Circuit Studio Dead? (again!)

[Warhawk]

I am still unclear whether I should get Circuit Studio. It is selling at Newark for $495. (version 1.5 I think)
I have several years experience with Protel and Altium.
Or should I go with Diptrace?

Do it, 495$ is literally nothing for a software nowadays. I've done amassing designs with it. You can also always have the door open to the full Altium if you start making more money.

I am not sure why you're replying to this question more than two years later.
Circuit Studio was promising. Now it is dead. Meanwhile, Kicad features and usability skyrocketed. There's no reason to burn money on this junk.

[tooki]

KiCad still has a long way to go. At least coming from Altium, so many really basic things are missing, never mind the gazillion little things that make everyday use much easier.

[EEVblog]

I am not sure why you're replying to this question more than two years later.
Circuit Studio was promising. Now it is dead. Meanwhile, Kicad features and usability skyrocketed. There's no reason to burn money on this junk.

Last I checked the Circuit Studio version they gave me way back is stil the latest version, it hasn't been touched in years. He's dead Jim.

[Warhawk]

KiCad still has a long way to go. At least coming from Altium, so many really basic things are missing, never mind the gazillion little things that make everyday use much easier.

I too use Altium Designer (professionally). However, this thread is for Circuit Studio. I was considering buying it too. However, people reported also piles of tiny bugs and inconveniences. Now, when they stopped working on it, it is even unsure if the software runs in newer versions/releases of windows.
So, for 495USD I say, no.

[EEVblog]

The current release version is 1.5.2 and that was released in 2018 IIRC
There is a v2 beta that's supposedly been around for years, but I don't have access to a forum link for it any more, it just doesn't work. I have access to the Altium Design beta program forum, but maybe Circuit Studio is different.
https://my.altium.com/circuitstudio/video/circuitstudio-20-overview

In any case the Circuit Studio name is dead and it's supposed to be Circuit Maker Pro, but it's never been released and that Sept 2020, so 2 1/2 years and nothing.
No one should buy Circuti Studio, it's been officially marked as dead.

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

[Warhawk]

The current release version is 1.5.2 and that was released in 2018 IIRC
There is a v2 beta that's supposedly been around for years, but I don't have access to a forum link for it any more, it just doesn't work. I have access to the Altium Design beta program forum, but maybe Circuit Studio is different.
https://my.altium.com/circuitstudio/video/circuitstudio-20-overview

In any case the Circuit Studio name is dead and it's supposed to be Circuit Maker Pro, but it's never been released and that Sept 2020, so 2 1/2 years and nothing.
No one should buy Circuti Studio, it's been officially marked as dead.

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

Thanks for the summary and sharing.

[echo_mountain]

No one should buy Circuti Studio, it's been officially marked as dead.

I'm aware of the painfully long, drawn out beta history, etc., but where has CircuitStudio/CircuitMaker Pro been marked officially dead?  I would take "officially" in this case to mean this has been stated by Altium themselves, and I've not seen that, so I'd appreciate a link in case I've missed something!

There was movement recently in the December '22 timeframe in which Altium publicly severed ties with Newark/element14 and stated that all support for CircuitStudio would now be through Altium directly.  It seems possible that the delays might at least be partially attributed to something going wrong with that partnership with Newark (a "failed experiment," perhaps).

As someone who has used Altium Designer in his day job for 11+ years, I still rely on CircuitStudio regularly for personal side projects and despite some quirks, I still find it FAR less quirky than KiCad (yes, I know this is subjective).  As such, I'm continuing to use CircuitStudio until 1) that miraculous day when/if Altium releases the next version of it, or 2) KiCad comes along a bit further in terms of its UI and a few fundamental things.  It's made tremendous strides in the most recent v6.x, and I like what I'm seeing from the 6.99 betas for the v7.0 release.  At the very least, it looks like it won't be limited any longer to that absolutely hideous, disgusting font used in eeschema documents, which is almost enough of a reason on its own to keep me away from the app entirely... call me shallow. 

[echo_mountain]

Now, when they stopped working on it, it is even unsure if the software runs in newer versions/releases of windows.

Works great on Windows 11 for me, and I've never had it crash on me once (knock on wood).  It's crashed fewer times than the full Altium Designer has for me in the past few years.
I've even run it on Parallels Desktop with Windows 11 for ARM64 on an M1 Max Mac Studio, and again, no issues whatsoever.

YMMV...

[2N3055]

You have exactly 2 posts.
CircuitMaker Pro is officially dead because in more than 2 years it was not relased. So you cannot have one...

[echo_mountain]

You have exactly 2 posts.
CircuitMaker Pro is officially dead because in more than 2 years it was not relased. So you cannot have one...

Yes, long time lurker here and have benefitted greatly from the forum over time (including many of your posts, I believe, so thank you!).  Finally decided to dive in and join the discussion... again, I just wanted to confirm what "officially" meant in this context, because I haven't seen anything from the mouths of Altium that they have abandoned the project.

But yeah, a two+ year teaser with no product release is not a good look on their part, I certainly have no argument with that!

[EEVblog]

You have exactly 2 posts.
CircuitMaker Pro is officially dead because in more than 2 years it was not relased. So you cannot have one...

Yes, long time lurker here and have benefitted greatly from the forum over time (including many of your posts, I believe, so thank you!).  Finally decided to dive in and join the discussion... again, I just wanted to confirm what "officially" meant in this context, because I haven't seen anything from the mouths of Altium that they have abandoned the project.

It's "defacto dead"!

[echo_mountain]

It's "defacto dead"!

  Touché...

[2N3055]

You have exactly 2 posts.
CircuitMaker Pro is officially dead because in more than 2 years it was not relased. So you cannot have one...

Yes, long time lurker here and have benefitted greatly from the forum over time (including many of your posts, I believe, so thank you!).  Finally decided to dive in and join the discussion... again, I just wanted to confirm what "officially" meant in this context, because I haven't seen anything from the mouths of Altium that they have abandoned the project.

It's "defacto dead"!

Or shall we say a stillborn...?

[echo_mountain]

My mention of KiCad 7.0 a few posts ago made me curious about when it was going to be released... so I go do a Google Search... turns out it was released 4 days ago!

Going to check out what's new...

[Doctorandus_P]

My mention of KiCad 7.0 a few posts ago made me curious about when it was going to be released... so I go do a Google Search... turns out it was released 4 days ago!

Going to check out what's new...

There is a quite long "Post V6" thread on the KiCad forum. And during the last year it has gathered over 80 posts about new features
https://forum.kicad.info/t/post-v6-new-features-and-development-news/32633

[beenosam]

It makes me wonder what kind of internal changes have happened in Altium to stall or cancel this completely.

[johnboxall]

It makes me wonder what kind of internal changes have happened in Altium to stall or cancel this completely.

Someone probably did the maths and determined it was more profitable to drop CS, and increase AD prices even taking into account some customer loss.
Or realised that KiCAD is eating the lunch of a lot EDA tools in the price range, including CS, so why bother competing with free? Just increase AD prices to get some more revenue.
Oh yeah, and increase AD prices a bit more. Because why not?

[VEGETA]

but isn't CS supposed to be the professional choice for those who want good package with cheaper price?

kicad is certainly very nice and is getting better and better.

how much does AD cost nowadays? i found online it is about 4000-5000$ one time purchase. certainly not worth it for many many people out there... but for CS of about < 500$ kinda makes sense to some. especially that eagle is not in the scene as it were.

for me, kicad for life!

[johnboxall]

how much does AD cost nowadays? i found online it is about 4000-5000$ one time purchase.

What's the link?

[PlainName]

so why bother competing with free?

Because it can be better than the free one. A good recent example is with the Kicad upgrades - once you've opened your designs or libraries with the new version the previous version can't touch them. OK for single devs perhaps, but if you're sharing with several people it can be problematic - just one person upgrades and then stuffs all the others. Altium (and presumably CS) in contrast doesn't suffer that. The 09 will happily open 23 files and tell you what it can't figure out that's new. That can be worth paying for.

And there is loyalty lock-in. Get someone used to the Altium environment and the free stuff will seem weird enough that it's not worth changing. Eventually, when they need to do big work, their choice will be pukka Altium. But you have to make the cheap version affordable, which might even mean free.

It does seem, though, that they are going for big customers where the price per seat isn't really noticeable amongst the millions, or even billions, passing through the books. IOW, the same market Cadence is filling. Perhaps they've figured they can't compete with Kicad and have jumped ship for what would be the luxury niche if this were cars or clothing.

[VEGETA]

how much does AD cost nowadays? i found online it is about 4000-5000$ one time purchase.

What's the link?

https://www.g2.com/products/altium-altium-designer/pricing

and in google first result from altium website.

these pages might not be accurate or up to date fore sure.


edit:

go here https://www.altium.com/altium-designer/licensing#s-licensing-step

and the price starts from 11970$.

[Muessigb]

It's quite unfortunate that they seem to have abandoned it entirely now and don't communicate on the future of Circuit Maker Pro.

[Zbig]

It makes me wonder what kind of internal changes have happened in Altium to stall or cancel this completely.

It seems at least some of the people that were working on it are from Ukraine...

[johnboxall]

It makes me wonder what kind of internal changes have happened in Altium to stall or cancel this completely.

It seems at least some of the people that were working on it are from Ukraine...

They were recruiting in Serbia last week.
What amuses me is Altium sponsoring an increasing number of content creators who are aiming at hobbyists. "Get your free two week trial of Altium Designer!". The last people who are going to drop ~AU$600 a month on an EDA tool.

[EEVblog]

What amuses me is Altium sponsoring an increasing number of content creators who are aiming at hobbyists. "Get your free two week trial of Altium Designer!". The last people who are going to drop ~AU$600 a month on an EDA tool.

Yeah, that's nuts