Integrations · Bring everything you have

Library Import

One wizard for everywhere a parts library has ever lived: zips of SchLibs and PcbLibs, SQLite, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, Excel sheets, CSV archives, even a release URL. Preview what's inside, map the columns, decide what counts as a duplicate, then commit.

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Sideband
sideband.local / library / import
Resistors.SchLib 0 / 184 symbols
Capacitors.SchLib 0 / 212 symbols
Standard.PcbLib 0 / 96 footprints
Connectors.PcbLib 0 / 58 footprints
Packages.step 0 / 41 3D models

Sources · files

Drop a zip and the importer finds the libraries

Hand it an archive and it walks it recursively, extracting every .SchLib and .PcbLib and skipping the datasheet PDFs and project files that travel with them. A single library file works too, and so does a URL, so a GitHub release or any direct HTTP link imports without a download step.

Reading vendor-libs.zip

  • Symbols/Resistors.SchLib
  • Symbols/Interface.SchLib
  • Footprints/SOIC.PcbLib
  • - docs/datasheets.pdf
  • - Demo/Demo.PrjPcb
  • nested/Connectors.zip

Also accepts a single .SchLib or .PcbLib, or a URL, fetched directly.

Sources · databases

Your parts database, wherever it lives

Connect PostgreSQL or MSSQL with host, port and credentials, or hand it a file: a SQLite database, an Excel workbook, a CSV archive. Table discovery filters out the plumbing (pg_*, sqlite_*, django_*, sysdiagrams) and pre-selects the tables that hold rows, so the wizard opens straight on your parts.

postgres://erp-parts · discovering tables

  • components 12,408 rows
  • manufacturers 412 rows
  • legacy_tmp 0 rows
  • pg_stat_statements system
  • django_migrations system

System tables filtered out, non-empty tables pre-selected.

Preview

Every symbol parsed before anything is written

Preview streams as it parses: up to four workers read libraries at once, results arriving in 500-item batches over a live connection. Each symbol comes back with its name, description, pin count, designator prefix, parameters and footprint references, plus a rendered SVG (one per part, for multi-part symbols). The previews below are the app's own renderer.

GENERIC_BUZZER
2 pins · LS · staging

Preview · footprints

Land patterns, sized up at a glance

Every footprint arrives with its pad count, its mount type (SMD or through-hole), its height, and whether a 3D body came along. Enough to judge a land pattern before it enters the library, layer by layer.

Layers

6
Top Layer #1
41 pads
Top Overlay #33
8 tracks 2 arcs
Top Paste #35
41 regions
Top Solder Mask #37 from pads
41 pads
Mechanical 13 #69
1 arc 41 regions 1 body
Mechanical 15 #71
1 region

Field mapping

Your columns become real fields

Source columns and parameters map onto component fields: description, comment, value. Group the column that holds a part number with the one naming the manufacturer and they become proper MPNs. Pair a URL column with its description column and each distinct description becomes its own attachment type, datasheets one kind, drawings another.

  • Parameter types renamed, skipped, or created on the spot
  • MPN groups: part-number column + manufacturer column
  • Paired URL + description columns become typed attachments

Field mapping

  • Description → description
  • Part Number · Mfg → MPN + manufacturer
  • Datasheet · Doc Name → attachment
  • Tolerance → parameter
  • Internal ID → (none)

Deduplication

You decide what a duplicate means

Matchers compose: symbol name, footprint name, MPN plus manufacturer, or any parameter. An "LCSC Part" column makes a fine fingerprint. Each match resolves the way you choose: skip it, overwrite the existing record, or import as new. Ten years of copied libraries fold into one.

Deduplication

MPN + manufacturerSymbol nameParameter "LCSC Part"
  • GRM155R71C104KA88D skip
  • RES_0402 overwrite
  • C25804 skip
  • SN74LVC1G17DBVR import new

3D models

STEP bodies come along

When a PcbLib carries embedded STEP models, the importer tessellates them with OCCT and attaches them to their footprints, so the mechanical side of the part arrives with the electrical one. The viewer below is the app's own.

Loading 3D model…
LFCSP-40_L6.0-W6.0-P0.50-TL-EP4.6.step Height: 1.0 mil

Commit

Byte-identical on the way back out

Commit materialises the preview in streamed batches, and keeps the original SchLib and PcbLib binaries alongside the extracted data. When Altium asks for a library back, it gets the exact bytes that went in.

Wizard sessions stay alive for six hours with a heartbeat, so step away mid-import and pick up where you left off.

Explore related features

Altium ODBC Connector

Synced live

EasyEDA / LCSC Import

Paste an LCSC code

Connectors

Pull in, push out

Put every part on one data model

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Beta 1.0.0-beta.4 · Windows · free