Altium Libraries

[bostonman]

I found probably the only person at my place of employment who knows Altium.

He voluntarily offered a few concepts to me, but, much like this group, he initiated the conversation with telling me libraries vary. He stated explaining workflow concepts to me at the version we have at work and our library structure may differ from my home version.

Once I get some time, I plan to just dive into Altium. The board I need is extremely basic, however, it's a great opportunity for me to learn a basic workflow.

[PlainName]

Once I get some time, I plan to just dive into Altium. The board I need is extremely basic, however, it's a great opportunity for me to learn a basic workflow.

That's the best way with this - just get going and don't worry about stuff. If the scheme you choose at the start is not the right one for you, you'll learn why and then be able to make an educated choice later. It is fairly easy to convert from one way to another once you know what you want and how to do it.

[bostonman]

I'm already seeing differences in libraries.

At work I needed to be "in a work space" in order to 'download' components into my library. Once I was shown how to link the work space, components had the 'download' option available when I right clicked on a component.

Once I entered an IC socket and found it in the manufacture's library or whatever, the 'download' was greyed out.

Now that I'm home and using 14.3, I don't have access to any libraries except (I think) the default ones from Altium and (for whatever reason) the countless FPGA libraries I have.

Unfortunately I don't see a way to 'create' a component. I'm still searching, but I'm stuck using 14.3 as this is the only "registered" copy I have.

Think I have an idea on how to create a component now. I was trying to edit the Altera MAX 5000 library has a PLCC-44 (previously suggested), but it seemed I was taking the long way editing the pin associations (they are out of order on the symbol).

[ftg]

You open your library project and make the new (or copy paste an old) schematic symbol for the component in the SchLib part of it.
Then you assign a footprint for it, if you don't already have a suitable one in your library, you can create one with the wizard built into Altium.

The oldest documentation I found on Altiums page was for 15.1, which is hopefully close enough still to your version 14.
https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/building-maintaining-components-libraries?version=15.1