- Libraries are used to manage
all of our component information.
So, for example, thus far throughout this project,
we've mostly been working
with this LilyPad Simple v2 library
that has been pre-created for us.
It contains about 10 or 15 or so pre-built components here,
and we can see here, for example, the schematic symbol
that's associated with this component here,
that also might have a PCB footprint
associated with that same component,
maybe even a 3D model that would come in with that as well,
as well as any properties,
supplier information, data sheets.
You can really tie and link
pretty much any information you'd like
to a specific component within your libraries.
So in many cases, or hopefully in most cases,
you won't have to worry too much
about creating your own libraries.
Again, there's millions and millions
of components in libraries available to you online
from Altium Designer or SolidWorks PCB
and we can just download those from the online websites,
install whatever we need.
So any component that is frequently used or very common,
you can just download the entire catalog of a manufacturer,
or whatever it might be,
and install those into your libraries, and so forth.
However, in some cases,
you may need to generate
your own unique components in libraries,
and, of course, we have the ability to do that as well.
So, let's take a look at how we can get started
in creating our own custom libraries, let's say.
So, the first step I might want to do
is just understand the different types of libraries.
So we have a schematic library,
which might just hold the schematic symbols,
schematic information.
We also have what we call a PCB library,
that's going to hold the footprint and the PCB information.
And then finally,
we have what we call an integrated library,
and that just integrates the two,
or throws all of the information together.
So generally, I try to work with integrated libraries
if I'm going to be pushing from a schematic
straight to a PCB and have a full, complete project.
So, we'll start by looking
how to create a new integrated library here.
So, the first step is to go into my file dropdown,
and just as I had New PCB Project,
right below it I have New Integrated Library.
I'm going to try to create a new integrated library here.
Here we go.
And it looks similar to the project.
It opens on an empty projects document side panel here,
and no documents have been added,
but I can add documents to this.
So, I can right click again, just as we saw before,
and I say Add New, and here is what I was talking about
with the schematic libraries.
So if I'm only worried about schematics
I can only throw in schematic information, or PCB.
If I want it to be an integrated library,
maybe I'm gonna add a schematic library component here,
and now this is where I'd create
all of my schematic information.
But what I'm actually going to do here
is maybe add my PCB library as well,
and then at the end I'm going to try to merge these two,
or integrate these two.
So, for example, create a simple library component
that will have both a schematic and a footprint
and we're going to link them together.