Integrations · Synced live

Altium ODBC Connector

A real ODBC driver, built for Altium's DBLib. Your library shows up in the Components panel as an ordinary database library, with no Access file on a share, no SQL server, and no nightly export. One installer, one connection string.

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Sideband

Altium Designer · Components panel

DBLib live sync 48,211 rows applied

Setup

One installer, one connection string, done

The usual DBLib stack is an Access file on a network drive, or a SQL server someone has to provision, plus a DSN on every machine and an export script to keep it fed. The Sideband connector replaces the lot with a signed MSI and a connection string pasted into the .DbLib.

You configure no DSN. The .DbLib carries the URL and the token, and the driver does the rest.

The entire setup

1
Run the installer

lateraldb-odbc-x64.msi signed
2
Point the .DbLib at your library

Connection String = DRIVER={lateraldb-odbc};Url=https://sideband.local;Bearer=•••▏

No DSN to configure, no database server to provision. The connection string carries everything.

Live

Synced by change-data-capture

Every library write is caught at the source. A database trigger fires the moment the edit commits, a signal reaches the driver, and the driver pulls just that change into its local cache. Swap a footprint in Sideband and the engineer placing the part has it on their next panel refresh.

You schedule no export, and no day-old copy quietly drifts from the source of truth.

One edit, end to end

Edit saved

footprint swapped
Change captured

database trigger
Signal pushed

SSE tick
Delta pulled

just that change
Altium sees it

next panel refresh

Push when the network allows, a quiet poll as the safety net. Staleness is bounded either way.

Engineering

Built for exactly what Altium asks

Altium's DBLib has habits: the Parts view it expects, the [Manufacturer Part Number] lookups it issues, the way it brackets identifiers and capitalises Description and Value. The driver implements each one on purpose, and each is pinned by its own test.

Parts arrive ready to place. Library references, footprint paths and parameters come through in the columns Altium reads.

A native ODBC 3.80 driver, written in Rust
The documented Altium quirks, each covered by a named test
Anything outside Altium's query shapes gets a clear diagnostic, never a silent wrong answer

Scale

Flat at any library size

On connect the driver takes one streamed snapshot; after that it only ever pulls deltas. Queries from the Components panel are answered from an in-memory columnar cache, with no network round-trip per search, whether the library holds three hundred parts or three hundred thousand.

/api/components?q=10uF+25V 200 OK

{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "CMP-1044",
      "mpn": "GRM21BR61E106KA73L",
      "value": "10uF",
      "package": "0805",
      "stock": 880,
      "symbol": "SYM-220",
      "footprint": "FP-318"
    }
  ],
  "total": 1
}

Described by OpenAPI · /api/openapi.json

The same feed, for your tools

Snapshot and deltas, over plain HTTP

The endpoints the driver reads are ordinary HTTP: a streamed snapshot, an incremental delta feed, a change signal. CI checks, ERP reconciliation and dashboards read the same canonical library Altium does, so automation and CAD never disagree about what current means.

Inbound connectors fill and enrich the library; the ODBC connector is how it reaches the CAD seat. One source of truth, every consumer live.

Windows x64, where Altium lives · read-only by design (Altium reads, Sideband stays the source of truth) · changes arrive by push, with a quiet polling safety net.

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Beta 1.0.0-beta.4 · Windows · free