After a couple of weeks with CircuitStudio, I am somewhat confused about what the Altium Vault is really there for. Obviously it contains various data, especially supplier info, schematic symbols, and component footprints. But I wasn't sure if the idea behind providing CS users with access was simply so they have components to design with, for basic schematic symbols/component footprints to build with, for supplier pricing and availability data, all of these, or something else, etc.
My questions arose after I followed the documentation tutorial, "From Idea to Manufacture - Driving a PCB Design through CircuitStudio". I looked at the PcbLib file I had created from the components of the tutorial and wanted to expand it by adding the other footprints for the Caps and Resistors. I wanted the L, M, N, component density footprint variations, just the generic 0805(2012) smt footprints. I didn't want any schematic symbol tied to them. I wanted the pad layout so that if I needed to make a capacitor/resistor I could refer to one of these three layouts and have any components I create consistent across manufacturers, and with the Vault components, etc. But in the end, I couldn't find any way to do this without having first place a component in a schematic, commit the drawing, and update a pcb layout. Then, I had to add the schematic symbol to a SchLib, and the pad layout to a PcbLib.
Can't I just copy or download the footprint into my PcbLib? There should be an easier way to do this. I've even seen a couple of people post YouTube videos on this procedure I mention above. Is this really the only way to do what I want to do? Maybe this can be done with an IntLib? Any insight will be appreciated.
Thanks,
T. Carlyle