4 ms·
I second the speed requirement. The most I've ever spent is an hour on making a schematic symbol and two hours for a footprint, both when I was very inexperienc
by akiselev 10y ago
I second the speed requirement. The most I've ever spent is an hour on making a schematic symbol and two hours for a footprint, both when I was very inexperienced with Altium and using a ~500 pin part. Now that I'm comfortable with Altium's IPC templates and batch editing features (you can pull up a copy pastable spreadsheet that allows you to quickly edit all shapes on a footprint without the UI), even the most complex parts take under a half hour. $29 is nothing for 20 min of work but depending on your workflow, waiting a day is unacceptable. I can rarely predict the kind of part swapping that will happen before PCB layout so footprints are the first step that has to happen in the first few days after schematic capture. Since the footprints are a blocking concern for part placement, I don't have much patience especially on a deadline since I can just draw all the parts myself while waiting for the first footprint to come in.
The other problem is that the vast majority of professional engineers check the footprints meticulously before fabrication even if they made the footprint for a previously successful project. It only takes a day or two and must be done regardless so it removes a lot of the added value InstaPart can provide.
Although most of this doesn't apply to the more hobbyist market, they generally aren't willing to pay $29 for anything let alone a single footprint.