About this site
A diagram explaining how to read a part number deserved a tool of its own. That is the whole reason this exists.
Why it was built
The diagram you see on product pages and in catalogs — leader lines running out from a part number, saying "these three characters are the series", "these two are the mounting type" — is usually drawn one line at a time in illustration software. Add a character and the lines get redrawn. Add a line of explanation and you go back to untangle what now overlaps.
All it is really doing is mapping ranges of characters to meanings, so the line positions ought to be calculable. That was the starting point. Here you select a range and write what it means, and the leader lines, the split between left and right, and the wrapping all follow from that. Add a character, add three more options — rearranging it is the tool's job.
What it deliberately does not do
- It does not generate or interpret part numbers. Only the people who made a part number know what it encodes, and guessing is how errors get in
- There are no accounts and no cloud storage. A part number you type may belong to a product that has not been announced. A design that never sends it has no route for it to leak
- It will not become a general drawing tool. Software for drawing arbitrary lines already exists
Who makes it
One person, under the pen name mukuro696. This is not run as a company. The core of the code is published on GitHub (what is and is not in it).
What comes next
More examples and more written guidance, and whatever people who actually use it point out. Requests and bugs are welcome — see Contact.