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San Diego IPC Designers Council Meeting Held at Del Mar Show
May 11, 2017 | Judy Warner, AltiumEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
The Del Mar Electronics and Manufacturing Show is a long-time favorite among PCB professionals. What better place to hold a meeting of the San Diego Chapter of the IPC Designers Council?
Each year, the San Diego Chapter of the Designers Council hosts their largest meeting of the year at the Del Mar show. This year, approximately 50 PCB designers and electronics professionals attended the lunch-and-learn meeting.
Featured keynote Tom Hausherr of PCB Libraries spoke about the company’s new BOM Builder tool. PCB Libraries has a massive component library which they offer for free, as well as a Pro version for a modest price.
Hausherr explained that BOM Builder is a new PCB library service that is free to all paid Library Expert Pro users. Users can send in their BOMs with manufacturer names and part numbers. BOM Builder then compares the part numbers with 2 million numbers in the Parts on Demand (POD) database. There is a 30-minute turnaround on all parts on POD, and a 24-hour turnaround on all missing standard parts. Their goal is to populate the POD with parts that designers are currently using in their PCB layouts. When Hausherr concluded his presentation, the audience applauded; this service just might save them time and money.
Though I have been active in the San Diego chapter for a few years, this was my first time attending in my new role as director of community engagement for Altium. I carried on the annual tradition of giving away a 12-month license for Altium Designer. This is when things got interesting: The license was awarded and donated back by raffle ticket-holders three times before being received by Greg Pratt of Data Acquisition Integration. As one attendee put it, “Don’t be embarrassed. Everybody already has your software and likes it!” That was good to hear.
Hausherr also awarded a license to Library Expert Pro. And a last-minute license donated by Mark Albert of Polar instruments was awarded to Tom’s son Luke Hausherr, a senior designer with San Diego PCB. Luke said, “I was hoping I’d win that!”
Overall, the meeting went very well, and the raffles brought excitement and laughter at the conclusion. Congratulations to the San Diego Chapter team: Bob Griffith, Luke Hausherr, Crystal Hardy, Bill Gebhardt and Ben Savage for hosting another successful Del Mar meeting.
The Del Mar show and the Designers Council are quite a match. I’ll be back next year.
Judy Warner is director of community engagement for Altium.
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