Benefits of Digital Product Libraries

Luckily for electronics engineers, product information sharing has been revolutionized with the advent of design software and digital product libraries, thereby making electronics design more streamlined, efficient and readily available for every tier of engineer.

This article examines how RECOM is working with leading industry partners to ensure that our product information is consistent, readily available and accurate in order to help engineers achieve a quicker design cycle and a reduced time-to-market delivery.

What are Component Libraries?

The most important component of PCB design is not the electronic components that make up the design, but rather the library of the electronic components that contain the plethora of information. An electronic component library consists of an array of electronic component data that is specific to a project and collates the 2D and 3D physical dimensions, footprints, connectivity parameters and electrical functions of every single component in that library. Once a design’s product library has been developed, engineers and electronic designers can use that information to lay out draw schematics, layout the PCB design, and use 3D models to check the physical and mechanical aspects of the design using the same PCB design software.

Developing a Model Library

Building out a project’s component library can be tedious work, as engineers have to develop an individual model for every component in a project’s design using the manufacturer provided data sheets. As a project’s complexity grows, so does its component library, thereby making the management and development of that library extremely time-consuming. To reduce the amount of time that engineers spend while creating individual component models for their project and to increase the amount of time that they can spend designing PCB layouts, several industry-leading companies have collectively developed readily available pre-made models for millions of the most popular components in the world.

By working in collaboration with manufacturers, these companies have made library development and management more streamlined than ever before, thereby allowing engineers to be more innovative with their project development and spend less time developing component models. Why start building your next library from scratch when your next project’s building blocks are readily accessible?

Industry Leading Product Libraries

RECOM has partnered with SnapEDA and SamacSys to provide high quality product models and product library datasets to make product design using RECOM components extremely efficient and effective. RECOM checks the integrity and accuracy of these models to ensure that any design made using RECOM’s components is representative of what the final manufactured product will look like and will perform as desired. SnapEDA and SamacSys provide engineers with schematic symbols, PCB footprints, 3D models and even reference designs to make getting your project to market faster than ever before.

RECOM’s implementation of SnapEDA and SamacSys libraries enables electrical engineers and PCB designers to export RECOM product information to nearly all ECAD tool formats – including Altium, Cadence, Circuit Studio, CADSTAR, DesignSpark PCB, DipTrace, EAGLE, KiCad, OrCAD, PADS, P-CAD, PCB123, Proteus, Pulsonix, Target 3001! and xDX Designer. Moreover, to create your project library even faster, SamacSys’ ComponentSearchEngine or SnapEDA’s Search Engine allows access to other products and their 3D information to easily complete all of your project’s other building blocks.

Accessing RECOM Digital Product Libraries

To access RECOM product library information, simply visit any of our individual product pages to download the desired information from our website. For example, to download the library information of one of our most popular products, R-78E5.0-0.5:

• Step 1: Visit recom-power.com


• Step 2: Search R-78E5.0-0.5 in our product search bar or use our parameters part
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Step 3: Locate the Green SamacSys download button or the Orange SnapEDA download button.
  
  
  
  
• Step 4: Select your preferred library resource to download the R-78E5.0-0.5 library information. Both methods are free of charge, but they may require setting up a registered account to do so.


• Bonus Step: Ultra Librarian, KiCad or other custom library tools may also be available from our distribution partners if you have consolidated your project’s product library in a different library tool. To see a full list of our key distribution partners and their RECOM product availability, simply use our product specific Stock Check tool.