[benjamind]

What would it take to make a footprint database you can trust? I would imagine that community ranking/flagging of content could surely clean up inconsistent or invalid designs making the database more reliable.

Would approved manufacturer accounts that contained all the parts from a manufacturer make them more trustworthy?

[meaty]

To your second paragraph, 100% yes :)

[benjamind]

Well lets hope that the CircuitHub team can get the traction they need to get the attention of the big manufacturers then.

There's certainly a chicken and the egg problem happening with this kind of innovation right now. I know for a fact that there are many people at the large manufacturers that know that symbol and footprint library management is a major headache. They all want a good solution to the problem, but nobody is willing to take the plunge on an as yet unproven system.

[seddona]

Hi Ben, I hope your well. Ideally we would like manufacturers to setup their own accounts and approve their own lib's, that would be a big win for users. Basically i think this problem has slipped between the cracks, the semi co's, engineers, EMS houses, EDA vendors etc all palm it off to each other!

[benjamind]

Yeah I think that's definitely been the problem thus far.

There's a wind of change in the air though, I would definitely encourage you to try contacting the large manufacturers directly and see if you can get some buy-in. We've had some very encouraging discussions with some of them recently.

Let me know how it goes, if you don't get any joy perhaps we can hook you up.