One of the greatest banes of PCB design is the maintenance of component libraries. There are over 1 billion electrical components on the market according to SiliconExpert. Although there are numerous ways of obtaining components, each company must organize their components to fit their needs and workflow.
Continue reading Beyond Altium Designer Symbol Centric Libraries – A Primer on External Tools for Library Management
Author’s note – For clarification purposes, SOLIDWORKS will be referred to as ‘SOLIDWORKS CAD’ to differentiate from SOLIDWORKS PCB.
Though STEP files are critical in collaboration between MCAD, such as SOLIDWORKS CAD, and ECAD, such as SOLIDWORKS PCB, an important issue has become more significant as of late. Because there are many ways for an electronics designer to obtain STEP files, it is difficult (if not impossible) to know what tool was used, or more importantly if the STEP file was validated. This is not just true for components that may have been downloaded from 3DContentCentral.com. Also, such components can be provided by OEMs who then, provide them to suppliers, such as Digi-Key and Mouser.
