PCB Matrix Symbol Wizard

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Tom, 
Is the "PCB Matrix Symbol Wizard" available anymore? Is anyone still using this or is there similar products out there?

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wheels1234 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Active User Joined: 11 Jun 2012 Location: U.S.A. Status: Offline Points: 39	Post Options Post Reply Quote wheels1234 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: PCB Matrix Symbol Wizard Posted: 12 Mar 2015 at 9:53am
	Tom, Is the "PCB Matrix Symbol Wizard" available anymore? Is anyone still using this or is there similar products out there?



Nick B Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 02 Jan 2012 Status: Offline Points: 1909	Post Options Post Reply Quote Nick B Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 12 Mar 2015 at 10:06am
	Best of my knowledge, it is no longer available. We do not have any schematic tool that can be purchased because we can’t develop one that is much better than CAD vendors' schematic library editor out there already. If someone is trying to sell you a Symbol Wizard that's not that much more beneficial than the software you already have, they may as well be selling ice to the Eskimos. What feature(s) would you like that the CAD Vendor schematic editor can’t do? Having said that, we are working to support Symbols with our Parts on Demand service.
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wheels1234 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Active User Joined: 11 Jun 2012 Location: U.S.A. Status: Offline Points: 39	Post Options Post Reply Quote wheels1234 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 12 Mar 2015 at 10:56am
	Would like the PDF Scratch Pad feature that the symbol wizard had as shown in pdf here: www.tsieda.com/data/SymbolWizard.pdf Sound like you have a similar product like the below company. http://www.samacsys.com/products/epw/

Matthew Lamkin Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Advanced User Joined: 02 Oct 2012 Status: Offline Points: 284	Post Options Post Reply Quote Matthew Lamkin Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 05 Jun 2015 at 4:32am
	Having been looking into something to do this, the tools in the CAD packages are "not" completely upto the job. Something that will extract the pin allocation from the datasheet and make symbols & part entry along with the component would IMO be a great tool, like the library wizard for instance. Using excel to do a lot of this is still a lot of work. The EPW tool does do it but I don't know how accurate it will be, how closely it matches an IPC footprint & cannot configure it in any way. So I'd throw away the fotprint it uses & use Toms tool (eee that sound rude!) and have to modify the symbols produced but the library entry could be a great feature of it to use.

Tom H Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 05 Jan 2012 Location: San Diego, CA Status: Offline Points: 5719	Post Options Post Reply Quote Tom H Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 05 Jun 2015 at 6:24am
	We're going to be upgrading V2016 to C# using V2015 Visual Studio and Windows 10 OS. Once Library Expert is completely translated to C# we will add a Schematic Symbol Expert that will interface to every schematic tool and symbols will be available on POD. A Symbol solution is coming in 2016.
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Matthew Lamkin Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Advanced User Joined: 02 Oct 2012 Status: Offline Points: 284	Post Options Post Reply Quote Matthew Lamkin Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08 Jun 2015 at 6:48am
	That's good news Tom, Extraction of PDF information and creation of symbols with gates & pins in the users preferred order\side etc then generation of symbols would be a great step forward, being able to also output the part information would IMO be a leap making this "the tool" for all library work. I already mention it in training sessions so IMO improvements so it's not just doing 1/3 of the job would get a lot more using it.

Tom H Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 05 Jan 2012 Location: San Diego, CA Status: Offline Points: 5719	Post Options Post Reply Quote Tom H Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08 Jun 2015 at 7:13am
	I doubt if the initial release of Symbol Expert will have PDF extraction. There are too many features that have higher priority and every user would have to own a copy of Adobe PDF writer or we would have to put Adobe in the Symbol Editor and pass the $200 cost onto the customer (unless we can work out a deal with another PDF writer company). Creating a storing symbol data, cross-probing with the footprint and extracting all the FPX attributes into the symbol are primary features so that the symbol, footprint and 3D model are tightly integrated. However, the most important aspect of the Symbol Expert development is revenue for software programmer salaries, software development tools, office rent, computers, furniture and supplies. PCB Libraries, Inc. has never borrowed any revenue from a bank or taken any revenue from JVC. All revenue comes from existing software sales. So Symbol Expert development is 100% dependent on future Library Expert Pro and POD sales and that is dependent on the overall health of the global economy in the next year.
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Matthew Lamkin Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Advanced User Joined: 02 Oct 2012 Status: Offline Points: 284	Post Options Post Reply Quote Matthew Lamkin Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08 Jun 2015 at 7:29am
	I meant extraction of information "from" the pdf not writing to one. :) Like copy & paste & the aforementioned scratchpad.

Tom H Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 05 Jan 2012 Location: San Diego, CA Status: Offline Points: 5719	Post Options Post Reply Quote Tom H Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08 Jun 2015 at 7:47am
	Yes, Scratchpad or extracting data from a PDF file requires an Adobe Acrobat license. Or we can swing a contract agreement with FOXIT in China to do the same thing. Either way, it's not free. Been there, done that.
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Matthew Lamkin Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Advanced User Joined: 02 Oct 2012 Status: Offline Points: 284	Post Options Post Reply Quote Matthew Lamkin Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08 Jun 2015 at 7:48am
	OKidoki.... copy & paste into notepad it is then :)