Ability to Acquire Vault Data in IntLib Format

Altium Designer 17.0, in conjunction with Altium Vault (3.0 and later), delivers a powerful enhancement to the Content Cart. You now have the ability to acquire components from your local Altium Vault, into an Integrated Library (*.IntLib). And when placing components from such an Integrated Library, the actual links are back to the Component Items in the vault. This gives you the ability to effectively use your company's vault components in an offline fashion, while ensuring the design still maintains a true connection to those components in the source vault.

Acquisition to an IntLib

From the Content Cart dialog, the process to acquire into an IntLib is as follows:

1. Click on the Select target Vault link and choose IntLib file from the menu.

Set the target of the Content Cart to be an IntLib file.

2. Specify the name, and location, for the generated IntLib file. By default, the file will be named in the format Integrated_Library - <Date> - <Time>.IntLib, and generated in the location \Users\Public\Documents\Altium\AD<VersionNumber>\Library\ExportCmpLib. Modify this as required through the Save As dialog - accessed by clicking the Change link.

Accept the default target folder, or change as required.

3. If you need to acquire additional components into the same IntLib, click the Add More Items link, then use the subsequent Choose Item dialog to choose those components.
4. Once ready, click the Deliver Cart button to proceed with generation of the IntLib. An Integrated Library Package (*.LibPkg) will be created, with source SchLib (with symbols, parameters and model links) and PcbLib (with footprint models) files generated and added. This is then compiled to produce the IntLib file. All four of these files are generated in the specified folder. An information dialog will confirm successful generation of the file.

Deliver the cart to the target folder, which will contain the source Library Package and constituent library files, and of course, the required Integrated Library file.

Use of the IntLib

After generation, the IntLib is added to the Installed Libraries list - part of the Available Libraries for the software. It will be available for use from the Libraries panel. Simply place components from the IntLib into your design as required. While effectievly working with the components 'offline', the links back to the original vault components ensure continuity when you come back to working 'online' directly from your vault.

A generated IntLib, offering components acquired from your company vault. Once placed, the component is still linked back to the original vault component.