Sunstone Printed Circuit Board Forum

Thanks for the input. I will work with our product manger to createa new video for youtube. Until then, I have attached a pcb123 training guide you can review. It has the pcb123 parts creation process and more that you may find helpful.

Glad we could help. If you have any ideas for videos, please feel free to share.

TomT,

As you requested we posted a few new videos explaining the parts creation process using the v4.1.15 release. 3 videos walking you through the parts creation process. The first is creating a footprint, second is creating a symbol and finally using the parts manager to combine the two into a taxonomy entry.

PCB Making Parts Tutorials:

Video 1: Create A Footprint

Video 2: PCB123 Create A Symbol

Video 3: PCB123 Manage Parts

There's a LOT of talk about the new PCB123 parts library. 500,000 parts - especicially when you can click straight through to datasheets and product information pages from INSIDE the CAD tool -- invites a lot of exploration. Of course, while half-a-million parts will satisfy a lot of parts needs, you're probably going to find a part that isn't in the library. So, let's open up this thread for parts requests. Just respond here with the parts you're looking for but haven't found. We'll either steer you to the right direction, or document the request for resolution. So let us know what you need.

Before you decide to make all of your footprints from scratch go to the layout and select Design Edit Footprint. You may find a footprint that you can use or edit to fit the part you will use. There are many footprints in our libraries that are not assigned to a symbol and so are not included in the taxonomy. The taxonomy is a list of parts that already have a symbol that is paired with a footprint. Please contact customer support if you have any questions.

This is my first time using PCB123 and my first time designing a Custom PCB. Indeed the library has lots of parts, but few connectors it seems. I see only a handful of surface-mounts in the Generics/Connectors folder. I'd be interested in some through-hole parts, such as for header pins, barrel connectors (for power supplies), various COAX connectors (e.g. BNC, SMA, SMB), serial connectors (e.g. DB09, DB25), and phone/ethernet connectors (RJ11, RJ45). I expect that I will create my own part definitions for this project. Before I do, are there other resources/libraries that I can use?

There are DB connector footprints you can find them in the standard.slb library that should be included with your PCB123 install. Once you find the footprint you want to use you will need to pair it with a symbol and add it to the taxonomy to place it directly on your schematic. You can add a footprint directly to the layout and PCB123 will auto generate a symbol and place it on an auto generated schematic page names SyncPage_A.

The forum seems like a good place to share parts for those who wish to do so. If the community shows an interest in sharing parts we can create a new thread or threads to categorize the parts. I am open to suggestions and think this is a great idea.

Arthur, I agree that the library is surprisingly lacking in connectors. There isn't even a DB25 connector! With so many users, there must be a massive collection out there of everyone's custom parts. I have a DB25 part that I would be more than happy to share. Unfortunately, the software does not allow this type of sharing from what I can tell. Yes, you can share an entire librarybut you cannot share one part. Or at least I cant figure out how to do it. There should be a giant repository of user generated parts where we could all upload and download individual parts as needed. It seems like an easy (and obvious) feature to add to the software. The software is so close to being really great and I'm very happy with the quality and lead time on the boards. Sunstone: Please add some better library and part management features. Andy

Arthur Andy: Thanks for the feedback. I can tell you that we've heard similar feedback on the phone the users who've called in to talk with us. We've just reached the one-year mark for this library. With 500,000 parts, it takes a bit of time to have the usage settle down into a regular usage model. It is indeed clear that the library could use some more connectors. PCB123 has room to evolve in the management of parts and libraries. Arthur identifies a specific piece of functionality that we've had on our roadmap, in fact. And Andy's point about sharing parts is something we'd like to improve. In our opinion, the tool doesn't do enough there yet, either. The team is working on some stuff based on exactly this kind of feedback. I hate to be coy, but I'll have to just leave it there for now.

Could someone post a YouTube video on how to build a new part from scratch, and modify an existing part definition? I am finding the process quite frustrating and slow. The video tutorials that are on the system are good but still pretty basic. The documentation on this is also not very specific, plus it is written for an earlier version of the interface. Maybe using Windows 7 also changed some functions, like where right-click still works.