Altium Develop

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.

What do you like best about the product?

I find it familiar because I've been using Altium Develop since around version 21. It's scalable, I can use different versions without issues, and I find it intuitive, easy to use, and to learn. I like the ease of working with multiboard, the flexibility of the libraries and their plugins, and the management of integrated and multiproject libraries. I love its PCB design tool, especially the routing, smart routing, 3D visualization, and the ease of creating and integrating libraries. The PCB design feels friendly and professional; I can easily export 3D and manufacturing files and organize everything in a single design software. The initial setup was very easy and convenient because the update retained the settings from the previous version.

What do you dislike about the product?

For now, I can't find anything I dislike.

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

Altium Develop makes it easy for me to work with multiboard and manage integrated and multiproject libraries. I can use my own libraries and plugins from Samas and SnapMagic, and it is very flexible to work with them.

What do you like best about the product?

I find Altium Develop easy to use, and having the online platform as a reference is a good thing. I can lay out schematics and PCB designs as required, and the PCB layout helps me determine the required impedance matching. Setup was easy when we came across from Altium’s yearly license.

What do you dislike about the product?

I sometimes find the help section on how to use a feature a bit lacking. Videos with good examples would make things clearer.

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

I use Altium Develop to lay out schematics and PCB designs as required, and the PCB layout helps me determine the required impedance matching.

What do you like best about the product?

I recently introduced a new company to Altium. Their previous design flow was old fashioned and full of error possibilities. Altium Develop was cheaper for a small team. The user experience is so flexible and powerful compared to the previous tools and they run much faster too.

What do you dislike about the product?

The range of integrations is limited and Develop is limited to just 3 engineers. This will limit expansion of the team. The only support is online and that covers multiple license levels so it's tricky to sometimes know what is and isn't available to you.

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

Previously the schematic, PCB and mechanics were all separate. This led to multiple issues in designs being out of date or not updated properly. The full solution that Altium Develop brings eliminates these issues. I can now seamlessly move between schematic and board, and push to mechanics.

What do you like best about the product?

I like its powerful PCB design tools, intuitive interface, integrated schematic and layout environment, and efficient design rule checking. It makes complex PCB design easier and more organized.

What do you dislike about the product?

The high subscription cost, occasional software bugs, slow performance with complex designs, and difficulties with component library synchronization and footprint management.

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

Altium Develop simplifies complex PCB design by integrating schematic capture, PCB layout, component management, and design rule checking. It helps me reduce design errors, improve efficiency, and accelerate the development of high-voltage power electronics systems.

What do you like best about the product?

I use Altium Develop daily for hardware design, from schematics to routing and layout. I find it a very simple tool: I can create libraries, use those already created by Octopark or other tools, and bring them to complete and complex designs. It helps me with high-speed or high-complexity designs that would be more complicated with other tools or with fewer functionalities. I find the interface very comfortable and intuitive. I also value the constant updates to resolve bugs and that the support team focuses on solving them.

What do you dislike about the product?

Sometimes I have problems making certain updates due to incompatibilities with the company's internal firewalls. On some occasions, Altium Designer crashes and I lose the work done; I would say these problems are more typical of Altium Designer than Altium Develop. The configuration and migration also cost me: I spent several days looking for the right support person, and the migration took several days.

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

Altium Develop helps me solve high-speed or high-complexity designs that would be more complicated with other tools or with fewer functionalities.

What do you like best about the product?

With Altium Develop, I especially appreciate the rule engine and routing. I can define net classes and fine constraints for power currents, sensitive signals, and differential pairs. The DRC quickly flags errors before manufacturing, saving us from failed prototypes and back-and-forths with the manufacturer. I also find the 3D view handy for checking integration in the very tight enclosures of our bikes. The tool covers the entire flow, from schematic to manufacturing files, allowing us to produce reliable documentation. It's also a standard tool that our subcontractors and engineers we hire are already familiar with. The installation was quite simple and didn't block anything; it was done in about a day. Regarding integrations, the STEP export to our mechanical CAD works well for checking enclosures, and the Gerber, pick and place, and BOM outputs go directly to our subcontractors and purchasing. We also version projects and our libraries on Git without difficulty. An unexpected benefit: with well-set rules once and for all, we reuse the same constraints from one board to another, and a new designer immediately produces boards that comply with our standards.

What do you dislike about the product?

The price and licensing model are burdensome for a team of two. I feel that Altium is increasingly pushing towards its cloud ecosystem and managed components, while I prefer to manage our libraries ourselves and be able to retrieve our data or switch tools if needed. The formats remain quite closed, and exports to other tools are not always clean. The software is sometimes slow on large boards, and there are quite a few menus: it takes time to get comfortable.

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

With Altium Develop, the two of us manage the entire design flow without juggling multiple software, from schematic to manufacturing files. The rules and DRC flag errors before manufacturing, saving us from manually reviewing everything at each revision, failed prototypes, and back-and-forths with the manufacturer.