practise of making those. Would you create a part for every value of a component, like (for example if i create a cap DB), one for 100µ, one for 220µF, one for 330µF and so on with every available voltage of a specific manufacturer in respect to their datasheets, to get an easy way to get the correct sized footprints for the value I need, or would you just create a generic "Cap SMD 3x5mm"? Or would you even go extreme like (again, for example) "100µF 10V 5x5,7mm 15m\$\Omega\$ 1000h 85°C +10-20%"?Sure, this will be very specific to the individual, but I am interested which way you like your librarys to be designed and why you think this way is the way to go.