Workspace Components

Modified by Jason Howie on Jan 22, 2021

Contents

Accessing Your Components
Browsing Components
Library Health Dashboard

The Workspace gives you convenient access for browsing all of the managed components that are currently stored within that Workspace. Accessible through the Workspace's browser interface (a constituent part of the parent Altium 365 Platform Interface), not only can you see, at-a-glance, what (and how many) components you currently have at your disposal, but you can also view a summary of the health of those components. Delving deeper, you have access to view more detailed information regarding component health, through a dedicated Library Health Dashboard. This provides greater detail on issues and enables you to quickly assess and fix components accordingly.

This document takes a look at working with existing managed components through the Workspace's browser interface. For an overview of working with managed components in your design software, including creation of new managed components and migration of existing file-based libraries of components, see Component Management.

While the term 'managed components' simply means components that are stored within a Workspace, there are differences in functionality associated with managed components, depending on whether you have Altium 365 Standard or Altium 365 Pro. In Altium 365 Standard for example, the managed components do not have lifecycle management or where-used functionality. In this respect, they could be though of as a lighter form of components - not so heavily managed, but available from the cloud (your Workspace) all the same. Where there are differences between the two levels of access for Altium 365, these will be flagged as applicable.

Accessing Your Components

Access your managed components through the Components page of the Workspace's browser interface. The page is comprised of three regions, as shown in the following image and listed thereafter.

Browse the managed components currently available within your Workspace from the Components page of the Workspace's browser interface. The Library Health Dashboard provides a summary of the components and their health.

Library Health Dashboard - this region of the page provides a summary of the health of your components, since last running a health check. Access is provided to the main Library Health Dashboard page, from where you can run health checks and inspect component health issues in greater detail.

The summary becomes populated once an initial component health check is performed. This is performed automatically the first time the Components page is accessed.

Components - when the page is first accessed this region presents a tiled array of the various component types, along with the total number of existing components of each type. From here you are able to drill down to see individual components, and get detailed information about them.
Supply Chain Data Sources - this region of the page lists the supply chain data sources that are used. If you have Altium 365 Standard, your data source is Octopart. If you have Altium 365 Pro, you also benefit from IHS Markit® Parts Intelligence and the ability to connect to your own internal company parts database. For more information on these sources, see altium.com/part-data-sources.

For many organizations, component supplier data is (and must be) sourced from an internal company enterprise system that provides a proprietary set of parts supplier data - which might be based on a tightly approved range of vendors and/or special pricing structures. This situation is catered for by the alternative Altium Custom Parts Provider, which when configured for synchronization through Altium Designer, allows the supplier data from a specified database source to be mapped to the Workspace supply chain data. This functionality requires Altium Designer 20.2 or later and Altium 365 Pro. For more details, see Supply Chain Database to Workspace Data Synchronization.

Browsing Components

When first accessed, the Components page presents a summary of the components in the Workspace, by type. Clicking on a tile will present a flat listing of all components of that type. This listing can also be accessed by choosing a component type from the drop-down at the top-left of the page.

An example of browsing all diode-type components in a Workspace.

Click the

control at the far right of the header region to access a window in which to control which columns of data are displayed. All parametric data can be displayed in unique columns.

Use the Search field to quickly find the component you are after.

Selecting a component entry will present detailed information for it within the right-hand pane, as shown in the following image and listed thereafter:

Select a component entry to load detailed information for it in the right-hand pane.

Item ID
Description
Revision and State
Manufacturer Lifecycle
Stock Availability
Median Price
Parametric Data
Models - symbol and footprint(s)
Reference Documentation - datasheet(s), pinouts, etc.
Where-used Information - where the component is used (within a design project, or on a managed schematic sheet) with a link to the parent entity.

Accessing the Manufacturer Datasheet

For each component, you can quickly access its manufacturer datasheet (which opens on a separate browser tab). To do so, select the component of interest, click the control at its far right, then choose the Open Datasheet command from the associated menu.

Quickly access the manufacturer datasheet for the selected component, which opens on a separate browser tab.

The datasheet can also be accessed by clicking the Datasheet link in the References region of the right-hand pane.

Accessing the Component Page on Octopart

For each component, you can quickly access its page within the Octopart site (which opens on a separate browser tab). To do so, select the component of interest, click the control at its far right, then choose the Show in Octopart command from the associated menu.

Quickly access the page on the Octopart site for the selected component, which opens on a separate browser tab.

Deleting a Component

You can also delete a component (provided you have editing rights to the folder in which it resides). To do so, select the component in the list, click the control at its far right, then choose the Delete command from the associated menu. The Delete window will appear, in which to confirm the deletion. The action is actually a 'soft delete', whereby the component will be moved into the Trash area of the Workspace. You can also opt to delete the component's related items (e.g. symbol, footprint model(s), simulation model, datasheet). Note that these can only be deleted if they are not being used elsewhere (by one or more other components).

Delete a component directly from the Components page. This is a 'soft delete', with the component (and any related items as applicable and permitted) moved to the Trash.

To proceed with the deletion, click the button. The component will be removed from the main listing of components. A Deletion Summary window will confirm successful deletion of the component. If any related items could not be deleted, this will be flagged to you.

All components deleted in this manner can be found on the Trash page of the interface. Note that you can only view components (and any other items for that matter) that you have personally soft deleted. Administrators will be able to see the full content of the Trash page - so all items that have been soft deleted.

Things to consider in relation to a soft deleted component:

The component will not be available from your design software, or from within the Web interface.
Anywhere the component was being used will reflect that the component has been deleted.
A component can be restored, or permanently deleted from the Trash page. Permanent deletion is only possible provided it is not being used on a managed schematic sheet, or within a design.

Note that if you have soft deleted a component - moving it to the Trash - you can create a new component with that same name again. If you were to subsequently restore the original component, and the original name is taken, an integer suffix will be used, to keep its name unique within the Workspace.

Library Health Dashboard

The Library Health Dashboard feature is currently in Beta - accessible only by those in the beta focus group. While the feature remains in Beta, you have the opportunity to send us your feedback. So whether you are having issues with the user interface, have a great idea for additional functionality, or just want to comment in general, you have the ability to make your voice heard. To do so, click the

control located at the right-hand side of the main Library Health Dashboard page.

The top region of the Components page presents a Library Health Dashboard. This provides a high-level summary of the overall health of your Workspace components.

The Library Health Dashboard summarizes the health of the components stored in your Workspace.

The summary becomes populated once an initial component health check is performed. This is performed automatically the first time the Components page is accessed.

As well as a handy visual indicator of health, the following information is presented:

Total number of components in your Workspace. This is the sum of healthy components plus those components that have an issue (fatal error or error).
The number of components that are completely healthy.
The number of components that have an issue. Bear in mind that a particular component may have more than one issue.
The number of components that have been recently added to the Workspace - in terms of the volume of the latest batch of new components created. For example, if yesterday two components were created in the Workspace, and then three more were created today, the number reflected on the dashboard will be 3.
The number of requested components - as part of the Part Requests feature (note that the Part Requests feature is not supported in Altium 365 Standard).
The number of unused components - not used in a managed schematic sheet, or directly within a design.

The health indicator bar visually conveys to you the health of your components. It reflects only healthy components (those with no issue detected) in green, along with those that have an issue - either fatal error (red) or error (yellow). It does not include components with warnings.

Accessing the Main Dashboard Page

Click the button to access the detailed Library Health Dashboard page. The top of the page presents the same Dashboard information found at the top of the main Components page of the interface. Below that are the specific health check filters that are supported, gathered into various Issue Themes.

Accessing the detailed Library Health Dashboard page - command central for analyzing issues in greater detail.

Enable the Show and check used components only option, at the top-right of the Dashboard, to only present health checking data for components that you are actually using in your designs (or managed shematic sheets). When the Dashboard is refreshed - health checking is performed - all unused components will be excluded from checking.

The following issue themes and specific health check filters are currently supported:

Supply Chain
- No Defined Part Choices - a component fails this health check if it does not have at least one Part Choice defined and therefore has no link to a Manufacturer Part.
- Stock Issues (not supported in Altium 365 Standard) - a component fails this health check if it has a defined Part Choice that is not in stock.
- Risky Lifecycle States (not supported in Altium 365 Standard) - a component fails this health check if it has a Part Choice that is obsolete, not recommended for new designs (NRFND), or invalid. You may encounter challenges in purchasing and supplying your design components in these states.
Component Details
- Uncategorized Components - a component fails this health check if its type is not defined.
- Ambiguous Component Parameters (not supported in Altium 365 Standard) - a component fails this health check if it has one or more parameters that do not comply with the latest version of the applicable component template.
- Using Outdated Template (not supported in Altium 365 Standard) - a component fails this health check if it references a component template that is not the latest revision.
Duplicates - not supported in Altium 365 Standard
- Duplicates by Name - a component fails this health check if it has the same name as another component.
- Duplicates by Part Choices - a component fails this health check if it has the same defined Part Choice as another component.
Models
- Using Outdated Models - a component fails this health check if it references a symbol or footprint model that is out of date.
- Using Prohibited Models (not supported in Altium 365 Standard) - a component fails this health check if it references a symbol or footprint model that is not for use in designs.

Each specific health check filter tile reflects the number of components failing that health check. Color coding reflects healthy/no issues (green), fatal error (red), error (yellow) and warning (white).

Browsing a Specific Health Check Filter

Clicking on a specific health check filter tile will provide a more detailed description of the check with steps to resolve (where available), as well as a detailed listing of all components failing that health check.

Inspecting components that are failing a specific health check - caught by that check's corresponding filter.

By default, the following columns of data are always presented:

Name
Description
Revision ID
FootprintName1
Revision State

Click the control at the far right of the header region to access a window in which to enable the display of further columns of data.

Selecting a component entry will present detailed information for it within the right-hand pane - same as that presented when browsing components through the main Components page of the interface.

You can quickly access the component's page within the Octopart site (which opens on a separate browser tab). To do so, select the component of interest, click the

control at its far right, then choose the Show in Octopart command from the associated menu.

Refreshing the Dashboard

The detailed Library Health Dashboard page is the only place from where you can run another health check - refreshing the Dashboard as it were. This can be performed at two levels:

Comprehensive Dashboard Refresh - running an update across all issue themes and their associated health check filters. This level of refresh is performed by clicking the button, at the top-right of the main Library Health Dashboard page. During the refresh, the button will change to and the text will appear next to each of the supported issue themes.

Run a full health check update by performing a comprehensive Dashboard refresh - involving all health check filters across all issue themes.

Partial Dashboard Refresh - running an update across all associated health check filters in a particular issue theme. This level of refresh is performed from two places - by clicking the control next to the issue theme entry on the main Library Health Dashboard page, or by clicking the button in the heading of the detailed page, when inspecting one of the health check filters in that issue theme.

Run a partial health check update - involving all health check filters associated with a specific issue theme.

Excluding a Component from a Specific Health Check Filter

You can also exclude components from a health check filter, on an individual basis. To do so, click on the tile for the required specific health check filter, select the component to be excluded from this check, click the control at its far right, then enable the Exclude from current Filter option on the associated menu.

You can exclude a component from a specific health check filter.