The Admin – Part Providers page allows you to determine which part sources are enabled – the source(s) of supply chain data.

Custom Prices – set up a connection to a specific Supplier account to take advantage of any special pricing or offers available through that account. When this is configured and the Supplier enabled (see below), the custom pricing data will apply when that Supplier is used as a component pricing source – such as in a Managed BOM document. Click Configure Custom Prices for a Supplier to open the setup page, select a Supplier from the drop-down menu, enter your account credentials/passkey, test the connection, and then save to confirm the setup.

While signed in to your Workspace the Altium Parts Options section will simply be a read-only reflection of what has been centrally configured in that Workspace.

The actual supply chain intelligence – comprising Manufacturer (and part number), Supplier (and part number), Description, Pricing and Availability – is sourced from the Workspace's Part Catalog and the relevant part source.

Supplier link data sources for the Workspace are accessed through the Admin – Part Providers page of its browser interface.

Each Workspace has its own dedicated Part Catalog. This is a managed part catalog database, dedicated to the management and tracking of manufacturer parts and their associated supplier parts. The catalog is installed as a service (Part Catalog Service) provided through the Altium 365 platform and works only with the Workspace.

The Data Management – Parts Providers page of the Preferences dialog is command-central for configuring which Suppliers will be available when searching for parts data, along with other options relating to linking to Supplier data. When signed into a Workspace from Altium Designer, the Altium Parts Options region becomes read-only and adopts those settings defined for the Workspace (specifically, the Altium Parts Provider part source). Text will appear above the section to remind you of this. Refer back to the section Configuring the Altium Parts Provider for more information.

To configure the available suppliers for the Altium Parts Provider source, either click on its name or its associated edit control (). The detailed configuration page will be presented:

The Part Catalog stores items representative of actual Manufacturer Parts, along with one or more items representative of Supplier Parts – the incarnations of those Manufacturer Parts, as sold by the Suppliers/Vendors. Each Supplier Part is a reference to an item in a parts database – either the aggregate parts database of the Altium Parts Provider (which itself interfaces to, and gathers the parts from, enabled Suppliers), or a linked company parts database.

Which Suppliers are actually used – a list of Approved Suppliers – is managed by the Workspace, through the Admin – Part Providers page of its browser interface. This facilitates centralized supply chain management, with designers across the entire organization using the same approved list of Suppliers with which to source supply chain intelligence for parts used in their designs.