Motivations / Inspirations

Sourcing parts from JLCPCB can be a bit of a pain when you don't have the footprint, the symbol, or the model.

If you're a user of KiCAD you're in luck as there's a nice project easyeda2kicad.py which will offline convert and pull models for you, and there's another script which integrates this script into KiCAD.

If you're an Altium user, you're stuck either running this script and importing via KiCAD import, or exporting the Altium files from EasyEDA and copying them manually into a footprint.

I used easyeda2kicad as a reference for this project as well as AtliumLibraryLoader script for reference on Altium APIs to manipulate adding parts to libraries

Usage

Using the extension is pretty straight forward once it is installed, there will be a new Menu option EasyEDA Loader while a SchDoc is active, this will open a Modal Dialog which prompts the LCSC Part number e.g. "C2040". Tick which part you want to add after searching and press Add to Library

Hitting OK will automatically create EasyEDA.pcblib and EasyEDA.schlib if they don't already exist in Documents/AltiumEE, create the footprint, download the 3d model, create the symbol, add part info, map the footprint to the symbol, then place the component into the active schematic at the bottom left.

Comparisons

Left EasyEDA, Right Altium after import

Symbol

Footprint

3D Model

Part Info

Building

You shouldn't need anything special to build, just .NET 4.8, Language v8.0, and probably assembly references to Altium's internal libraries.

The following Assembly references were made and can be found in

C:\Program Files\Altium\AD24\System
C:\Program Files\Altium\AD24\System\DotNet\DevExpress.Wpf

Altium.Controls
Altium.Controls.Skins
Altium.SDK
Altium.SDK.Interfaces
DevExpress.Data.v22.1
DevExpress.Mvvm.v22.1
DevExpress.Printing.v22.1.Core
DevExpress.Utils.v22.1
DevExpress.Xpf.Core.v22.1
DevExpress.Xpf.Grid.v22.1.Core
DevExpress.Xpf.Grid.v22.1

Standalone

The standalone version is a simple WPF app that draws the primitives to a Canvas and was mainly used to validate without having to repeatedly re-launch Altium. Unfortunately doesn't load the step file, but will load the raw obj model, you can also use it to manually save the step or obj.

Installation

There are two ways to install EasyEDA-Loader.

Option 1: Install from a Release Archive (Recommended)

Download the latest release archive from the Releases page. The archive contains a ready-to-deploy dist\ folder alongside Deploy.ps1.

1. Extract the archive to any location.
2. Open a PowerShell terminal in that directory.
3. Run the deploy script:

.\Deploy.ps1

The script will:

• Automatically discover your Altium Designer installation (no hardcoded GUIDs).
• Copy plugin files into the correct Extensions\EasyEDA-Loader folder.
• Register the extension in ExtensionsRegistry.xml.
• Prompt if Altium Designer is currently running (use -Force to skip the prompt).

.\Deploy.ps1 -Force      # Deploy even if Altium is running
.\Deploy.ps1 -SkipRegistry  # Copy files only, skip registry update

Option 2: Build & Deploy from Source

If you have the source code, use the build script suite to build, package, and deploy in one step.

Script Overview

Script	Description
_Shared.ps1	Shared helper functions (dot-sourced by other scripts, do not run directly)
Build.ps1	Builds the plugin (via MSBuild) and optionally the Standalone app (via dotnet)
Package.ps1	Stages built artifacts into dist\, excluding Altium SDK and DevExpress DLLs (provided at runtime)
Deploy.ps1	Copies dist\ into the Altium Extensions folder and registers in ExtensionsRegistry.xml
All.ps1	Orchestrates Build, Package, and Deploy in sequence

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2022 or later with MSBuild (for plugin build)
• .NET SDK 6.0+ (for Standalone build, if using -IncludeStandalone)
• Altium Designer 24 installed on the target machine
• PowerShell 5.1+ (run as Administrator when deploying)

Quick Start

cd path\to\EasyEDALoader

# Build, package, and deploy in one command:
.\All.ps1

# Debug build:
.\All.ps1 -Configuration Debug

# Deploy even if Altium Designer is currently running:
.\All.ps1 -Force

# Also build the Standalone viewer app:
.\All.ps1 -IncludeStandalone

Running Steps Individually

# Step 1: Build the plugin (and optionally Standalone)
.\Build.ps1
.\Build.ps1 -Configuration Debug
.\Build.ps1 -IncludeStandalone

# Step 2: Stage files into dist\
.\Package.ps1
.\Package.ps1 -IncludeStandalone

# Step 3: Deploy into Altium Designer
.\Deploy.ps1
.\Deploy.ps1 -Force
.\Deploy.ps1 -SkipRegistry

DLL Bundling Strategy

The build scripts follow the same deployment pattern as the AltiumMCP extension. Only third-party and polyfill DLLs that Altium Designer does not ship are bundled alongside the plugin:

Bundled with the plugin:

DLL	Purpose
EasyEDA-Loader.dll	The plugin
EasyEDA-Loader.Ins	Server manifest
EasyEDA-Loader.rcs	Menu resources
EasyEDA-Loader.dll.config	Assembly binding redirects
Microsoft.Bcl.AsyncInterfaces.dll	Async/await polyfill
Newtonsoft.Json.dll	JSON serialization
System.Buffers.dll	Span<T> / Memory<T>
System.IO.Pipelines.dll	Stream pipe processing
System.Memory.dll	Memory<T> support
System.Numerics.Vectors.dll	SIMD Vector<T>
System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Unsafe.dll	Unsafe ref operations
System.Threading.Tasks.Extensions.dll	ValueTask support
System.ValueTuple.dll	ValueTuple support

NOT bundled (provided by Altium Designer at runtime): Altium.SDK.dll, Altium.SDK.Interfaces.dll, Altium.Controls.dll, Altium.Controls.Skins.dll, and all DevExpress.*.dll (v22.1).

Known Issues

The 3D model is not places quite right, something is still different from the reported translation and the actual. See EeFootprint3dModel for more information and how and where it retrieves model info from.