Parameter List Templates

Altium Designer 15.0 brings with it a stand-out enhancement to the Component Library Editor, by way of customizable parameter list templates. These simple, humanly-readable files can be built with a list of required parameters, that can then be loaded into the editor with a single click.

Parameter list templates can be found in the Templates sub-menu - accessed by clicking the Add control at the bottom of the Required Models/Parameters region. A number of predefined templates are available, covering parameter sets associated with capacitors (Capacitor), resistors (Resistor), diodes (Diode) and transistors (Transistor).

Access parameter templates from the menu associated to the region's Add control.

Simply click on the template you wish to use - the parameters defined within that template will be added to the region (and corresponding columns added to the component definitions area).

Adding a set of parameters for use by your component definitions is expedited through the use of parameter templates.

Template Definition

A parameter template is defined in a Component Library Template file (*.cmplib_template). To be recognized by the system, and therefore appear in the Templates sub-menu within the CmpLib Editor, these files must reside in the Templates folder of your Altium Designer installation (\Users\Public\Documents\Altium\AD15\Templates for a default install on Windows 8/7).

The template definition is simplicity itself, and consists of the name for the template (as it is to appear in the sub-menu) enclosed in square brackets, followed by a listing of the required parameters, in the format <ParameterName>=. By way of example, the predefined template for resistors - resistor.cmplib_template - has the following definition:

[Resistor]
Category=
Manufacturer=
Manufacturer Part Number=
Mounting Type=
Temperature=
Package Type=
Package Reference=
RoHS=
Temperature Coefficient=
Tolerance=
Weight=
Height=
Value=
Power=
Resistance=
Composition=