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Linking with a RoHS Compliant Database

This TechWatch is based on the 2nd part of the Altium Designer presentation performed at our UK User Conference on the 6th Sept 2005

In this section we will look at implementation of IPC-7351

For the purpose of this TechWatch I have made the files I used available here Download, most of files are based on standard Examples available with Altium Designer 2004.

From the example files above open the 4 Port Serial Interface.PrjPCB.

You will noticed that our components have a number of blank parameters in them such as Manufacture and RoHS Compliant.  We are going to use a method called database linking to bring across data from an external database. This could be any ODBC compliant database file or in our case we are using an Excel Spreadsheet.

These days RoHS and Lead Free are quite a hot topic and the ability to know that the components you are using are RoHS compliant or not is important.

Using the database linking we can bring in useful data, such as is the components part number we want to use RoHS Compliant and does this involve a part number change?

We link a database to our schematics or libraries using a Database Link File.  I have already setup a RoHS.DbLink within the example project, which can be found in the Settings sub folder, this is linked up to an Excel Spreadsheet.

Open the RoHS.DbLink file and look under the Table Browser tab at the bottom to browse the information held within the spreadsheet, and then back to the Database Links tab.

In the Database Links section we are using the Part Number as our lookup field between the schematic components and the database. We can then assign the Database Field Names from our spreadsheet to the user parameters, under the Design Parameter column, we have defined in the schematic or library.

Return to the schematic and run the Tools » Update From Database, make sure all of the sheets and components are selected and click OK to generate the ECO.  Note in the ECO, we can reject items here if we wish to and create a report of what where are doing

Accept the changes of the ECO and Execute. Open the ISA Bus and Address Decoding.Schdoc and look under a components properties to check it’s all worked.

We can use the query language to quickly search for all components that have been marked as non RoHS compliant.

In the Filter panel type in HasParameter(‘RoHS Compliant’,’NO’) ensure Open Documents of the Same Project is selected and that the schematics are all open.

We could assign this to a button or key if we wished. Once they are selected we can see them listed in the List panel and can produce a report if we wish. Or we could make a graphical change to them so that they standout on the schematic, for example.

Open the Inspector panel, ensure its set to Open Documents of the Same Project and click the hyperlink for the RoHS Compliant parameter, change the Colour to Red (227) the Font to 14pt, check Show Name and uncheck Hide.

For more information on Database linking there is a tutorial under Help » Help On » Library Management » Tutorials » Linking from a Company Database to Components in Your Design