Altium - Create & Import New Component from Part Search (Step by Step)

How to use manufacturer part search to create and import a new component.

[@alexandermackenzie3456]

Why Altium doesn't just automatically import the model and footprint to your libraries whenever you place a component from Manufacturer Part Search is beyond me. It just seems to be incredibly inefficient and time consuming to do something that is seemingly pretty common to do. Thank you for the video, Robert! Very helpful!

[@hesperaux]

I've been messing around with the MFG Part Search panel for like an hour. Decided to check youtube, and the old faithful Robert Feranec came to the rescue again! I don't know why, but I couldn't figure out how to import the part details into a new component; I didn't think to try the SPN list for that! Thanks! I was afraid that Altium removed that capability to force people to use their Vault, which I am not a fan of... This video is perfect, because it lets me leverage vault content without being glued to that subscription. That vault data source always scares me... And thanks again for all your videos - you do a greatjob instructing (I've got your Udemy courses as well). I wish you the best!

[@felipeacolazo]

Robert Feranec, your knowledge and explenations of this software are great. Thank you for uploading all your Altium Videos. They have been of excellent help in my quest to learn and implement board design and layout.

[@KaranGadhia]

Hey Robert. Thanks for such detailed tutorials on Altium. Being new to this tool, your videos are more helpful than any online documentation.

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you Karan

[@fr3d_509]

I'm so lucky, I find every trick to make my task easier once I've already completed them the hard way. Thank you very much. I wish this feature was taught in the optional course they gave at my university, they are just teaching you the basic base of how to, not this kind of feature that's so useful.

[@gauravmg]

Robert, this video is really very informative. Keep up the good work. Thank you.

[@mohalothman99]

thank you so much for your amazing videos i learned how to use altium designer from your videos which were great! keep going...

[@yunusyarar8882]

Thank you Robert For all Altium and cadence tutorial videos. you best men

[@artyomnovikov2210]

Thanks for the helpful tips and methods. I will use it in my projects!

[@manouchehrmail]

Thank you, Robert. Looking forward to seeing you in Germany.

[@Bilgunkhan1]

This video helped me out, literally! Thank you 🙏

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you Bilguunkh4

[@manuja2305]

Great video to learn altium. Keep making more videos about pcb design with altium......

[@dhruvitbhimani2945]

Love your immense knowledge and teaching skills. It's entertainment for me with knowledge hearing your accent.

[@EDGARDOUX1701]

Great video Robert, I would like to see strategies for good componets placement on PCBs. Also good routing habits. What is a tear drop and when to use? So many questions I have lol. Regards from Buenos Aires, Argentina

[@andreasschindler6077]

Thank you Robert. It would be very hard to learn this stuff without you.

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you very much Andreas

[@emreeroglu6976]

If I love Altium you're the reason :)

[@shanefrank3281]

Thank you. Your tutorials are outstanding!

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you very much Shane. Sometimes I spend a lot of time to create the videos and it is very nice to see, that some people find them helpful.

[@adnbzn7254]

Hola Robert saludos desde Mexico. participe en tu curso en Udemy. Gracias por tus aportes

[@ambasaaklilu5981]

Great job! Thank you for your help!

[@levtulubjev9018]

Thank you very much for this video! It's very easy explained!

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you Lev

[@KhanhHuynh-wp1vh]

Thank you very much for great video. :)

[@robertstojic8477]

WOOOW! GREAT VIDEO!

[@keivansadeghinezhad8332]

Thank you for sharing. Best regards.

[@jawadkiwan9430]

Thank you, Robert

[@alexalorda7346]

When I am in manufacture part search and I search a PN, I can never see a schematic or even the download option? please help.

[@gurunath8324]

Thakns for your video its was good.... Pls make tutorial in unions and snippets in detail

[@IIIDarkWorlDIII]

Thank you man very helpful :)

[@miguelfaf]

Thanks a lot for the great video! I really like working with Altium, but sometimes it can be quite convoluted, specially with component libraries, as in fact is the case for most PCB CAD software. If instead of having a library associated with each new project, we would like to have a "private" library of our own imported components that we could use for any project, what would you suggest? Maybe use a Database library? How can this be done without setting up a SQL server and purely file based? (I'm almost sure it should be possible since we use it at work)

[@gabriele7204]

Thanks Robert. Very interesting as usual. BTW when saying "check your imported symbols" do you mean something special ? Or just check the overall pin names, placement dimesions...

[@thuongdinhphan3180]

Thank you Robert

[@waripark4385]

I really thankful.

[@smhnaghavi]

It was really helpful!

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you Hossein Naghavi

[@gabrielcuellar4045]

Very nice :)

[@mahdizadeali3181]

very great, thanks😍

[@waynechen6797]

Good job Robert. To improve visibility for further videos, can you change sytem UI Theme to Altium Light Gray? Thanks!

[@suleyman9847]

thaks for this helpful video

[@fahri3489]

I like your videos about altium.Because I am learning Altium.I want to buy your courses in fedevel academy but I am student.There is no enough money which I buy

[@lucadebs7872]

Thank you! I solved it :) When at minute 3:00 you drag the component from the folder (on "total commander") to Altium (in the "Projects" section) ... once I have copied schematic of the component, pcb, footprint etc. how do I remove the component from the "project" section ?? In your case, at minute 3:00 how do you remove the "components 22.12.18"? I don't find the "delete" option if I right-click. If I import for example 20 components in this way .. I find them all in the "Projects" section and I can hardly find the schematic and the PCB of the current project (or even the other projects) because there is a lot of confusion

[@Zaikar]

Thanks Robert, really useful tutorial. One question, what do meant at the end of the video by saying "always check imported symbols"? Many thanks!

[@GinoFavero94]

Thanks!

[@qsptecnologia]

very good

[@mohdsahid7591]

Thank you Sir

[@nazrcanaladag4795]

Thanks for video. It is really usefull. One more point . Some libraries does not include Step model. How can we add any model to these libraries.

[@serhatemirogan2643]

Very useful

[@michakalisiak9067]

Thank you very much, I had troubles while editing component straight in the downloaded files (adding 3D model) - component didn't update. Copying schematic & footprint solves the issue.

[@MdMubin-bp7wp]

Nice video

[@joeygodiska4404]

Is there a way to import components in a more streamlined way? I have 50 components from an old BOM that I'm recreating that would take a long time to follow all the steps in this video for each and every part.

[@serhioromano]

Why could not we just place that symbol from manufacturer search? Why do we need to create our own component? It looks like a double job. I am new to Altium. First day. Also when I search for parts, it bever finds a model or footprint. All parts I find are without that information. What can I do?

[@asmiribrisevic6975]

Nice video. I have a question. I have a problem, when I press the download button and when I press where I will save the component, nothing happens. The component is not saved.Helmp?

[@RobertFeranec]

I am not sure why, maybe a bug?

[@giorgosdeligiannis5897]

Hello Robert. Can you please answer my question? What is the perpose of mechanical 15 layer which is drawn around the component?

[@sparklee6994]

Hi Robert, thank you so much. I am using V23.8, and could not download symbols and footprints from Digikey or Mouser by following your video. Not sure UI has been changed or the features have been disabled.

[@madGambol]

Robert, thanks for this video. I'm trying the exact part you used, but I don't get the symbol or footprint in the "Details" section. Is there a plugin or something that enables import from UltraLibrarian or the cad files DK keeps? Thanks, Chris

[@RobertFeranec]

And what are you getting? Server Error? Try to go to System Preferences -> System -> Network Activity ... sometimes incorrect settings may block the connection with Altium servers. PS: I do not think you can use Manufacturer Part Search directly to import symbols/footprints from third parties.

[@madGambol]

@@RobertFeranec I didn't have my workspace enabled. I enabled that. Under "Network Activity" all options are enabled. I followed your steps (select library, select only DK, open manufacturers part search, enter DK part number) and the schematic symbol and FP don't show up in the Models window as at 1:16 in the video. Are those showing up in your video because you had previously downloaded the symbol and FP in the dry run of the demonstration? No error that I can see -- no pop-up error or warning dialog at all. What else needs configuration?

[@madGambol]

when I enabled the workspace, it overrode my manufacturer selections, so I disabled the workspace to regain control of the selections. What Altium servers were you referring to? I was trying to get to the state represented at time 1:16 in the video. Thanks, Chris

[@RobertFeranec]

@@madGambol what do you see in the most right column? Some people see there: Server error ... that is what I was referring to.

[@madGambol]

@@RobertFeranec I never saw any error on the screen. I just tried it again. My various panels were in a different configuration and I had a little trouble getting the MPS panel to be free from the Projects/SCHLib panels on the left. When I tried pulling the MPS free, the whole left panel came free. When I got the configuration resembling your screens in the video and selected the 296-24897-1-ND part again, the symbol and FP appeared! I don't know what's different. Does the behavior of the MPS panel change depending on how it's called up? If a SCHLib is under "edit", does the MPS behave differently than if the schematic is currently under edit? I am pretty sure I duplicated the steps you used when I had the problem.

[@sebastiansurugiu1933]

does anyone has a problem in altium like: I set shortcut for "place differential pairs" on "D" key, then when i route the board if i press 2 times the shortcut without exiting the first command yet, altium gives an error and crushes, sometimes i can't even save the work to that point... hmmm is this a bug or... ?

[@ivan868]

You can edit (fill) the schematic symbols of red LEDs with real their color (red, green, etc).

[@forresterickson6225]

Regarding 8:49 and BOM. I use the phrase Bill of Material (BOM) for the kind of list which aggregates like component values into as single line and has a quantity field. Example: REFDes(s) Value Quantity R1, R3, R4 1K 3 R2 10K 1 I use the phrase Parts List (PL) for the kind of list where each unique reference designator is a single line Example: REFDes(s) Value R1 1K R2 10K R3 1K R4 1K Each kind has it's use. When you buy components you want the BOM. When you are kitting to build(placing parts in trays for example) you want the BOM. When you are placing parts on to a single assembly you want the Parts List (And you probably want X and Y locations.) Hope this helps people speak and think more clearly about how to use the information from your PCB design software.

[@RobertFeranec]

This is a good note!

[@forresterickson6225]

@@RobertFeranec Hope you are safe and productive in this difficult time. This video helped me transition from AD17 to AD20 and to relearn component management after about a year of not working with AD17. But I face a difficulty about which I want to share. I am maintaining and extending a design I did not start. A Contract design house started the design and they have a library for components with very different fields than the Digi-Key fields from the video at time 2:15 I was aware of this difference and understood it might be a problem. Anyway I imported some components (schematic symbols and PCB foot print and 3D models) from Digi-Key using this method and finished my design. Then when I go to make my BOM I get errors. (BTW, I am using the BOM generation spread sheet from your Altium 18 LED design series. Good work.) At least, two components in my BOM have become concatenated into one record and the cost field becomes invalid because it has text ("[NoParam], 2.32") and for example the manufacturer field has two companies. ("FairchildSemiconductor, Samtec Inc."). So this method only works if you import all of your components from one distributor. I assume you cannot even mix in Mouser. The component libraries I have inherited have some very useful fields such as fields for an alternate DISTRIBUTOR/MANUFACTURER And PN for full reels and cut tape and costing at QT=100 and full reels. These fields solve the problem of letting you make costed BOM for small QT production and for high quantity production. And of course there are some fields for which I have not figured out the use. Robert, Have you ever developed custom libraries with extend fields? How did you manage cost at different production quantities? How do you manage the purchase for development of cut tape quantities and for production on pick and place with full reels? Do you and if so how do you manage primary and secondary vendors? Thanks and stay safe.

[@forresterickson6225]

And a request. Can you set up your shopping cart with long sleeve T shirts. I intend to purchase another shirt (I have one now.) and would like some variety.

[@RobertFeranec]

​@@forresterickson6225 From Altium I would maybe generate BOM with all the fields (digikey parameters + custom parameters) and I would create a new TAB in excel, where I would simple merge the same/similar columns. Maybe not ideal solution, but it would be easy re-usable. However, have a look at ActiveBOM - AD20 is using different method of importing parameters - I am still experimenting with it, but I believe that names of parameters are the same across multiple suppliers and ActiveBOM is able to generate 1 BOM and choose the proper supplier from multiple different suppliers (e.g. in the BOM, if your preferred supplier doesn't have a componente, ActiveBOM will automatically use the next supplier in your list). As I said, I am still experimenting with Active BOM, but maybe have a look at it.

[@RobertFeranec]

@@forresterickson6225 Do you mean in Teespring? Do you have any preference for the long sleeve T-shirts? PS: I ordered all the short sleeve T shirts to see and test the quality between different models - the cheapest short sleeve T shirt was the best quality - some more expensive were very poor quality.

[@kfekadev9843]

why you don't just use the component directly from the part search panel ? we must add it to our local library and use it after ? thank you for your efforts.

[@RobertFeranec]

You only would like to use in your board checked symbols and footprints - therefore you may want to maintain your own library with components you know are correct. So, initially you may use symbols from search panel, but when you are finishing your design, you always should change it for symbols and footprints from your libraries.

[@Giovanni2862]

I state that I am a new Altium user. What must be done to make a single-sided PCB?

[@Axlg]

When I search for example just "resistor" then filter by "has model", I dont know why, but in every single part I dont see any symbol nor footprint. :(

[@MaxWattage]

I used to do this, but as of last week, I now just get the following red error message... "Digi-Key: Error - Invalid Partner Information" Last year, Farnell's supplier-links service stopped working. Mouser is now the only supplier the supplier-links functionality still works with.

[@RobertFeranec]

For a week or so many people are reporting problems with Digikey for AD older than AD18. I am not sure what happened - maybe some changes in Digikey (?)

[@maurizioincurvati]

Hi Robert, I have the same problem of TheRecocebo. It finds everything but no symbol is available as it seems that the server is not found. What can we do?

[@RobertFeranec]

Symbols may not be available for all components. You may need to create it by yourself.

[@forresterickson6225]

See Robert's video at: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gaHKhaiaZs6EY5Y

[@hafizghulammuhayuddin3636]

Please make a video on Altium 20

[@TheRecocebo]

hi robert. my problem is when I do manufacture part search it finds the part but no symbol no footprint. what could I do. Thanks

[@RobertFeranec]

symbols and footprints are not available for every component. you may need to create it by you yourself.

[@TheRecocebo]

@@RobertFeranec thank you. I mean symbol and footprint is not available for any component. it says server not found. but if server is not found how come it finds the manufacturer search results. and no symbol no footprints. thanks in advance

[@RobertFeranec]

@@TheRecocebo Hmm .. then I am not sure :(

[@feijiewang2883]

I don't know why, the Model module is blank.When I opened it on my computer, it looked different from the video content.Will you give me some help?

[@RobertFeranec]

not all components have symbols or footprints available

[@feijiewang2883]

@@RobertFeranec Thanks for your help.Maybe it's because I don't have an account.

[@IPridek]

@@feijiewang2883 thats right its for this reason , try check entry to options and later in Data management > components Types and in this part you validate your theory

[@leonardomarquez7914]

Am I just very unlucky or the manufacturer part search really has very few components available? Almost Every time I search a component, ir Is not available and I have to make it from scratch.

[@farhansiddique3518]

Hello sir, for my Altium version 20.2.3, Place option is greyed & download doesn't work. Any solution?

[@muhammadmahsheedali7911]

my altium is not showing the symbol and footprint for exactly the same component which you are using in video. Please help.

[@RobertFeranec]

Are you using AD19? Also, I am not sure if you need Altium subscription or not.

[@muhammadmahsheedali7911]

@@RobertFeranec Yes, its 19.0.5. How can I get Altium Subscription?

[@RobertFeranec]

@@muhammadmahsheedali7911 You may need to speak to your Altium provider (the contact who sold you Altium). They usually also sell subscriptions. PS: But I am not 100% sure that you need subscription to see the the symbol and footprint in Part Manager - I am only guessing, that this could be the problem.

[@medghozlani479]

hello Muhammed, i have the same problem , are you solve it ?

[@tomandloisyunghans9510]

@@medghozlani479 Hi, I have been learning on Altium 19 and was totally unaware of this feature, even though I had done many "manufacturing part searches" in my studies. I am currently taking Robert Feranec's "schematic and pcb design course". I have never noticed the footprint and the symbol information for searched parts because I usually have the "manufacturing part search" panel parked in a fairly narrow window on the right side of the screen. It seems that when the panel is narrow, the symbol and footprint information is not directly visible on the screen, you have to click an "up-arrow" button at the bottom of the panel to bring them up into the panel. You can also make the window wide and then the "information icon" that Robert used shows up and you can click that. I don't think you need a subscription to get that information. I logged out of my account and was still able to see the symbol and footprint for some (not all) of the parts I searched for. I'm not sure exactly where this information is coming from. I assume it is coming from "octopart" which is owned by Altium.

[@dogukantombul1045]

I cant see the import section when you right click

[@digitalstudiodesign3616]

Hi Sir Please help me to place components from Manufaturer Parts Search Panel in schematic view in Altium Designer. Both Place and Download are deactivated.

[@lucadebs7872]

What if the component that I've just imported has 2 parts ?? i.e. part A and part b. I have followed your steps but I only see the part A in the schematic and component section .. where is the part B ??

[@RobertFeranec]

often there is a drop down list when the symbol is selected (inside of the symbol parameters) where you can choose a different part of that component

[@lucadebs7872]

@@RobertFeranec Thanks!

[@fahri3489]

altium says symbol or pcb is not present. Why?

[@RobertFeranec]

it's not available for every component

[@TheRecocebo]

I tried to find a component in manufactured search window. it finds but no symbol no footprint is shown. it says server not found. What can I do. I promise I will subscribe as this annoying problem is gone.

[@forresterickson6225]

Robert has a very good five segment series of videos and number 2 in the series he shows how to make schematic library symbols from scratch. It is worthwhile to watch all five videos. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gaHKhaiaZs6EY5Y I bought one of his shirts and try to wear it when doing SCH and PCB work. Everyone benefiting should at the very least get a shirt today.

[@MSM5500]

Why does everyone come up with making a single part instruction but nobody makes a video how to create a component with multiple gates?

[@RobertFeranec]

It's the same. Just when you are in schematic library editing the symbol, click on "Tools -> New Part"

[@MSM5500]

@@RobertFeranec, thanks Robert for your prompt reply.

[@maks886]

In this regard, Altium is just sooo annoying. Somehow Kicad can have a "default" library with thousands of common footprints, and it's not necessary to litter your PC with separate downloads every time you create a new part..

[@marroukihatem817]

Thank you Robert