TE Connectivity (TE) and SnapEDA have partnered to make over 25,000 digital models available to electronics designers and engineers. The companies hope to reduce product iteration cycles and other engineering hurdles in order to help speed up the entire electronics design process.
Designers typically spend a significant amount of time generating models for each of their standard components, an endeavour that can become even more tedious and time-consuming for certain components. Connectors, for instance, are almost always more difficult to design because of their nonstandard shapes, pitches, pads and cut-outs.
Thanks to TE and SnapEDA’s joint venture, designers can now download free printed circuit board (PCB) footprints and symbols for TE components through SnapEDA’s website. The models are compatible with Altium, OrCAD, Allegro, Eagle, PADS, DXDesigner and KiCad.
“As a global technology company with more than 7,000 engineers, we know how important these digital models can be for designers,” said David Sinisi, vice president of engineering excellence & operations at TE Connectivity. “We’re excited to partner with SnapEDA to make our models available free of charge so that it’s easier, faster and more convenient for engineers to optimize their products and bring them to market.”
The models available for download include sensors, fuses, switches, relays, DC-DC converters, thermistors, resistors and diodes, alongside a range of connectors (such as USB, flexible printed circuit, modular, mobile battery, terminal and jack connectors).
In addition to the actual models themselves, SnapEDA provides information pertaining to industry standards (like IPC-7351B), recommended dimensions and quality control features for each individual model.
“TE Connectivity has an extremely broad product portfolio. With everything from connectors to sensors, designers can now seamlessly select and design-in a wide variety of components into their designs by downloading the symbol and footprint for that product instantly,” said Natasha Baker, CEO of SnapEDA.
Engineers and designers interested in perusing the expanded catalog of components can do so on both the TE Connectivity and SnapEDA websites, where they can download the models and then drag and drop them into their designs.