On Altium Designer Schematics, is there a way to combine multiple parallel identical parts into one symbol?
Like it can be done in LTSpice:
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2\$\begingroup\$ You can create a symbol and footprint that represents the 4 individual components, but not sure why you'd want to do that. It would mess up the BOM and such like. \$\endgroup\$– Spehro 'speff' PefhanyCommented Feb 3, 2023 at 15:38
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\$\begingroup\$ Yes, it won't be a good solution. I thought to put the component in a new sheet and use repeat sheets keyword, but it will be tedious and won't be clean. \$\endgroup\$– AdriZCommented Feb 3, 2023 at 16:49
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2 Answers
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You can create a new symbol like the one you posted, and then add a footprint that contains all the components (you can copy and paste the same footprint several times) But be careful that the pads of all the components inside the footprint has the same pin in this case, if you want place 4 parallel capacitor, each individual capacitor within your footprint will have the pin 1 and pin 2, so your whole footprint will have 4 pins 1 and 4 pins 2, in order to be assigned to the same symbol pin. If you don't do that, you will have to assign those pins manually after adding the custom footprint. Once in the PCB, all the parallel capacitors will be placed at a time, and you can move them by selecting the footprint, unlocking the primitives and move each capacitor individually, if needed, but take into account that you should move all the primitives of every capacitor, this can be a bit tricky.
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\$\begingroup\$ Thank you. Sometimes I have 4 capacitors, sometimes 10 or up to 14. Sometimes I want to change all the values. It is too much work to make a new component for each capacitor, and each parallel number possible (especially given that our database includes a different component for each value). \$\endgroup\$– AdriZCommented Feb 6, 2023 at 12:00
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I found a simple and not elegant solution. I just copy/paste the component at the same place, move the designators and place the multiplier in comment.
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1\$\begingroup\$ I cannot see why you would want to do this. It's unclear, which is the opposite of what a schematic is supposed to be. \$\endgroup\$– JYeltonCommented Feb 3, 2023 at 18:58
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\$\begingroup\$ Why ? My colleagues find it much clearer than before. I have up to 14 capa in parallel, we were completely losing sight of the pattern. \$\endgroup\$– AdriZCommented Feb 6, 2023 at 11:54
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\$\begingroup\$ (see updated before/after pictures) \$\endgroup\$– AdriZCommented Feb 6, 2023 at 12:08