Added Supplier Support for TME

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Modified by Admin on Feb 3, 2014

Altium Designer 14.0 see the addition of another Supplier to the list of available Suppliers with which to source supply chain intelligence for parts used in your designs – TME (Transfer Multisort Elektronik). Located in Poland, TME is one of the largest distributors of electronic components in Central and Eastern Europe.

Through direct connection to supplier web services, you are able to search across TME's entire product catalog. This 'live' data can then be integrated within your design process using Altium Designer's Live Links to Supplier Data feature – allowing you to search supplier databases from within Altium Designer, and link your design components to matching Supplier Items.

And if your organization uses an Altium Vault Server, an administrator for that vault can configure TME as part of a list of Approved Suppliers – used to facilitate centralized supply chain management, with designers across the entire organization using the same approved list of Vendors.

Enabling the TME Supplier in Preferences

Enable TME for use as a supplier as part of the Live Links to Supplier Data feature, from the Data Management – Suppliers page of the Preferences dialog (DXP » Preferences).

Use TME as a supplier when creating live links to supplier data.

If you have an account with TME, you may be entitled to special pricing or products that are not available in this suppliers' public catalog. If this applies to you, you should obtain a temporary TME token that can be used with their Web Service. This can be obtained from the TME website. Once you have this information, enter it into the TME Options region that appears to the right. Simply click the ... button to access the Temporary token to API key dialog. Enter your TME token and click OK – the token will be transformed to the required API key.

If using these additional options, don't forget to select a country or region that applies to you, so that products available for that locale are made available to you.

Making use of these additional supplier options is a wholly optional exercise. You are not required to fill out these details in order to use the Live Links to Supplier Data feature, they simply offer additional benefits for those users that are existing customers of TME, should they wish to access them.

Managing the TME Supplier for an Altium Vault Server

When managing the supply chain centrally through use of an Altium Vault Server, the list of Approved Suppliers is configured through the vault's browser-based interface. From an external web browser, access this interface (http://<ComputerName>:<PortNumber>), sign-in and navigate to the Suppliers page.

Management of the list of Approved Suppliers for an Altium Vault Server can only be performed by an administrator of that vault.

Click on the name for the TME Supplier to access controls with which to define:

Whether that Supplier is available to the designer when sourcing supply chain intelligence for parts in their designs.
The frequency at which data sourced from that Supplier is refreshed.

By default, TME is enabled for use – distinguished by the icon – and set to have a 'data refresh' interval of 1 day.

Access and make changes to the TME Supplier as required, from the Suppliers page of the Altium Vault Server's browser interface.

To render the TME Supplier unavailable when sourcing supply chain intelligence, disable the Acquire supply chain information from TME option. In other words, that Supplier is 'not approved'. A Supplier that is not enabled for use – is not 'approved' – is distinguished in the list by the icon.

Use the Update acquired supply chain information every drop-down to choose a different data refresh interval as required. Numerous predefined intervals are available, ranging from 1 minute to 10 days.

When modifications have been made as required, simply click the Save button to effect those changes.

The Altium Vault Server dictates centrally which Suppliers are to be used in an organization. While connected to it, the list of Suppliers on the Data Management – Suppliers page of the Preferences dialog will be disabled. It will simply be a read-only reflection of this centrally-defined list.

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