Circuit Studio reboot

[Monkeh]

Woah, no basic manufacturing DRC in CS?

Basic manufacturing rules Annular ring, acute angle, hole size, layer pairs, hole to
hole clearance, minimum solder mask sliver, silk to solder
mask, silk to silk, net antennae, silk to board region

Is this not it?

That's copper to copper clearances. Are there any options elsewhere for annular ring sizes, hole sizes, layer config, hole to hole (centre to centre) clearance, etc?

[LabSpokane]

Woah, no basic manufacturing DRC in CS?

Basic manufacturing rules Annular ring, acute angle, hole size, layer pairs, hole to
hole clearance, minimum solder mask sliver, silk to solder
mask, silk to silk, net antennae, silk to board region

Is this not it?

That's copper to copper clearances. Are there any options elsewhere for annular ring sizes, hole sizes, layer config, hole to hole (centre to centre) clearance, etc?

Will do screenshots of all options later today and let you decide the content.

[LabSpokane]

All the Rules and Constraints expanded:

[LabSpokane]

Layer Manager.  It looks nearly as full-featured as Designer.

[Monkeh]

Okay.

Where in there do you specify the minimum distance between drill hits for your PCB manufacturer? The minimal annular ring size, layer pairs for blind and buried vias, minimum diameter of solder mask?

[LabSpokane]

Push and shove routing works.  It's an option in the routing menu.

[LabSpokane]

Okay.

Where in there do you specify the minimum distance between drill hits for your PCB manufacturer? The minimal annular ring size, layer pairs for blind and buried vias, minimum diameter of solder mask?

Why don't you just get a free trial and see? 

[Monkeh]

Okay.

Where in there do you specify the minimum distance between drill hits for your PCB manufacturer? The minimal annular ring size, layer pairs for blind and buried vias, minimum diameter of solder mask?

Why don't you just get a free trial and see?

That's presumably a 'nowhere', then.

[LabSpokane]

Okay.

Where in there do you specify the minimum distance between drill hits for your PCB manufacturer? The minimal annular ring size, layer pairs for blind and buried vias, minimum diameter of solder mask?

Why don't you just get a free trial and see?

That's presumably a 'nowhere', then.

That was, "do your own work for a change and answer your own question."

[ludzinc]

That's quite disappointing - here's a screenshot for the design rules from Circuit Maker:



The free tool looks to be more powerful that the paid for tool.  WTF?!

I really, really like CM, except for the lag induced by cloud based libraries.  But imho it's the best free tool out there.

[Monkeh]

E: Ahh, let's leave the handbags for now.

I think the comparison of the two screenshots answers the question nicely. Altium really like shooting themselves in the foot.

[LabSpokane]

E: Ahh, let's leave the handbags for now.

I think the comparison of the two screenshots answers the question nicely. Altium really like shooting themselves in the foot.

I'm in touch with the manager at Element14 who works with Altium.  I will be sure to point this out.  It should be a very, very simple fix to get the rules updated since the engine behind all of this really is AD.

[Monkeh]

E: Ahh, let's leave the handbags for now.

I think the comparison of the two screenshots answers the question nicely. Altium really like shooting themselves in the foot.

I'm in touch with the manager at Element14 who works with Altium.  I will be sure to point this out.  It should be a very, very simple fix to get the rules updated since the engine behind all of this really is AD.

That would be good. Basic manufacturing DRC should be a standard feature in any tool.

[bson]

Ooh, did they retain panelization functionality???

I'd check myself, but I'm sitting in a hotel room with a MacBook Air...

[blackfin76]

I hope it is true. Once at a time AD was dropped to $3k, and now it is back to $6k (both without mandatory 1 year subscription).

I remember that day vividly!
Nick Martin called everyone into the canteen at the old Altium building at Frenches Forest as a said (close enough direct quote) "We are burning our bridges, we can't go back to high priced tools"
(They slashed prices by 75%)
Within 12 months the price was creeping back up to normal 
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1311978

It was at the time Altium stock price was very low. (somewhere in 2009). My employer at the time paid about €2500,- for a single license. Last time I informed it was about €7k. Altium stock price has increased a 100 fold since it lowest level, don't now why it's rising so fast. At €7k for AD I think they are missing a large part of the market.
CS at it's discount price seems nice but it lacks too much of the stuff AD has, small businesses need more advanced tools at a lower price. If Altium would bring down the price of AD back to €3k and €500,- for an annual subscription I would no hesitate a second in buying it.

[jmarkwolf]

Can you save back to AD10 from a AD14+ system ? (or save to the expected P-CAD format ?)
P-CAD (ACCEL_NETLIST looks a nice standard that can open in Eagle and kiCad).
Can CS export P-CAD ?
[/quote]

I currently use Altium ver16 at work and it can save PcbDocs in "native format", and version binary 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and ascii. It saves SchDocs in "native format" and binary 4.0 and ascii.

So if you have access to Altium in order to resave your databases in the older formats, I think you're golden.

[electrolust]

I fall in the market segment where this tool makes sense, and really want to get off of Eagle for a number of reasons.  AD is not quite in my price range.

You want to go from Eagle all the way to AD in one step?  Why not take a hop to Proteus?

Actually came here to say thanks for this thread, esp. to LabSpokane.

I like Proteus a lot, big improvement in almost all ways from Eagle.  However the library management and to a degree component creation is a real pain point.  Not as bad as Eagle but still painful in different ways.  I was frustrated enough that I thought I'd give CS a try, even at $3k.  Then I learned about the price drop -- yes!!  Then I read this thread -- no!!  Looks like CS is crippled pretty badly.  Guess I'll continue to live with Proteus.

[DerekG]

Guess I'll continue to live with Proteus.

There is nothing bad about Proteus. For averagely complex boards it is (in many respects) quicker to get your design done than using Altium. This is because the learning curve is much faster & moving from the schematic to pcb is less problematic.

DipTrace is another good alternative, particularly now they have implemented a search function that searches all libraries with the press of a button.

I use all three of the above packages & like Altium the least.

[DerekG]

Altium stock price has increased a 100 fold since it lowest level .....

Yep, most of this increase has occurred since the board sacked the founding CEO Nick Martin. The best thing that has happened to Altium in the past 20 years.

Just ask Dave ............... he used to work with (for) Nick.

[blackfin76]

Altium stock price has increased a 100 fold since it lowest level .....

Yep, most of this increase has occurred since the board sacked the founding CEO Nick Martin. The best thing that has happened to Altium in the past 20 years.

Just ask Dave ............... he used to work with (for) Nick.

Did anything improve since then? It's been a couple of years since I used AD but I remember it was full of bugs and they kept adding features without improving stability.
Last time I spoke to a salesperson they asked about €7k for a single license.

[Ice-Tea]

Altium stock price has increased a 100 fold since it lowest level .....

Yep, most of this increase has occurred since the board sacked the founding CEO Nick Martin. The best thing that has happened to Altium in the past 20 years.

Just ask Dave ............... he used to work with (for) Nick.

Did anything improve since then? It's been a couple of years since I used AD but I remember it was full of bugs and they kept adding features without improving stability.
Last time I spoke to a salesperson they asked about €7k for a single license.

Plus the subscription fee.

My feeling is that it is less bugy than it used to be (ie less crashes, less work lost etc) and some added features evn add extra value (but not exactly all)..

[leonhart88]

I had licencing issues when we first bought it (it was on sale for $600!), and it took at least a month or so to figure out what the issue was.  Element14/Newark support was not helpful at all, but the guys at Altium were quick to resolve the issue.  I don't really understand why they have to partner with Element14/Newark, they're completely useless!

As for the software itself, for non power users, I found it was actually pretty good compared to my previous work in Altium Designer.  Sure, there are some things that are missing, but I was able to easily import my library files, rules, etc. and most of the functionality for simple boards was there.  I'm still able to import a DXF for a board shape, and export a .STEP 3D file to check fits into my parts, which is crucial when doing mechanical and electronics assemblies.

For $600 I'm actually pretty happy with it.  If you're a power user though I can understand that missing features would kill productivity compared to Altium Designer, but for me, the functionality is similar enough that I can recommend it.

[GlowingGhoul]

"ricktusl" is a troll who's sole purpose in creating an account seems to be to bash a piece of software he's never used with the same message posted over and over.

Reported with a ban to follow hopefully.

[taydin]

Guys, I tried finding any information about the upgrade price from circuit studio to full altium designer, but nothing seems to be showing up. Does anybody know what the upgrade price would be? I want to take advantage of the eagle trade in deal that's going on for circuit studio and I'm hoping that it will be (even if slightly) cheaper to upgrade to AD instead of buying it up front.