Import POD Parts Directly Into Current FPX Library

okay cheers Nick, I shall inform the managers here.

Right now POD is in beta and every part must be checked and rated by the person who downloads it. When the user qualifies the data then it gets relocated from beta to rated. We're currently working on that part of POD right now.

In a future release for V2014, the PCB Library Expert will have an upload to POD feature. Each customer will be able to define their own personal profile with avatar and contact info on POD to earn credits for the FPX files they upload. The credits can be used toward the purchase of many things that are coming to POD and it includes software.

So when you download a POD part in the future, you'll know who created the data and you'll be able to rate and comment on the quality.

ALL parts are "unrated" and require QC until someone rates the part as checked and approved and then marked (identified) as such. So you will know who created the part and who approved the part.

Once we get the POD programming completed, it will be a fine tuned library part resource that will eventually have well over 100 million items to download. The items will include FPX files, PADS p/d Files (used for translation), 3D STEP or master SolidWorks 3D models, schematic symbols and much more.

The new PCB Libraries, Inc. is focused on library content and not just software tools.

We're also currently redesigning the Library Expert Ribbon Toolbars to make them larger with text and more user friendly. There will be DXF import in FP Designer used for verification of accuracy (as this data is subject to human error).

I just call the Toolbar a Ribbon. I didn't know about "select a ribbon first". I use SolidWorks every day and they refer to there toolbars as "Ribbons".

What I mean is that every icon will have the function "text" below it so that you do not have to mouse over the icon to get pop-up text. Pop-up text will still exist but the current selection icons will be a bigger target to select.

You'll like the new look.

I too dislike the new "ribbons" in MS Office and Autocad, and prefer the traditional toolbar.
I gave up upgrading Autocad after 2004 to be honest because of the way they destroyed the GUI.

On the subject of POD footprints I'd double-check everything I download before putting it on a board regardless of whoever provided the footprint.  I'm kind of like that - check everything.

I saw so many mistakes go through the fabrication process when I was a CAM Engineer, from data sent in by PCB Designers who'd just pressed the button on their CAM output, zipped it up, and sent it out without checking it.  It probably helped pay my salary at the time but I'm at the paying end now!

I would be very confident on rated footprints provided through POD but it's still in my nature to double-check everything - especially my own work - carefully as I'm never as arrogant to assume that I can't make the occasional blunder.

To give feedback the existing POD.
 
I would like to see it integrated with Library Expert as discussed; you have my vote on that one!  That would save a whole lot of messing around on the website; that is really painful, when I know there are far better ways.

I would like to be able to select one or more parts from a list and then have it automatically download to my existing FPX file (or predefined location) and the 3D STEP file download into an existing folder or some way to auto-manage where they go so you are not prompted for it.  If it turns out logically you need to prompt for a location you could have a checkbox and make that an optional in that if the box is checked it asks, otherwise it puts it into a default folder location defined by the user.  



In terms of searching:

I would like to search by partial part numbers (which you can do now), but without specifying manufacture; that makes it quicker from a user stand point.   Maybe do something on the order of Octopart or other distributor websites.  For me, I might know a partial part number, but don't recall the industrial suffix or perhaps I know the body/case or I might not.  Sometimes a quick design will be dictated by what I can get my hands on now quickly (maybe a MSOP decal is available now, but DFN not) and I don't have the time to build anything.  So having some mechanism to drill down in any way I see fit to get to a small list I can pick from would be awesome.   Make the search flexible for the users because each person may approach the problem differently.  

To avoid someone downloading the entire thing you could simply limit download and whatever you check to download goes into a basket sort of thing.

I would also like to browse.  Only seeing 3 or 4 items on a page is also really painful.   There are cases where I might have a part and I am just looking for a similar part body I can use for 3D model, but have no clue what the part number might be or even case code; in this case searching by description would work better for me.   The browse and search mechanism could be similar to what many distributor websites do.

It would really be great is to upload a list of part numbers (perhaps incomplete part numbers) in a CSV file and then have it automatically search and produce a list which then you check the ones that make sense or your continue to drill down.