As more sources become available for ECAD data, designers are looking for ease of use, quality, and coverage of parts. Often, this leads designers to ask the question: how much data does a source truly have? It can be frustrating to search for a component on a data provider’s site only to find out they don’t have the piece of information you need – a footprint, a symbol, or a 3D model. As a designer, your time is valuable and you do not want to waste it searching multiple provider sites for what you need. How can you decipher what data is available from an ECAD data source?
A common theme among data providers is ‘millions of parts available’. This rather vague phrasing can lead to irritation if a search is performed and no ECAD data is available – only datasheets, pricing, or distributor availability. Furthermore, you may not be able to filter your search so that only ECAD data appears. This may mean that when a part number is searched, you may get many search results, but you have to manually sort through the returns to see if ECAD data is available for any of the returns. Additionally, you might find only part of what you need – a footprint, but no symbol, or vice versa.
Another aspect to consider when looking at what data is available from a data provider is the scope of the PCB industry itself. There are millions of distinct part numbers currently available from manufacturers, and this does not include obsolete or NRND (not recommended for new designs) components. No data provider is able to completely cover all parts by all manufacturers in the PCB industry – the constant evolution of product lines ensures that!
At Ultra Librarian, we are committed to continually updating our database with new parts from popular manufacturers, as well as component requests sent in by users. This has helped us grow our library of pre-built components to 14 million components and that number increases every day! All Ultra Librarian components contain a schematic symbol and a footprint that can be exported to the 20+ CAD tools that we support, and 85% percent of our parts contain a dynamically generated 3D model.
We are also constantly striving to create a breadth of selection across our large library, and stay up to date with popular manufacturers. At this time, we currently have over 130,000 part numbers for Texas Instruments supported – almost complete coverage of one of the most popular manufacturers in the industry! The Ultra Librarian team consistently adds 100,000+ components on a monthly basis, ranging from connectors to IC’s to discretes and passives.
Although our competitors may claim coverage of millions of parts, when you start truly examining their offerings you may notice inconsistencies between their claims and what they are able to offer. At Ultra Librarian, we take pride in backing our numbers with the ECAD data that you need to design your boards – not just parametric information. Interested in trying out some of our 14 million+ components? Create a free account at www.ultralibrarian.com today!