Frequently Asked Questions

SnapEDA is an electronics design data company. Our current product is an online CAD library that provides PCB footprints and schematic symbols for millions of electronic components. Our goal is to provide comprehensive coverage for all electronic components, along with full interoperability with EDA tools and transparency into quality. Our technology exports to seven major design tools, including Cadence OrCAD/Allegro, Altium, Mentor PADS, Eagle, KiCad, & Pulsonix.

Going forward, SnapEDA plans to expand to other forms of design data. The same philosophy that we apply to our symbols & footprints will apply to these forms of data: interoperability with EDA tools and transparency into quality.

We believe that having free, ready-to-use design data should be a fundamental right for electronics designers. Having the basic building blocks needed to get started capturing or laying out a design can help designers focus on what they're best at -- design -- rather than reinventing the wheel creating CAD parts. This added productivity fuels innovation, and that's what we're passionate about at SnapEDA.

Our basic CAD library of individually downloadable PCB footprints and schematic symbols will always be free for this reason.

For professional designers who need productivity-enhancing features, we offer a Premium version. The Premium version provides 24-hour parts requests, private libraries of CAD parts that can be downloaded in bulk, and unlimited 3D STEP models for components. To compare plans, see our Pricing Page.

No. We consider ourselves an EDA data company and have no intentions of releasing any design software. We work collaboratively with existing EDA tools, rather than compete with them.

Yes, the license for individual CAD symbols and footprints allows you to use them in commercial manufactured designs without attribution or other license restrictions. See What is the license for symbols and footprints for the full legal text.

The license for individual CAD symbols and footprints allows you use them in commercial and non-commercial manufactured designs without attribution or other license restrictions (details below).

Individual CAD symbols and footprints on SnapEDA are licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA) with the Design Exception 1.0. This license allows designers to use CAD files downloaded from SnapEDA for commercial and personal use free of charge, and make derivative works. If CAD files, or derivatives thereof, are shared publicly, attribution must be given to the source (SnapEDA and the original author, as applicable), as outlined by the requirements of the license.

Use of the SnapEDA website is governed by the Web Site Terms and Conditions of Use.

In short, you cannot use the SnapEDA website for the purpose of sharing the content on the Internet or within an EDA tool, but otherwise you are free to use the files for designs.

The Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA) normally applies to derivative works containing CAD symbols and footprints from SnapEDA, including designs, design files and manufactured boards. However, we decided that you should be able to use CAD symbols and footprints to design and produce any printed circuit board, regardless of the license. Therefore, the license for CAD symbols and footprints contains the following Design Exclusion 1.0:

You have permission to propagate a work of a design, design file(s) and/or manufactured board(s) formed by combining CAD symbols and footprints provided by SnapEDA, even if such propagation would otherwise violate the terms of CC BY-SA. You may then convey such a combination under terms of your choice.

If the CAD part you need is not yet available on SnapEDA, you can request it. With the Basic plan, you can request one free part per month, however we cannot guarantee delivery time. With the Premium version, we guarantee delivery before by the next business day.

As a designer, it always necessary to verify symbol-to-footprint mappings and footprint dimensions before taking your boards to production.

Additionally, SnapEDA is innovating in this space by providing unprecedented transparency into the quality of CAD parts, helping designers catch errors before they happen. One example of this is the SnapEDA Checker. The checker runs algorithms through each CAD file to check for common manufacturing issues.

The checker runs through DFM rules, such as silkscreen clearance, solder mask/paste sizes, zero component orientation, and naming. The check also does unique full-data analysis to identify possible errors.

Additionally, users can also approve or disapprove CAD parts to provide a feedback loop to other designers.

SnapEDA provides only a starting point, but it should always be verified. We do, however, offer a verification system that allows engineers to vouch for parts, or flag issues they see. This is a feedback loop for any issues you may find in the CAD library, however while it serves as a general frame of reference, CAD data must always be verified before sending a design to manufacturing.

1) SnapEDA creates CAD data internally using a combination of automation algorithms and manual creation (the goal is to get to as full automation as possible)

2) SnapEDA is beginning to work more closely with semiconductor manufacturers to make their design content accessible on SnapEDA

All footprints created by SnapEDA conform to IPC standards, and all symbols follow a combination of ANSI IEC and our own internal symbol standards. As time goes on, we plan to incorporate more global standards and allow engineers to dynamically modify the CAD data to meet the standards in their particular geographic region or company.

SnapEDA exports to OrCAD/Allegro, Altium, Eagle, KiCad, PADS and Pulsonix for symbols and footprints. There may be corner cases however where export is more limited for the time being.

Follow these steps to import into Cadence Allegro:

Extract files to your padstack path

1. Extract the contents of the downloaded ZIP archive file to a temporary location.
2. In Allegro, select Setup > User Preferences...
3. In the Categories box, select Paths > Library.
4. In the Category : Library box, click ... after padpath.
5. The padpath Items window shows where you should place copy the downloaded ZIP archive file contents. SnapEDA recommends that you create a new path to store padstacks from SnapEDA, one path per download.
6. Restart Allegro upon making changes to the padpath settings.

Import padstacks

1. Repeat the following for each of the Pad Designer script files (*_pad.scr) contained within the ZIP archive file:
   1. From the Windows Start Menu, navigate to the Cadence application folder, then select PCB Editor Utilities > Pad Designer...
   2. In the Pad Designer window, select File > Script...
   3. In the Scripting window, click Browse...
   4. In the file browser window, change "File of Type" to "Script Files" (*.scr).
   5. Select a script file ending in "_pad.scr", then click Open.
   6. In the Scripting window, click Replay.

Import package

1. In Allegro, select File > Script...
2. In the Scripting window, click Browse...
3. Select the script file ending in "_pkg.scr" for the part downloaded from SnapEDA, then click Open.
4. In the Scripting window, click Replay.

Automatically import

The ZIP archive file downloaded from SnapEDA contains a Windows batch file, with a BAT file extension, which automates the import of all padstack and the package into Allegro. Follow these steps to import automatically:

1. Follow steps Extract files to your padstack path above.
2. In Windows Explorer, double click the Windows batch file named: allegro-builder.bat.

Note: Some version of Allegro will repeatedly ask to import the padstack. If this happens, click the X button to close the Command Window.

Follow these steps to import into OrCAD Capture:

1. Select File > Import Design.
2. Select the EDIF tab.
3. For the Open field, click the Browse... button, then select the EDF file you downloaded.
4. For the Configuration file field, click the Browse... button, then select the 'EDIF2CAP.CGF' included with your OrCAD Capture installation folder. The file is typically located at ORCAD_INSTALL_PATH\tools\capture\EDI2CAP.CFG where ORCAD_INSTALL_PATH is the path to your OrCAD installation.
5. Click OK.

Follow these steps to import into Altium:

1. Select File > Import Wizard.
2. Select PCAD library from the list and click Next.
3. Click Next again to skip importing a design.
4. The next dialog will be to import a PCAD library. Add the file downloaded from SnapEDA and follow the rest of the prompts.

Follow these steps to import into Eagle:

1. Simply double-click the library file downloaded from SnapEDA.

After unzipping the zip file, follow the instructions below:

KiCad 4

1. Rename the generated files (.lib & .mod) to "Common Part Library"
2. Open Eeschema
3. Select “Preferences” > "Component Libraries"
4. In the "Component library files" section, click “Add"
5. Select the ".lib" library file
6. Open PcbNew
7. Click “Preferences” > "Footprint Libraries Wizard"
8. Follow the steps in the wizard to select and import the footprint library

Older Versions of KiCad

Import Symbols

1. Launch Eeschema.
2. Select Preferences > Library.
3. In the from... window, in the User Defined Search Path area, click Add.
4. In the Default Path for Libraries windows, navigate to the location where your previously extracted the ZIP contents, then click Select Folder.
5. In the Path type window, click No (unless you use project-specific libraries).
6. In the from... window, in the Component Library Files area, click Add.
7. In the Library files: window, select the LIB file, then click Open. The symbol now shows in the Component Library Files list.
8. In the from... window, click OK.

Import Footprints

1. Launch Pcbnew.
2. Select Preferences > Library.
3. In the from... window, in the User defined search paths area, click Add.
4. In the Default Path for Libraries windows, navigate to the location where your previously extracted the ZIP contents, then click Select Folder.
5. In the Path type window, click No (unless you use project-specific libraries).
6. In the from... window, in the Component Library Files area, click Add.
7. In the Footprint library files window, select the MOD file, then click Open. The footprint now shows in the Footprint library files list.
8. In the from... window, click OK.

Follow these steps to import into Pulsonix:

Extract files to your preferred path

1. Open the ZIP file and extract the contents
2. In Pulsonix, go to Setup > Libraries

To import the symbol

1. Click on the Schematic Symbols tab
2. Create a new library by clicking on New Library...
3. Browse to your preferred folder and save the new library
4. Click on Import and browse to the folder where you extracted the contents from the zip file
5. Select the .plx file

To import the footprint

1. Click on the PCB Footprints tab
2. Create a new library by clicking on New Library...
3. Browse to your preferred folder and save the new library
4. Click on Import and browse to the folder where you extracted the contents from the zip file
5. Select the .plx file and click Open
6. Check the box User Layer Mapping and click OK
7. On the new window, check Use Mapping File and browse to the folder where you extracted the contents from the zip file
8. Open layer_mapping.map and click OK

To import the part

1. Click on the Parts tab
2. Create a new library by clicking on New Library...
3. Browse to your preferred folder and save the new library
4. Click on Import and browse to the folder where you extracted the contents from the zip file
5. Select the .plx file
6. Set technology to [None]

Extract files to your preferred path

1. Open the ZIP file and extract the contents
2. Start PADS Layout
3. Select File > Library
4. Browse to your preferred library from the drop-down menu, or create a new library if you wish

To import symbol

1. Select the CAE Decals option
2. Click Import...
and browse to the extracted folder and select the .c library file

To import footprint

1. Select the PCB Decals option
2. Click Import...
and browse to the extracted folder and select the .d library file

To import part

1. Select the Part Types option
2. Click Import...
and browse to the extracted folder and select the .p library file

Currently SnapEDA can mass import symbols and footprints from Eagle files. We plan to expand the functionality of our import tools based on demand. Please contact us if there's a software tool you'd like to see supported.

Yes! We have two APIs available depending on how you intend to use the data. Please contact us to learn more.

Please use the Feedback button at the bottom of the page, or email us at [email protected]

Please email [email protected] for any further inquiries.