Supplier Search

The Supplier Search panel showing the results of a 'coin cell holder' search.

Summary

The Supplier Search panel provides the interface to the live supplier data. It is a direct portal to parts databases provided through supplier web services.

Panel Access

The Supplier Search panel is accessible by clicking System on the bottom right-hand side of the editor and selecting Supplier Search, or by clicking View » Workspace Panels » System » Supplier Search.

Searching for a Supplier Item

Enter one or more keywords of the supply item you want to search for in the Keywords field. Click ...  to the right of the Keywords field to access the Search Filters pop-up in which you can specify how many results per supplier are displayed on each page of results within the panel. You can filter Supplier Items further based on whether they are in stock, lead free, or RoHS -compliant.

After defining the search criteria, click Search. The upper region of the panel will populate with all items matching the search criteria and any filtering options.

Items captured by the search will be listed in the results region of the panel.

Navigating Search Results

Depending on the scope of the search and the number of suppliers enabled, multiple pages of results may be returned. Entering Resistor for example will return far more results due to its generic nature than 1K Res 1/4W, which is a narrower search and will return fewer results. Arrows to the bottom-left of the results region enable you to move back and forth through pages of results.

Changing Displayed Information

Once the results from a search are loaded into the results region of the panel, you have the ability to change the way the information is presented. The following is a summary of possible changes:

• By default, five columns of information are displayed in the results region: Manufacturer, Supplier, Manufacturer Part Number, Description, and Unit Price depending on how your system is configured. Right-click on a column header to access a pop-up listing of all available attributes that can be enabled for display in the panel. Clicking on an entry will add a column for that data into the results region.

Note: The following attributes are static and can be displayed for any searched Supplier Item – Supplier, Supplier Part Number, Manufacturer, Manufacturer Part Number, Description, Category, RoHS, Stock, and Unit Price. All other attributes that can be displayed will change depending on the parameters associated with the returned Supplier Item results.

• You can change the order in which columns are displayed. To move a column, click on its header and drag it horizontally to the desired position. A valid position is indicated by the appearance of two green positional arrows.
• Data may be sorted by any column by clicking on the header for that column. Click once to sort in ascending order; click again to sort in descending order.

Manually Creating a Supplier Link

You can create a Supplier Link by clicking on an item in the results region of the panel then drag and drop it onto the target component. The sections below describe where to "drop" for each type of component.

Schematic Library Component (SchLib)

Use one of the following methods for dragging and dropping a schematic library component.

• Drag and drop anywhere within the main editing area of the schematic library editor, ensuring the source schematic library document is the active document in the main design window and the recipient component is focused.
• Drag and drop onto the component's name in the Components region of the SCH Library panel.
• Drag and drop into the Supplier Links region of the SCH Library panel.

Database/SVN Database Library Component

Drag and drop onto the required component record on the Table Browser tab of the relevant database library file or SVN database library file, ensuring the DbLib or SVNDbLib file is the active document in the main design window.

Placed Component on a Schematic Sheet

Drag and drop onto the schematic symbol of a placed component, ensuring the source schematic document is the active document in the main design window.

Placing Parameter Information From the Panel

The information in the Parameters region of the panel can be imported into the current, active library document. simply select the information in the Parameters region you want to import into the document, then drag and drop the data onto the component's name.

Quantity and Pricing

Quantity or bulk pricing is a common concept with suppliers and distributors of electronic components. Suppliers will typically have different pricing based on the quantity of an item you wish to purchase. The quantity levels required to access increasingly reduced unit price points differs not only between different suppliers, but also from item to item for the same supplier.

This 'quantity pricing' is readily found in the detailed information region of the panel (see Detailed Item Information below) – specifically the detailed Pricing section for the item currently selected.

By changing the entry in the Quantity field at the bottom-right of the results region, the displayed pricing in the Unit Price column will change in accordance with supplier-specified quantity pricing levels for the displayed items.

Example of displayed Unit Price change based on the specified Quantity. In this example, changing the quantity to 25 attracts the supplier's quantity pricing level for that item.

To quickly display all Unit Price information within the results region of the panel in a single currency, choose the currency from the drop-down field available to the left of the Quantity field. 

Enabling RUB (Ruble) price conversion, for example, is immediately reflected in the item's unit price.

Detailed Item Information

The lower region of the panel provides detailed information for the item selected in the results region above.

Example of the detailed information available for an item.

Depending on availability, the region contains:

• An image of the item.
• Parameters section - lists the parametric data for the item, by name and value.
• Documents section - lists, for example, any data sheets for the item.
• Pricing section - provides a list of the quantity pricing levels applicable to that item. Prices are displayed in the currency specified by the supplier and cannot be change as part of the panel's currency conversion feature.
• Stock section - displays how many units of the item are currently in stock and their current availability.

Any or all Supplier Item information (except the image) can be imported as parameters to an Altium Designer component. This can be achieved in a number of ways:

• By manually importing Supplier Item information to a target component.
• When adding a Supplier Link and parameters simultaneously to a target component in a single step.
• When creating a new component directly from a Supplier Item.

Right-click Menu

The Supplier Search panel has various right-click menus. A menu is accessible for the results region and for each section in the detailed information region. The content of a menu will change in accordance with the focused document (SchDoc, SchLib, DbLib, SVNDbLib).

In Results Region

The following commands are available when accessing the menu from the results region of the panel:

• Add Supplier Link To – use to add a Supplier Link to the selected Supplier Item. If a schematic, database or SVN database library is active, the Supplier Link will be added to the focused component/component record. If a Schematic document is active, you will be able to click on each part to which you want the Supplier Link added.
• Add Supplier Link And Parameters To – use to add parameters, data sheet links, pricing and stock information for the selected Supplier Item, along with a Supplier Link to that item, all in the one step. The parameters added are those enabled in the Parameter Import Options region of the Data Management – Suppliers page of the Preferences dialog. If a Schematic, Database or SVN Database Library is active, the parameters and Supplier Link will be added to the focused component/component record. If a schematic document is active, you will be able to click on each part to which you want the parameters and Supplier Link added. For parameters, pricing and stock information, the import will proceed in accordance with any defined parameter import options.
• Import Into - use to import the selected item (as the component stated in the command) into the active library document. This command is available only when the active document is a schematic library document (*.SchLib), a database library document (*.DbLib), or an SVN database library document (*.SVNDbLib).

In Detailed Information Region

The following right-click command is available from the Parameters, Pricing, and Stock sections.

• Add Parameter To – use this command to add the respective parameter(s). If a schematic, database or SVN database library is active, the parameter(s) will be added to the focused component/component record. If a schematic document is active, you can click on each part to which you want the parameter(s) added.

The following right-click commands are available from the Documents section:

• Open Document – use this command to open the selected document for viewing.
• Add Document Link To – use this command to add a ComponentLink parameter pair targeting the data sheet. If a schematic, database or SVN database library is active, the parameters will be added to the focused component/component record. If a schematic document is active, you can click on each part to which you want the parameters added. By default, the same value will be entered for both the ComponentLinknDescription and ComponentLinknURL parameters – the URL for the data sheet.