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Component decision making just got a whole lot easier with our most recent updates to Ultra Librarian® for OrCAD. Our goal is to provide you with a reliable source for component information and data through a seamless integration with OrCAD Capture. The latest updates to the OrCAD plugin do just that by offering an improved user experience, new features, and new parts to choose from.

As a PCB design engineer today, you experience a large amount of pressure to create smaller, faster, more intelligent products. Consequently, it has become increasingly important for ECAD and MCAD engineers to interact on any given product. To maintain a competitive edge within the industry, a higher level of collaboration is required between design teams and integrated systems to get from conceptual design to actual manufacturing. ECAD engineers need the ability to efficiently relay all aspects of their design to the MCAD engineers for correct implementation of the parts they have chosen to include in their design.

There are various different CAD libraries available online to help you get started with your PCB design. Anyone can develop a part library and upload it, unfortunately, that does not mean that the data provides an accurate representation of the device nor does it guarantee manufacturability. CAD libraries found online are often times small, out of date, and/or unreliable depending on their source. Even when the library source promotes a “standards-based” approach, it may be more of an internal standard than an official standard.

As you are probably already aware- a lot goes into designing a printed circuit board. From routing to part selection, signal quality, and manufacturability, PCB designers have a lot to evaluate. With everything there is to consider, why are engineers still spending valuable time building symbols and footprints for their designs? On average it takes between 8-16 hours for an engineer to build one high pin count symbol and footprint. That is time that could be better spent focusing on the integrity of the product design.