The Part Browser presents a list of parts organised according to a category attribute. The list can use a hierarchical tree structure by defining multiple branch attributes or by specifying an appropriate separator character to split the branch attribute value into separate branches. The Part Browser Categories dialog enables these choices to be made along with the addition of a filter to restrict the number of parts to be included in the tree.
From this dialog, you can also Add or Edit Categories. This means you can create your own parameters that will be used for selection and display of categories.
Shortcuts
Default Keys: None
Default Menu: View
Command: Part Browser
Locating this option
Available from: View menu > Dockable Windows > Part Browser option > context menu > Change Part Categories
Selecting Categories
The Change Part Categories option is used to add rows to the grid, choose if they are to be displayed and to define their order.
You can select more than one Category to list in the Parts Browser. This uses a grid in which each row defines a parts category. This also allows you to Filter the Parts using wildcard matching on an attribute value, or specify the required Pin Count (No. Pins).
This dialog also allows you to create Named categories based on different criteria. For instance, you could create a category that uses the Manufacturer attribute for its first branch and the Value attribute for a second level, or another simple one that uses just the Category attribute with a "" branch separator to create a tree structure, or a simple list that has just uses the part family attribute.
There is a restriction on the attributes in your parts which you can use. The attribute names must currently be included in your parts library index files, or setup as search attributes in the vault. To change this list for libraries you must regenerate the parts library indexes using the Index option on the Part Library Manager dialog. To change the list for a Vault you must add the attribute names using the Attributes page in the Vault Setup dialog.
Navigation
Press the New button to add another category to the list, or select an item in the list and press the Edit button to use a dialog to change it. Remove items from the list using the Delete button. The Copy button can be used to copy an existing category ready for modification.
Each line in the category grid represents a separate section in the parts browser bar. Use the Up and Down buttons to re-order these sections.
The Use button is used to define which of the categories will currently be used when filling the part tree in the parts browser bar. The list of part categories will be saved and restored separately for PCB design and Schematic design editing. This allows you to have a different category list displayed when editing a Schematics design.
The Name column allows you to provide your own name for each part category. The name is displayed at the root of the tree in the browser. If left blank, an automatically generated name will be used in the browser that indicates the branch attributes and filters used.
Use the Branch Attribute column to provide the attribute name to be used to extract the branch names for each part in the browser tree.
The Split Character is used within the part’s attribute
value to split it into multiple branches. If a branch attribute is provided, all parts
must have the attribute to appear in the category tree. Multiple branch attributes are allowed but cannot
be entered directly in this grid. Use the Edit button to create more detailed part categories. If the
category contains multiple branch attributes the grid will show
Substitution of attribute values will be performed when getting a branch attribute value for a category, but only if the attribute name is included in the library indexes (or in the vault user attributes table if the part is being read from the vault). If the substitute attribute does not exist one of two things will happen depending on the value of the Show Unsatisfied Category Substitution Attributes check box at the bottom of the dialog. If checked the attribute name enclosed in {} brackets is substituted, else a blank string is substituted.
Use the Filter Attribute and Filter columns to provide a filter to reduce the parts presented
in the category tree. Only parts that have a filter attribute value that matches the filter string will be
included. Multiple filter attributes are allowed but cannot be entered directly in this grid. Use the Edit
button to create more detailed filters. If the category contains multiple filter attributes the grid will show
Use the No. Pins column to restrict the parts presented in the category tree to only those with the entered pin count. This filter is applied as well as the attribute filters.
Once the OK button on the Part Browser Categories dialog is clicked, the Part Browser will be updated with the new selection.
Adding and Editing Categories
When the New button is pressed, the Add Part Category dialog is displayed. For new categories, this will be blank ready for addition. If the Edit button is pressed, the same dialog is displayed but already populated with the current selection.
The Add Part Category dialog is displayed:
The Name field allows you to provide your own name for each part category. The name is displayed at the root of the tree in the browser. If left blank, an automatically generated name will be used in the browser that indicates the branch attributes and filters used.
Part Category Tree
This section contains a grid that defines the branches for the tree structure used to display the parts in the browser. Each branch is defined by an attribute, where the value of the attribute on a part specifies the name of the branch it will be in. Use the Add button to add a branch row to the grid. Use the Delete button to remove a row and the Up and Down buttons to change the row order. Remove all rows from the grid if you do not want to use a category tree, the browser will present a flat list of names of parts that satisfy the provided filters. For example, to list all parts that have two pins.
When Add is pressed, a new row is added. You can then edit each cell to define your category criteria.
Use the Branch Attribute selection to choose the name of the attribute for the search category. The Branch Attribute field cannot be left empty. The Split Character is used within the part’s attribute value to split it into multiple branches.
Check the Or button to indicate the branch attribute will not represent a new branch, but will instead be used as an alternative branch attribute to the attribute defined in the previous row. So in this case for a part, the branch attribute in the previous row will be searched for first, and if not found the attribute defined in this row will be searched for. Leave the Or button unchecked to indicate this row represents a new branch in the category tree.
For a part to be included in the category tree it must contain at least one of the branch attributes. If a part
has a branch attribute missing it will use the special branch name <No “attribute name”>. For example
Which Parts
This section contains a grid that defines a set of filters to be applied to a part for it to be included in the category tree.
Each filter is defined by an attribute, where the value of the attribute on a part must match the entered Filter string in the way defined by the chosen Filter Type for the part to be included.
For example if only Inductors are required, you could use a Filter Attribute of
Multiple filter attribute rows can be defined. Check the Or button to indicate the filter attribute represents an alternative to the filter attribute defined in the previous row. So in this case for a part, the filter attribute in the previous row will be searched for first and if not found the attribute defined in this row will be used. Leave the Or button unchecked to indicate this row represents a new filter attribute that must be matched.
You can choose to also filter the parts by the Number Of Pins. Enter the pin count of required parts, or leave blank to list parts with any number of pins.
Press OK to add or change the category.
The following example shows use of multiple part categories. The open category tree is using the “Mfr” attribute to define the branches and has a filter only including part names that contain the string “7400”.
Related Topics
Part Browser Bar | Libraries - Parts | Vault Setup - Attributes