What is the recommended method to link multiple components to the same supplier source? I have tried everything I can think of but there seems to be no easy way to do this:
- Select multiple components and hit "Supplier Links": Only the component that was right clicked gets the link
- Select multiple components and attempt to use SCH Inspector: According to docs the parameters can only be edited this way if all components already have the parameter.
- Attempt to copy the list of parameters from a single component properties: Not possible.
- Attempting to use the hover "Insert" hotkey to grab parameters does nothing.
Things that work, but are unnecessarily painful:
- Link single component -> Copy supplier name and part number to notepad -> Remove supplier parameters from all components -> Manually add parameters via SCH Inspector -> Manually Hide all the new parameters, as adding this way defaults visible
- Link first component -> Delete other components -> Copy and replace other components with the linked component -> Rename copied components 1 by 1 to match previous designators (my layout is already in place and I need to maintain linkage).
- Create, link, and maintain library components for every passive value -- this does not work well in cases where component values need to change, as in when tweaking passive values for an analog circuit.
In my workflow anyway, often the circuit is drawn, and frequently the layout complete before values for many passives are finalized. So, the most straightforward solution of copying a linked component does not work well because the designators have already been annotated.
CircuitStudio needs to be able to copy parameters more easily using the "SCH Inspector", and there should probably also be a tabular editor for dealing with the properties of multiple components.
