Part Details

Aligni comes pre-configured with several essential “native parameters” as attributes to each part. It is often desirable to specify additional parameters. Which parameters you decide to add depends on your organization, the products you build, and the nature of your relationship with your part database. However, we encourage a measured approach to specifying database parameters — each one carries an additional maintenance burden. Additional data for each part (such as a manufacturer datasheet) is often attached to the part as a supplemental reference.

A part’s Custom Parameters are visible at the bottom of the Part Details summary as shown to the right.

In the settings area, you configure custom parameters by their name and value contents. You also setup available options (for enumerated parameters) as well as part type associations because each parameter is only available to part types you specify.

• String – Any Unicode string.  You may optionally enable Autocomplete which will display matching strings that have already been entered in the same parameter field elsewhere in your database.  Examples include Schematic Symbol or PCB Footprint.
• Boolean – A parameter presented as a check box that is either true or false.
• Option – A mutually-exclusive choice among multiple options.  You may also specify any number of available options for the parameter.  For example, a Capacitor Temperature Characteristic could choose among “C0G”, “X7R”, “X5R”, “Y5V” and so on.
• Number – Any floating-point number.  Examples include minimum storage temperature, tolerance, and maximum voltage.
• SI Number – Any floating-point number with an optional SI suffix.  In this case, the exact text you enter is stored in addition to a numerical representation.  For example, if you enter “1u”, Aligni will store the text “1u” as well as “0.000001” as a numerical value.  In this way, Aligni maintains the specific representation you chose as well as the numerical value for search purposes.