Ability to Control Parameter Visibility for Vault Components

Old Content - see latest equivalent
Modified by Jason Howie on May 31, 2017

Altium Designer 15.0 brings you control over the visibility of parameters -or more specifically, their values - when placing vault-based components into your designs. This facilitates the Visible On Add concept, long enjoyed by users of Database Libraries. Configuration itself is performed in two places, depending on wehther you are placing components directly from the Vaults panel, or from a Vault Library available through the Libraries panel.

Controlling Parameter Visibility for Placement from the Vaults Panel

When placing components directly from the Vaults panel, control over the visibility of parameters associated to those components is performed from within the properties dialog for the parent folder.

The folder must be of type altium-component-library.

Simply right-click on the parent folder and choose the Properties command. The Edit Folder dialog will appear. Enable the Configure Visibility on Add option, in the Component Parameters region, on the right-hand side. The parameters, taken from all components in the folder, will appear listed in the region. Use the Visible On Add checkbox associated with each parameter to control its visibility, when a component that has that parameter is placed on a schematic sheet.

The Comment parameter is also shown. This is a system parameter.
Parametric data is stored as part of the vault folder properties, in the vault itself, and is global to all users of the vault, and with whom the relevant folder(s) have been shared. Folder hierarchy is also taken into account, so parameter visibility configured for a parent folder will be passed down to (inherited by) all child folders below.

Determine, at the folder level, which parameters should be visible when components that use them are placed in a design.

An example of controlling the visibility of parameters when placing components directly from the Vaults panel.

Controlling Parameter Visibility for Placement from the Libraries Panel

When placing components directly from the Libraries panel, control over the visibility of parameters associated to those components is performed from within the Vault Library dialog. This dialog is accessed when adding or editing a Vault Library, as part of the set of Installed Libraries for Altium Designer.

The parameters, taken from all components in the folder(s) specified as part of the 'library', are listed on the Parameters tab of the dialog, once the Configure Visibility on Add option is enabled. Use the Visible On Add checkbox associated with each parameter to control its visibility, when a component that has that parameter is placed on a schematic sheet.

The Comment parameter is also shown. This is a system parameter.
Parametric information is localized - specific to each 'vault library', and on each computer (unless the designers' workspaces are made identical through the use of environment configurations).

Determine, at the 'library' level, which parameters should be visible when components that use them are placed in a design.

An example of controlling the visibility of parameters when placing components directly from the Libraries panel.

 

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