Component and Library Management
/ Creating Generic Components
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Component and Library Management
Creating Generic Components
This feature is only available with the Pro and Enterprise Subscription Levels. To discover the benefits of the Altium Designer Subscription Levels, please visit Altium Designer Subscription Levels
Generic components are intended to be placeholders easily replaced with a suitable component later in the design process. They also can be considered virtual or parametric components.
For example, if we want to add a battery to the circuit without specifying the exact component, we can perform the following steps:
Creating a Generic Component
In Altium Designer, in the Explorer panel, browse to the Component Templates folder where the required Batteries template resides (Managed Content » Templates » Component Templates for the default Workspace activation/installation, as shown in the image below).
Fig. 1 - Explorer panel and component templates
Open the Batteries component template. Click on Edit.
Fig. 2 - Edit component template
Add a suitable default symbol model parameter reference (Components >> Models >> Symbols) to the SCHLIB. The specified symbol model could be an existing symbol that has been cloned and edited from another symbol or a custom symbol that has been created from scratch.
Fig. 3 - Selecting a symbol
Save the edited template to the Workspace (File » Save to Server). The presence of a symbol model in the updated template causes a Batteries generic component tile to be added to those available in the Components panel.
Placing a Generic Component
To see a new generic component in the Components panel after it is created, Altium Designer may need to be restarted.
Open the Components panel.
Click on the button within a generic component tile to attach the component to the cursor for placement in the active schematic document. Selecting the tile itself will open that component type category in the panel.
Fig. 4 - Placing a generic component from the Components panel
Select a placed generic component to access its properties in the Properties panel. The related component template determines the available parameters (Resistors in the example shown here). Parameter values can be manually entered or selected from a drop-down menu list.
Fig. 5 - Specifying the parameters of a generic component
Replacing a Generic Component
When it is time to replace the generic component with a specific physical component, click the Replace button in the Properties panel. This can also be done from Tools >> Item Manager or the project's ActiveBOM document.
Fig. 6 - Replacing a generic component with a manufacturer’s part
Parameter values applied to the generic component are automatically used as search terms in the Replace Generic Component dialog box. This dialog allows you to choose a suitable replacement component from the filtered results.
