Altium Develop

What do you like best about the product?

I find Altium Develop easy to use, and I like its cloud-based parts. I switched from PADS and ORCAD because Altium Develop was cheaper and easier to use.

What do you dislike about the product?

I need Altium Develop to stop freezing and crashing. I use it all day and can expect it to crash 4–5 times. I have to save frequently so I don’t lose changes, and I have no clue why it suddenly freezes or how to recover.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use Altium Develop for PCB layout.

What do you like best about the product?

It’s the powerful Altium tool, but at a much lower price point. It still includes everything we need, making it easy to design a board from the schematic stage all the way through to production, without piling on extra features we don’t need.

What do you dislike about the product?

It can still be a bit of a memory hog, and responsiveness in large projects can be a little slow. But generally not much to dislike.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

It helps us design new boards quickly and efficiently.

What do you like best about the product?

I use Altium Develop for differential-pair routing. I like its smart design connectivity, and it helps me verify component footprints and pin assignments to reduce mismatches during PCB development. The setup was quick.

What do you dislike about the product?

I think the advanced search functionalities could be improved.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use Altium Develop to help engineers verify component footprints and pin assignments, reducing mismatches during PCB development.

What do you like best about the product?

The price in combination with the useful functions you need to design PCB software. You do not necessarily need all the bloatware used in Altium Agile.

What do you dislike about the product?

Altium Develop is not working properly with our current Altium professional in the 365 environments after update. After investigation, this is not intended/officially supported (response from Altium support NL). We are forced to use now a much more expensive Altium Agile. Scripting is not very well implemented compared to other PCB design software e.g. KiCAD. We see currently in the market that KiCAD will be more often used. Especially with the AI, this is more suitable. Due to the high price of Altium Agile, we will try to go to KiCAD next year.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Nothing, it's a disadvantage. We can better use KiCAD.

What do you like best about the product?

The best things about Altium Develop are how easy it is to get started and how comprehensive the learning resources are. The videos, blog posts, and other guides make it easy to learn the software and find help when needed.

What do you dislike about the product?

Many tasks can be completed in several different ways, which makes the workflow confusing. Generating a BOM is one example: there are multiple places to do it, and each can produce a different result. It would help to have one clearly recommended workflow and more consistent results across the different entry points.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Altium Develop is a modern and powerful tool. Its mechanical 3D integration works particularly well.

What do you like best about the product?

Tools for schematic and PCB design, tools for managing libraries, tools for PCB editing, and 3D model integration

What do you dislike about the product?

The software only offers a limited set of basic circuit simulation tools natively.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Primarily, I use it for designing highly complex, multilayer PCBs and for developing electronic products that involve many 3D models and multiple parts. The tools built into Multiboard projects give me a clear, complete overview of the electronic assembly inside the final enclosure.

What do you like best about the product?

The unified schematic and PCB environment, cloud collaboration, and built-in version control save a lot of time. Live component and supply chain data help me pick available parts, and the 3D view and DRC catch issues early in compact RF/IoT board designs.

What do you dislike about the product?

The subscription cost is high, especially for small teams or individual engineers. Some cloud features depend on a stable internet connection and can feel slow with large projects. The learning curve is steep for new users, and the software can be resource-heavy on less powerful computers.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Altium Develop helps me shorten the hardware development cycle for satellite IoT terminals and RF boards. Having design, libraries, and version control in one place reduces errors from file handling and makes it easier to collaborate with teammates and manufacturers. Live component availability data helps avoid redesigns caused by obsolete or out-of-stock parts. Overall, it saves time, lowers prototyping costs, and helps us move from design to production faster.

What do you like best about the product?

The library integration in the workspace and across the whole cloud environment has made life easier for working within the hardware department and procurement. The BOM portal is a great tool for quick pricing and checking stock availability.

What do you dislike about the product?

I feel that the old-fashioned side panels make the learning process more difficult.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Old problems included maintaining the components library, and the fact that centralizing the component library was hard to implement. We also struggled with project repositories, sharing project files or BOMs, and procurement communication, among other things. Overall, it made communication with other departments (procurement/CEO) and within my department much easier. It also reduced the time needed to share data and helped reduce errors.

What do you like best about the product?

I like the user experience of the interface. I appreciate Altium 365 and that I can share designs and showcase them quickly. I found the installation of Altium Develop very easy and intuitive.

What do you dislike about the product?

When switching from 3D to 2D in the PCB, my screen sometimes goes completely blank. Loading can also take a bit longer. When I click on the cross-reference in the schematic, it works again.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use Altium Develop to develop hardware, from prototype to final product.

What do you like best about the product?

I like the 3D view, and I find the routing view better than other software. I also like the details in the layers and traces. Altium Develop was easy enough to set up.

What do you dislike about the product?

expensive

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use Altium Develop for automated PCB routing.