Recently, the Ultra Librarian team launched a survey to take the pulse of the PCB design industry. The Ultra Librarian State of the 2018 PCB CAD Library Survey revealed trends regarding designer preferences for component manufacturers, the value of CAD library data, time spent creating library data vs. downloading from an outside source, and where downloaded data should come from. Some results were expected and followed industry norms, but some results show changing trends within the design community.
One of the questions our survey asked was, “How many PCB CAD programs does your company work with?” 44.5% of respondents said that their company only utilizes one CAD tool for design projects. This means that the remaining 55.5% of respondents are working with 2 or more CAD tools (7% are working with more than 4!).
Working in multiple design environments is often a necessity for designers, especially when supporting various customer requirements. However, there can be a lot of redundancies as well as wasted time and effort if a designer needs to create a component multiple times in multiple CAD formats. Additionally, even if the same component is created in two different CAD tools, there will likely be inconsistencies between the two components in the CAD tools (especially if created by two different teams).
Utilizing Ultra Librarian can take away all of the issues listed above – for free! Designers can sign up for a free account at www.ultralibrarian.com Once logged in, a user can search our 14 million component (and growing!) database of prebuilt components (symbols, footprints, and where available, 3D models) for the manufacturer part number that they need. After selecting a component, the user can then download the component in multiple CAD tools at once. Time is saved by not having to create the data yourself – doubly so if you are working with 2+ CAD tools!
Another advantage to using Ultra Librarian is that components downloaded from the Ultra Librarian database will be consistent across symbol, footprint, and 3D model (when available). Not only will the component be consistent between the schematic, layout, and 3D model, but it will also be consistent across CAD tools as well – ensuring that the data you see as a preview prior to download will also be represented the same way across all CAD tools that we support!
Finally, if you need or would like to create your own unique models, you can utilize our desktop software (Ultra Librarian Silver or Ultra Librarian Gold) to create models in our vendor-neutral format and export to multiple CAD environments. You will have access to all the data in our library, and you will also have the ability to create components to specific standards (whether internal or as specified by a customer) and be able to use them in your target CAD tools. One of the Ultra Librarian team’s mottos is, “Build once, use everywhere.” We firmly believe that utilizing the vendor neutral format can save designers time and ensure consistency, whether downloaded from our database or created using Ultra Librarian desktop software.
You can test the efficiencies of vendor neutral data yourself by creating a free account at www.ultralibrarian.com today, or browse https://www.ultralibrarian.com/products/desktop to see our desktop software options.