Circuit Studio Dead? (again!)

[jmarkwolf]

Before I bit for CS a few weeks ago, I asked some questions about CM Pro, Altium source will not be divulged here.  It is supposedly at level 3 Beta.

It's been at Beta 3 according to what Jim Harrington told me in mid-December.

Glad I didn't wait to pony up for AD. I am curious what CS Pro will look like however.

[Bassman59]

Usability of Kicad GUI is very questionable.

Except a lot of engineers are able to, you know, design complex boards in Kicad. The GUI could be better, it has been a lot worse, but to call it "questionable" means you haven't bothered to spend any time learning how to actually use the software.

[2N3055]

Usability of Kicad GUI is very questionable.

Except a lot of engineers are able to, you know, design complex boards in Kicad. The GUI could be better, it has been a lot worse, but to call it "questionable" means you haven't bothered to spend any time learning how to actually use the software.

You can make toothpicks with an axe.. It's just very weird and cumbersome. Same as Kicad. As I said, I'm, waiting for 6.0 to come out, that one should have many of my major complaints fixed so we will see.
I'm sure by the version 7.0 Kicad will be very serious software. At this moment it's not. Yet.
And yes, I'm old enough that I was making my films with Letraset by hand. That also could and was done. Compared to that Kicad is fantastic. Compared to most of the pro tools of today, it's not. It's great at some things and (still) completely amateur hour in some places. But as I said, it is galloping forward and it's better every day. I'm sure I'l start using in next few versions.. Maybe even v 6.

[kaz911]

Celebration time!!!

It is now been 1 whole year!!! since Altium officially announced Circuit Make Pro - and without delivering anything! 

https://resources.altium.com/p/coming-soon-altium-circuitmaker-pror

Altium CircuitMaker Pro is currently in Beta testing. After the Beta cycle is complete, the program will be released for commercial sale.

So lets get the dancing shoes out - have a "barbie" on the beach and enjoy another year with no real Altium Circuit Maker/Studio updates.

 

[H.O]

Any news on the CS Pro or whatever?
It's been what? 2 years now?

Anyway....
I got an email from my "Personal Altium Contact" who asked if there was anything he could do for me (sell me stuff - obviously). I explained to him my difficulties in renewing my CS license, that the option to do it from within the app doesn't exist for me and that Farnell refuses to accept my order due me not being/having a registered company.

Low and behold - he promptly forwarded my email to another bloke who promptly came back to me with the solution: "Please contact Farnell, our global partner, to renew your CircuitStudio Licence". 

Who are these people?

[johnboxall]

Any news on the CS Pro or whatever?
It's been what? 2 years now?

Anyway....
I got an email from my "Personal Altium Contact" who asked if there was anything he could do for me (sell me stuff - obviously). I explained to him my difficulties in renewing my CS license, that the option to do it from within the app doesn't exist for me and that Farnell refuses to accept my order due me not being/having a registered company.

Low and behold - he promptly forwarded my email to another bloke who promptly came back to me with the solution: "Please contact Farnell, our global partner, to renew your CircuitStudio Licence". 

Who are these people?

Idiots. Do you have any government consumer affairs body you can contact? You've legitimately purchased a product and now you're required to pay to keep using it, but they're barring you from doing so. In Australia we have  "consumer affairs" that can intervene and get a resolution. Perhaps you do too over there?

[H.O]

It's not worth my time or effort trying to FORCE them into anything, I'm not THAT invested OR interested in it. I just took a chance now that THEY asked ME if there was anything they could do for me.

To be fair, I don't need to pay to keep using the version I HAVE payed for. What I can't buy is the right to updates - which there hasn't been any for years so it's all for the best to be honest. It's been something like 2 years since they hinted about the CM Pro update but it all looks like vapourware.

[negativ3]

I noticed when trying to install Solidworks on a machine running Circuit Studio that the SW installer asked for DXP.exe to be closed.

Delays in CMP and complete lack of comms/updates may be related to the SW partnership as it seems the executable (DXP.exe) is their integrated(ish) PCB design and visualisation tool.

It's a fiasco held in a roaring silence.

[Smokey]

Need to recommend a PCB design software package to a friend.  The concept of CircuitStudio is sort of in the sweet spot for what they are looking to do.  Shame Altium didn't maintain it.
Altium is still advertising circuitstudio with no mention of "CircuitMaker Pro" on their site.
Docs page still lists last version as "CIRCUITSTUDIO 1.5 Released:  24 May 2018 - Version: 1.5.1 (build 13) ": http://documentation.circuitstudio.com/display/CSTU/New+in+CircuitStudio

Anyone know anything new about this?

[voltsandjolts]

I used CircuitStudio 1.5 commercially for a few years. It had some annoyances and missing features (find similar objects) but it got the job done. Would I recommend spending money on it today? No. Altium is totally focused on Designer and locking those customers in with the Altium cloud offerings. They don't give a damn about CS customers and have abandoned them. Farnell Element14 will have some responsibility in that also.

They only possible scenario where I could recommend CS is for someone who wants to land a job at an Altium desk but doesn't yet have AD experience or the money to purchase it. It might be useful in that case because the workflow is similar.

Otherwise I'd recommend KiCAD 6 (free) or DipTrace (low cost, not subscription).

[Joel_l]

I gave up on Altium, what they do is worse than just lack of support. They put out fake news about updates to generate some cash then disappear again without having delivered anything.

I left CS and went to DipTrace.

[negativ3]

So... my subscription to their almighty content vault has expired and won't be getting renewed. A truly awesome example of how not to release and support any software, nor how to gain customers or loyalty.

Diptrace gets my vote after spending an hour with it, having gerbers which passed the manufacturing test and finding features which don't bug me!

£130 doesn't seem bad for 4-layer, 1000 pin, non commercial.

[johnboxall]

Diptrace gets my vote after spending an hour with it

Yeah it's pretty good and I found it very easy to get up to speed with it. The support team are quite responsive on their forum as well. Plus they're in Ukraine, so money their way is good too.

[Smokey]

Diptrace gets my vote after spending an hour with it

Yeah it's pretty good and I found it very easy to get up to speed with it. The support team are quite responsive on their forum as well. Plus they're in Ukraine, so money their way is good too.

hah.  and here I am concerned about the unpredictability of Chinese suppliers..

[EEVblog]

Need to recommend a PCB design software package to a friend.  The concept of CircuitStudio is sort of in the sweet spot for what they are looking to do.  Shame Altium didn't maintain it.
Altium is still advertising circuitstudio with no mention of "CircuitMaker Pro" on their site.
Docs page still lists last version as "CIRCUITSTUDIO 1.5 Released:  24 May 2018 - Version: 1.5.1 (build 13) ": http://documentation.circuitstudio.com/display/CSTU/New+in+CircuitStudio

Anyone know anything new about this?

Surely he's dead Jim?

[Smokey]

Need to recommend a PCB design software package to a friend.  The concept of CircuitStudio is sort of in the sweet spot for what they are looking to do.  Shame Altium didn't maintain it.
Altium is still advertising circuitstudio with no mention of "CircuitMaker Pro" on their site.
Docs page still lists last version as "CIRCUITSTUDIO 1.5 Released:  24 May 2018 - Version: 1.5.1 (build 13) ": http://documentation.circuitstudio.com/display/CSTU/New+in+CircuitStudio

Anyone know anything new about this?

Surely he's dead Jim?

I'm an engineer, not a doctor!

[voltsandjolts]

Need to recommend a PCB design software package to a friend.  The concept of CircuitStudio is sort of in the sweet spot for what they are looking to do.  Shame Altium didn't maintain it.
Altium is still advertising circuitstudio with no mention of "CircuitMaker Pro" on their site.
Docs page still lists last version as "CIRCUITSTUDIO 1.5 Released:  24 May 2018 - Version: 1.5.1 (build 13) ": http://documentation.circuitstudio.com/display/CSTU/New+in+CircuitStudio

Anyone know anything new about this?

Surely he's dead Jim?

Perhaps Dave can use connections at Altium to ask WTF is going on with CS.

[Dubbie]

Some of us know what is going on due to being on the beta, but can't post publicly about it.

[voltsandjolts]

I'm so glad I turned down the opportunity of being part of this beta shit-show....which started two years ago was it!?

[EE-digger]

Diptrace does not compare to CS as a pro tool.  But sounds like they are still around.

[IanJ]

I was on the CS/CMPro beta for a couple of years......I came off it a few months ago after I got fed up. I gave Altium a closing report when I left.
I switched to KiCad when V6 came out. I haven't looked back.

Ian.

[bestel]

I was on the CS/CMPro beta for a couple of years......I came off it a few months ago after I got fed up. I gave Altium a closing report when I left.
I switched to KiCad when V6 came out. I haven't looked back.

Ian.

I was looking for an upgrade to gain post-routing signal integrity with Altium/Orcad Pro/eCadStar, but it's *really* expensive.
May I should switch on Kicad/Qucs/LTSpice/... and spend the money on hardware?

Because AFAIK Eagle/AltiumCS/AltiumCM offer nothing more than Kicad?

[nctnico]

I was on the CS/CMPro beta for a couple of years......I came off it a few months ago after I got fed up. I gave Altium a closing report when I left.
I switched to KiCad when V6 came out. I haven't looked back.

Ian.

I was looking for an upgrade to gain post-routing signal integrity with Altium/Orcad Pro/eCadStar, but it's *really* expensive.
May I should switch on Kicad/Qucs/LTSpice/... and spend the money on hardware?

Because AFAIK Eagle/AltiumCS/AltiumCM offer nothing more than Kicad?

That depends on how much you need signal integrity simulation. At this moment Kicad doesn't match up to Altium or Orcad for more complex boards (FPGA / SoC) if you value your time / want to work efficiently.

[bestel]

Actually, I have no problem applying good practices, but having some simulations will be clearly better (I'm a pro, but I only do 3 board or so per years).

Maybe I should just take some times on my "free time" to help the community to develop this kind of functionnalities... 

[tooki]

Usability of Kicad GUI is very questionable.

Except a lot of engineers are able to, you know, design complex boards in Kicad. The GUI could be better, it has been a lot worse, but to call it "questionable" means you haven't bothered to spend any time learning how to actually use the software.

”Usability” means “ease of use”, no less, no more. A tool with low usability can still produce top-notch results, because effectiveness is a separate thing from usability.

And yes, like basically every major open-source desktop app, KiCad’s usability is not great. The FOSS model plain and simply does not lend itself towards high usability (because that requires consistency and adherence to rules, which really is antithetical to the FOSS model).

Source: I used to be a usability designer for software and web stuff.