Greetings.  I'm in a small company, and am tasked with automating as
much of the component engineering effort as possible without hiring a
full-time components engineer.  We want to do it with the EE's providing
guidance, and Engineering Services providing gruntwork.  
 
I know there are tools available to create component databases which are
portable to schematic capture systems, etc., and to automate parts of
the BOM, CM, and component specification drawing creation processes.  We
evaluated Omniware (formerly Omnibom) from Trilogic and will probably be
placing an order for that when we acquire our Innoveda toolset shortly.
 
I know of some companies eager to sell pre-made databases if you wave
enough money, but even then, the challenge is keeping it current.  OTOH,
IHS seems to offer part of these services as well as automatic upkeep in
its Universal Parts Center which includes CapsXpert.  I saw CapsXpert
several years ago when the technology was several dozen CD's in platters
and tower, but not in its present genesis.  I will be obtaining a quote
for that.
 
However, I know of no tools specifically targeted to reduce the labor
of:
(1) creating component specifications, and 
(2) manual database entry of component searchable parameters.
 
Any IHS users out there?  Is the service worth the price?  Or can anyone
recommend a better source to get the job done?  I full well realize
there is no silver bullet, so I'm looking for the least labor-intensive
alternative.
 
Thanks,
 
Gary M. Koven, C.I.D.
Engineering Services Manager
Convacent Corporation
1043 E Morehead St, Suite 201
Charlotte, NC 28204
704.376.9300 phone
704.376.0988 fax
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 <http://www.convacent.com/> www.convacent.com