Training

[Pack34]

I'm looking at picking up the Altium Designer evaluation on their website and attempt to train myself. I've been noticing on job boards that Altium can be a hard requirement and recruiters would not pass my resume along if I didn't have it.

Now, I know this has been asked before (I've searched), I just want to be sure to have my "ducks in a row" before I download the evaluation. It has a 30 day timer on it and I need to be sure that I can get as comfortable as possible with it before the trial expires. I know that I won't be able to be professionally proficient in the software but at least I'll be able to include it in my C.V. and be able to find my way around in it.

Now, for training I've found
YouTube videos (there seems to be a plethora, would appreciate it if anyone has suggestions on a channel)
FEDEVEL Academy http://www.fedevel.com/academy/pricing/
Quickstart Videos by Altium https://altiumvideos.live.altium.com/

On the video front on YouTube. I'm seeing a lot of videos for versions 9 and 10. Has anything dramatically changed in the newest version that will make the tutorials useless?

[tszaboo]

Altium has a very shallow learning curve. If you are not an experienced PCB designer, even so. There are so many sub menus, tools, functions hidden that is hard to count. The amount of work which can be done in the menus, lists... I find new ways of doing the same work faster after years of working with it.
But maybe you can grab the free tool when it is out (supposedly in a week).

[Pack34]

Altium has a very shallow learning curve. If you are not an experienced PCB designer, even so. There are so many sub menus, tools, functions hidden that is hard to count. The amount of work which can be done in the menus, lists... I find new ways of doing the same work faster after years of working with it.
But maybe you can grab the free tool when it is out (supposedly in a week).

I know I won't be able to get experienced with it in a month but I'm professionally proficient designing electronics in other programs (six years). I need to get Altium Designer on my resume (not circuit maker or studio). What I intend to do is to get comfortable creating projects and probably recreate some of my older higher density designs to get a hang of the workflow. If I know how the software works then if I get a job that requires it I'll be able to just put in extra hours at the beginning to get proficient in it but also be able to be somewhat productive on day 1. Not six to ten years productive but I won't necessarily be stumbling in menus trying to create a project.

[Someone]

The CAD style hierarchical keyboard shortcuts you can pick up as you learn on the job, what you really need to know is how to use the rules as they flow down into the routing and plane creation. Positive vs negative planes, layer stackup, differential annotation/routing, all these are quick enough to pick up but the rules are quite obscure and hard to learn.

[T3sl4co1l]

New stuff is mostly additions rather than new ways of doing things; and I don't think any of the old ways have actually been discarded (which I would say is to their detriment, especially in terms of moldy old code; but alas..).

I picked it up pretty well in a month or two, which is about how much time you'll spend with anything, getting used to it.  Directed lessons could prove more productive than pissing around (I, too, have been using it for years, and am still finding new ways of doing things), but in the grand scheme of productivity, if you're simply good at it and committed to excellence, I don't think you'll have any problems.  (My assertion on that is: I've seen others working before, and they are *slow*.  But they're still considered valuable enough by management to do the work.  So if you're going slow getting used to it, you're probably at least keeping up with the average user.  An expert is probably two or three times more productive than average, so remember that added value, too.)

Tim

[DerekG]

AD is the most use software in Chinese universities
I learned to use it (cracked Protel 99SE) since 11, and moved to AD (cracked 6.9) in university. Now, I'm using AD15 to get most of my things done

I note you are also in China, so you would probably be a good source for what's happening in that part of the world.

Altium moved their head office to China in ~2009 ................. it's nice to see that that their move to the east backfired on them bigtime!

[Zman]

I would say that one month trial is enough for people who have solid experience with other CADs and wanting to switch, just to compare and see how it goes with another system.

Starting to work on your first PCB in AD without any previous experience can be challenging. I've seen newbies trying to work in AD, with very poor results... If you are persistent and hard working type, you can get some results, even a working project... however, this will NOT be enough to get hired and start working on some commercial product, IMHO...

p.s. I have been using AD since 2004.