DesignSpark.com – Online community with 250,000 members WW

Provides online resources, electronics solutions & design support to electronics design engineers/professionals, academicians, students, hobbyists and electronics enthusiasts

Powered by RS Components (RS) - the world's leading high service distributor of electronics & maintenance products, DesignSpark community continues to rule the hearts of electronics design engineers by,

• Supporting them with trusted & reliable information and resources on latest electronics trends & technology
• Bringing together design information, user generated reviews, open source project sharing & collaboration
• Providing free-of-charge professional and powerful design tools to speed up design process

Developed in partnership with Fresh Networks, leader in social media development, DesignSpark community was launched in July 2010 and can be accessed online here. Its popularity can be judged from the fact that with just over three years of its launch it has attracted over 250,000+ Electronics Design Engineers WW, the number which is growing with every passing day. DesignSpark member’s pool is a good mix of electronics designers, students, academicians, electronics enthusiasts and hobbyists from across the globe. Such diversity provides great opportunity and ideal platform for knowledge sharing.

Here are some of the key offerings of the community

1. DesignSpark PCB – Powerful, Professional and Free Schematic & PCB design tool from RS. It is easy to use and easy to learn design tool with online video tutorials to get started and online technical support. RS technical team continually works on enhancing the features of the software and adding new functionalities to make it more user friendly (Six versions are released till date, DesignSpark PCB v6 is the latest). This award winning design tool has No licence limit, No restrictions on number of layers of PCB, number of schematic sheets, numbers of components/pins etc. It has components libraries of over 80,000 PCB and schematic components.
2. DesignSpark Mechanical - FREE and powerful 3D model design tool from RS which let electronic designers creates conceptual product designs before the 3D CAD design stage. It is especially designed for electronics engineers and packed with features like highly detailed dimensioned worksheets, inbuilt 3D library of parts with over 30,000 parts, gesture based modelling with intuitive user-interface (no need to be a CAD expert!), import from DesignSpark PCB. Over and above this there are lots of tutorials (video and text) available online to get started along with online forum for technical clarifications.
3. ModelSource – Online library of over 80,000 PCB & Schematic components and 2D & 3D CAD Models. These components are mapped with RS Stock numbers. If you are using components from ModelSource libraries in your designs you can generate a BOM with RS Stock numbers for your designs. This will simplify the process of ordering components from RS. Modelsource libraries are compliant with the IPC-7351 standard in all popular formats including PADS, OrCAD, Altium, CADSTAR and many others.
4. DesignShare is a collection of open source projects posted by DesignSpark members. If you have a project to share, want to collaborate with others on one, or just want to download, then login and start today.
5. Design Centre is technology hub of videos, blogs and technical information focused around industry trends and emerging technologies. You can access all information about latest electronics development platform, emerging technologies and new trends at one place. You can also be a part of the discussions, blogs that follow.
6. Blogs & Forums – DesignSpark Community offers blogs from DesignSpark members on latest electronics technologies, it is a great place for knowledge sharing. You may also choose to contribute a blog. Forums offer technical support on DesignSpark PCB, DesignSpark Mechanical, and General Discussion about Electronic Design, Microcontrollers, and Microprocessors etc.
7. Tools section lets you download a wide variety of tools to help you to develop your electronic projects. From schematic aids to circuit simulation and from software development tools to etch tools.
8. Product & Review – Visit this section to readreviews about latest electronics products. You can also write a product review, rate product and leave your comments.
9. DesignSpark Magazine & Newsletter - DesignSpark magazine is a quarterly magazine for electronics design engineers. Full of information about the latest technologies, software and tools and build yourself projects it is available to download for your pc, iPad, iPhone or Android tablet. Also you can sign-up for weekly e-newsletter to receive weekly update on what new is happening on the community.

DesignSpark with all its features, functionalities and offerings provide support to design engineers, students, academicians, electronics enthusiasts who are interested in electronics design and also those who are looking for right resources, information, and design tools to start their design. Not a member yet? Register Today!

About RS Components:

RS Components is the world's largest distributor of electronics and maintenance products serving 1.8 million customers worldwide. Through operations in 32 countries and 17 warehouses, the Group distributes 550,000 products ranging from semiconductors and optoelectronics to power tools and protective clothing.