Vault-Based Components

Parent article: Component Management

Vault-based components represent the fourth generation of component model from Altium. Familiar Schematic and PCB library models continue to play an important foundation-level part in this latest generation, however the component model has now evolved to provide representation not only in the engineering domain for the designer, but also in the wider product design domain accessed by the procurement and manufacturing teams.

A truly 'Unified Component' model that not only represents the component in the different design domains (Schematic Capture, 2D/3D PCB Layout, Simulation, Signal Integrity) but also facilitates, through the concept of Part Choices, specification of the desired physical components – real-world manufactured parts – at design-time, offering a significant improvement in terms of procurement cost and time, when manufacturing the assembled product.

A model where file-based definition of components is performed on the design side, and then released into a secure storage repository, or vault. Here, a component is stored as a series of revisions of a uniquely-identifiable Component Item. Each revision is lifecycle-managed, providing collections of certified components, authorized to be re-instantiated into new design projects, manufactured into prototypes, or used for production runs. In short, a catalog of components implemented through vault-based libraries.

Use the following links to take a look at vault-based components, in terms of their creation and release to a target vault, and then using and maintaining them on schematic sheets within your designs:

Part Choices - Accessing the Supply Chain

Main article: Choosing Physical Components through Part Choices

Releasing a component definition results in creation of a Component Item in the target vault, or 'vault-based component'. But at this stage, it is still simply the design (or engineering) view of the component. It means the world to the designer using it in a board design, but is not meaningful outside of the design arena. To become a truly Unified Component, that unites the design and supply chain camps, the Component Item must be mapped to physical, real-world manufactured parts.

Under the Unified Component model, the design component as seen by the designer is separated from the Manufacturer and/or Vendor parts. This information is not defined as part of the Component Item. Instead, a separate vault Item – a Part Choice List Item – is used to map the design component to one or more Manufacturer Parts, listed in a Part Catalog, which in turn can be mapped to one or more Vendor Parts, allowing the designer to state up-front, what real parts can be used for any given design component used in a design.

This ultimately creates a link from that component, all the way through chosen Manufacturer Part(s), and on to the Vendor (Supplier) parts that each itself references. From the designer's perspective, the component is hooked directly into the supply chain. This allows real-time data to be made available – fed back from the Supplier's web services – to let the designer know the current costing and availability of the chosen parts, and from all Vendors that sell those chosen parts.

In the Vaults panel, access to supply chain information for a Component Item is available from the Supply Chain view for that item. From the Solutions region of the view you can gain access to the Part Choices dialog – your interface to the Part Choice List Item. Simply search for a required Manufacturer Part and add it to the list. Remove existing parts from the list if no longer a viable option in accordance with changes to design requirements – the choice of parts is down to you! When you save your choices a new Part Choice List Item will be created and linked to that Component Item or, if the Part Choice List Item exists already, it will be saved as a new revision.

Search for and choose the real-world manufactured parts that can be used to implement a Component Item during assembly. For all Vendors linked to the chosen Manufacturer Parts, real-time pricing and availability information is fed back, directly from those Vendors.

Batch Releasing Component Definitions

Main article: Batch Releasing to a Vault with the Release Manager

When migrating components from existing component management methodologies to the next-generation vault-based component model, releasing Component Libraries each containing a single component definition can be a tedious task – especially since release of a single Component Library file requires that file to be open and active in Altium Designer. This is also the case if changes have been made affecting component definitions across an array of source Component Libraries, that need to be re-released into a new revision of each target Component Item.

To facilitate the release of multiple component libraries to a target vault simultaneously, Altium Designer provides a Release Manager. Unlike the streamlined version of this dialog – which is concerned with the active document only – this is the full release 'console'. Use it to batch-release component definitions stored across multiple component libraries, in a nominated source folder location.

Access the Release Manager dialog by running the File » Release Manager command.

Release component definitions, stored in one or more source Component Libraries, using the Release Manager.

Setting up for release couldn't be simpler:

• Point to a top-level folder containing the libraries you want to release. Libraries can be stored in sub-folders within this folder.
• Choose the target vault.
• Choose to create a top-level folder in the vault based on the nominated top-level Windows folder, or choose an existing vault folder. You can optionally create sub-folders in the nominated vault folder, for each Windows sub-folder. Additionally, you can opt to create a vault folder for each source document.
• Determine the Item naming, revision naming and lifecycle definition schemes to be applied/adhered to for newly-created Items in the target vault.
• Hit the Analyze Folders button.

Analysis of source document folders and target vault folders (and Items) based on your chosen options will be performed and the source libraries detected will be listed, in terms of their content component definitions. For each entry, the target Item will be displayed, its current and/or next revision (as applicable) and the action that will be performed by the release process.

Enable the component definitions that you want to release and then click the Prepare Items and Documents button to effectively commit the link information to the source documents involved in the release. Once saved, proceed with the release by clicking the Release Items button.