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I am trying out Altium 19, but I am having some difficulty in creating a schematic and PCB library.

I am very familiar with DipTrace, so usually I download my pattern or component from say snapEDA, and import them into DipTrace to create my library for a project. But I am not yet able to replicate the same with Altium. Using the "manufacturer part search" I can get all components I need and import them into the "SCH Library", but I just see the partNO with no pattern or drawings.

Some tutorials I see would require that I do the components drawing which would take a lot of time to get done. Also importing from snapEDA directly seems to create a new library for every single part I download. So it is a bit confusing.

So I guess the questions should be how to create a Schematic and PCB library for a project, using downloaded component drawings and pattern drawings from let's say snapEDA.

Thanks.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ What takes more time, to make a component yourself or to respin the board, because you downloaded an incorrectly designed component from the internet? \$\endgroup\$
    – Armandas
    Commented Mar 1, 2022 at 0:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ It's to make the component! For me, I am only interested to make a component, if I do not get the exact one I need. If I can find it, and it fits well, then I do not need to reinvent the wheel. \$\endgroup\$
    – Paul A.
    Commented Mar 1, 2022 at 13:45

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Essentially you need to create your own components or download them from a reliable source such as you already mentioned, even if the source provides a new library for every single part. This should not be a problem for you as you can open all of those individual libraries (verify the components are OK while your at it ..) and then copy them to your own new library for the projet. You do this for schematic components and for the foot-prints. Verifying and compiling individual components into your very own project library is the "hard" part of the work that requires you to do for your project. You may otherwise obtain another project library from a previous project and then copy and paste and modify to suit your new project. Good luck ...

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks, @citizen. I am really trying to figure out how to copy to my existing library - Both schematics and PCB. To goal actually is to have one "LibPkg" file containing all libraries for the project. \$\endgroup\$
    – Paul A.
    Commented Mar 1, 2022 at 13:38
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Paul A. First of all its more practical to work with the split libraries - one PCBLib file and one SchLib file sepparately. So make sure to create your project libraries with two independent library files one for footprints and one for schamtaic symbols. This will make it easier for you to reuse the footprints and schematic symbols for other projects. \$\endgroup\$
    – citizen
    Commented Mar 2, 2022 at 8:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Paul A. Second of all, the manual operation to actually copy a footprint from one or more open libraries (say a downloaded library file like you came accross), is simply to got to the source library footprint browser, click-right and chose copy, then go to the destination library browser, click-right and choose Paste Component(s). This will copy your footprint from source to destination. If the footprint name exists already in your destination Altium will append a "- duplicate" to the name. \$\endgroup\$
    – citizen
    Commented Mar 2, 2022 at 8:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Paul A. The schematic library operation is very similar, but slightly different (for some reason Altium has inhereted this from older versions of Altium), the copy and paste is actually done in the drop-down "Tools" menu where you have the options to "Copy Component" or "Move Component". Again, you go to the symbols browser, chose a component symbol, and then select Tools->Copy Component. This will open a window to allow you to choose the destination library for the copy and paste etc... hope this helps. \$\endgroup\$
    – citizen
    Commented Mar 2, 2022 at 8:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ Thank you @citizen \$\endgroup\$
    – Paul A.
    Commented Mar 3, 2022 at 12:43
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Comprehensive tutorials can be found here: https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/from-idea-to-manufacture-driving-a-pcb-design-through-altium-designer

First you need to decide how you want to manage your design files and libraries. I would recommend Altium 365, a fairly new option for a workspace, if you are able to work with cloud services.

You can use the "Acquire"-function in manufacturer part search, it will fetch component data, footprint and schematic symbol, so it does become a usable part without any extra work required.

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