Integrations · Bring everything you have
Library Import
One wizard for everywhere a parts library has ever lived: zips of SchLibs and PcbLibs, SQLite, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, Excel sheets, CSV archives, even a release URL. Preview what's inside, map the columns, decide what counts as a duplicate, then commit.
SidebandSources · files
Drop a zip and the importer finds the libraries
Hand it an archive and it walks it recursively, extracting every .SchLib and .PcbLib and skipping the datasheet PDFs and project files that travel with them. A single library file works too, and so does a URL, so a GitHub release or any direct HTTP link imports without a download step.
Reading vendor-libs.zip
- Symbols/Resistors.SchLib 184 symbols
- Symbols/Interface.SchLib 212 symbols
- Footprints/SOIC.PcbLib 96 footprints
- - docs/datasheets.pdf skipped
- - Demo/Demo.PrjPcb skipped
- nested/Connectors.zip extracted, 1 PcbLib
Also accepts a single .SchLib or .PcbLib, or a URL, fetched directly.
Sources · databases
Your parts database, wherever it lives
Connect PostgreSQL or MSSQL with host, port and credentials, or hand it a file: a SQLite database, an Excel workbook, a CSV archive. Table discovery filters out the plumbing (pg_*, sqlite_*, django_*, sysdiagrams) and pre-selects the tables that hold rows, so the wizard opens straight on your parts.
postgres://erp-parts · discovering tables
- components 12,408 rows
- manufacturers 412 rows
- legacy_tmp 0 rows
- pg_stat_statements system
- django_migrations system
System tables filtered out, non-empty tables pre-selected.
Preview
Every symbol parsed before anything is written
Preview streams as it parses: up to four workers read libraries at once, results arriving in 500-item batches over a live connection. Each symbol comes back with its name, description, pin count, designator prefix, parameters and footprint references, plus a rendered SVG (one per part, for multi-part symbols). The previews below are the app's own renderer.
Preview · footprints
Land patterns, sized up at a glance
Every footprint arrives with its pad count, its mount type (SMD or through-hole), its height, and whether a 3D body came along. Enough to judge a land pattern before it enters the library, layer by layer.
Layers
6Field mapping
Your columns become real fields
Source columns and parameters map onto component fields: description, comment, value. Group the column that holds a part number with the one naming the manufacturer and they become proper MPNs. Pair a URL column with its description column and each distinct description becomes its own attachment type, datasheets one kind, drawings another.
- Parameter types renamed, skipped, or created on the spot
- MPN groups: part-number column + manufacturer column
- Paired URL + description columns become typed attachments
Field mapping
- Description → description field
- Part Number · Mfg → MPN + manufacturer MPN group
- Datasheet · Doc Name → attachment URL + description
- Tolerance → parameter created
- Internal ID → (none) skipped
Deduplication
You decide what a duplicate means
Matchers compose: symbol name, footprint name, MPN plus manufacturer, or any parameter. An "LCSC Part" column makes a fine fingerprint. Each match resolves the way you choose: skip it, overwrite the existing record, or import as new. Ten years of copied libraries fold into one.
Deduplication
- GRM155R71C104KA88D MPN + manufacturer skip
- RES_0402 symbol name overwrite
- C25804 "LCSC Part" skip
- SN74LVC1G17DBVR no match import new
3D models
STEP bodies come along
When a PcbLib carries embedded STEP models, the importer tessellates them with OCCT and attaches them to their footprints, so the mechanical side of the part arrives with the electrical one. The viewer below is the app's own.
Commit
Byte-identical on the way back out
Commit materialises the preview in streamed batches, and keeps the original SchLib and PcbLib binaries alongside the extracted data. When Altium asks for a library back, it gets the exact bytes that went in.
Wizard sessions stay alive for six hours with a heartbeat, so step away mid-import and pick up where you left off.
Explore related features
Put every part on one data model
Download Sideband for Windows and give your whole team one source of truth. Free 30-day trial — no card required.
Stable · Windows · free
Library Import
— signal not yet locked —
We're still tuning this one in. Drop a reaction to boost the signal — the pages you react to most are the ones we finish first.
…or kill time while you wait:
Phasor toy
3.00 : 2.00 · locked