Global electronic components distributor Digi-Key Electronics announced a collaboration with Ultra Librarian to implement an online library providing symbols, footprints, and 3D models for over 1.25 million Digi-Key components.

As more diverse components are added, customers can easily design using most Digi-Key components in 22 CAD formats supporting most EDA and CAD tool sets.

Manny Marcano, President and CEO of EMA Design Automation, stated, "Many of our customers purchase components from Digi-Key. Through a partnership with Digi-Key spanning over 8 years, we have provided Ultra Librarian symbols, footprints, and 3D models, enabling customers to access library content directly. This has made circuit design faster, easier, and more precise."

Creating and maintaining a vast library like Ultra Librarian requires a team of PCB and software experts who understand the needs of design engineers and develop software that supports the requirements of both the library production team and end users. Frank Frank, Product Architect at Ultra Librarian, stated, "A major part of this work is creating the Ultra Librarian desktop software used to create components. We develop software development tools to validate components by performing over 30 inspections to increase component information capture speed and verify accuracy, consistency, and IPC standards compliance."

Randall Restle, Vice President of Applied Product Engineering at Digi-Key, stated, "Digi-Key customers are always looking for ways to shorten design cycles, and the larger the library and the greater the quantity of available components, the faster new components can be integrated into designs for all applications. Through an effective partnership with EMA, we have moved one step closer to our goal of securing CAD models for all components we supply, enabling customers to focus on design and bring products to market faster."