A couple of years back we launched Common Parts Library Part Numbers, and today we’re introducing CPL Part Numbers in Octopart search and the BOM tool. CPL Part Numbers are a sequence of alphanumeric characters that help in identifying generic parts such as a 10kΩ resistor or a 12MHz crystal oscillator. They speed up the process of finding parts as they are easy to use and reduce the time of finding exact MPNs over and over again.

Let’s take an example. If you don’t know the exact MPN for a 1nF capacitor with 0603 package, you can look for it via the CPL Part Number CPL-CAP-C0G-0603-1NF-50V, which includes information about the part type (CAP), dielectric type (C0G), package size (0603), value (1nF) and voltage rating (50V). Associated with this CPL Part Number are two exact MPNs: Yageo’s CC0603KRX7R9BB102 and Murata’s GRM1885C1H102JA01D.

CPL part numbers have been available in the Common Parts Library, and the great news is that they’re now available in the BOM Tool and part search as well! There are a few reasons how this can help you in your workflow:

1. Find generic parts in the BOM Tool:

When you are using the BOM tool and want to quickly add a 1nF capacitor to your BOM, but you have no preference for any particular MPN, you can search for  CPL-CAP-C0G-0603-1NF-50V. This will display MPNs that are associated with that CPL Part Number and shown under “Multiple matches found” as shown below:

Access generic parts such as 1nF cap in the BOM tool

Try it out yourself! Click on this BOM for activity tracker and see how CPL Part Numbers have been integrated into the BOM tool.

2. Link to Octopart search results for generic parts:

Let’s say you are writing project documentation and want to mention a generic 1nF capacitor for your circuit. You could search CPL-CAP-C0G-0603-1NF-50V on Octopart and link to the result page, which has a couple of MPNs from Yageo and Murata. This is more concise than linking to a general page listing several hundred 0603 1nF capacitors.

Here is the Octopart search results after searching for CPL-CAP-C0G-0603-1NF-50V:

Access generic parts such as 1nF cap on the Search Results page

3. Find other similar generic parts from same part family:

If you want to add a 4.7nF capacitor in the BOM tool or in your documentation, you can change the capacitance value in the CPL Part Number to 4.7nF and use this part number CPL-CAP-X7R-0603-4.7NF-50V and get the new MPNs from in the same part family as 1nF.

Having understood the benefits of the CPL Part Numbers, let’s take a look on how to actually access and find these numbers. There are two main ways to find the CPL Part Numbers as listed below:

a) The first is the CPL page, where the CPL part numbers appear below every part description:

CPL Part Numbers from CPL Page

b) The second way to get CPL Part Numbers is via our CPL Github page, where you can parse CPL data in YAML format.

CPL Part Numbers from YAML format available in Github