Altium Develop
Altium, IncReviews from AWS customer
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An all-in-one powerful software for PCB design
What do you like best about the product?
Me and my team use AD on a daily basis to design FPGA based complex design with DDR memories and up to 10Gbps high speed lines with little effort.
Integration of schematic and PCB design is well handled and very easy to understand. I like the fact that I had the possibility to visually check the changes made in component library compared with the actual design I'm working on and also the ability to exclude some of them from the update process (both PCB and schematic).
3D view is amazing and well suited to our needs.
We often use rigid-flex boards, and this is also handled very well, both in stack up manager, rules and 3D view (bendings...).
We use database libraries made internally, with a little web based front end made by me. I think this is a nice solution if you want to have all the control possible on your components parameters.
I find the parameter manager very handy when you want to see if some component lack of some mandatory information (like our company part number).
Regarding the PCB design, we often use IPC wizard to create new components footprints and 3D models since its quite accurate and shortens the development time.
Integration of schematic and PCB design is well handled and very easy to understand. I like the fact that I had the possibility to visually check the changes made in component library compared with the actual design I'm working on and also the ability to exclude some of them from the update process (both PCB and schematic).
3D view is amazing and well suited to our needs.
We often use rigid-flex boards, and this is also handled very well, both in stack up manager, rules and 3D view (bendings...).
We use database libraries made internally, with a little web based front end made by me. I think this is a nice solution if you want to have all the control possible on your components parameters.
I find the parameter manager very handy when you want to see if some component lack of some mandatory information (like our company part number).
Regarding the PCB design, we often use IPC wizard to create new components footprints and 3D models since its quite accurate and shortens the development time.
What do you dislike about the product?
The differential routing tool has several bugs and quirks, even if you enable the "ignore obstacle" option, which should be the most straightforward for the software. Especially when you need to edit existing tracks it often make unwanted loops or artifacts, forcing me to delete an entire section and make it again from scratch. This is very annoying when using length matched tracks in high speed designs.
Lack of support for staggered micro-vias (aka not stacked, but in a "ladder-like" configuration), which are better suited for most PCB manufacturer processes.
The PCB CRC check often gives false-positives about "boundary" rules, like when you have arcs in your board shape and polygon pours limited by those arcs or when you cross from a rigid to a flex part of the board with impedance controlled tracks (there's often a change of width, correct, which is marked as an error by AD).
Using component variants with same footprint/schematic but different 3d model was very frustrating since there was a bug in the PCB editor which created a lot of copies of the same component. Now it seems solved, but we were forced to re-make all the projects affected with the last version of AD.
The documentation of the scripting language (i used DelphiScript since I thought it was the most supported from AD, especially older versions...) is TERRIBLE. Very hard to navigate, lack a lot of information and is basically rubbish. I had to search for script made by others and with A LOT of trial and error managed to design some of them (we used them in order to export the BoM to our company ERP).
Customer support is quite responsive, but more than once didn't solve my issues with bugs in: multi-part components handling with variants and scripts in delphi.
When exporting with the Project Releaser, if you use the specific CurrentDate variable in the file name, this doesn't work. (e.g. [OutputPath][ProjectName][CurrentDate].zip generates a file like "mypath/myprojectname.zip" without the current date, which we need to enter manually every time)
Lack of support for staggered micro-vias (aka not stacked, but in a "ladder-like" configuration), which are better suited for most PCB manufacturer processes.
The PCB CRC check often gives false-positives about "boundary" rules, like when you have arcs in your board shape and polygon pours limited by those arcs or when you cross from a rigid to a flex part of the board with impedance controlled tracks (there's often a change of width, correct, which is marked as an error by AD).
Using component variants with same footprint/schematic but different 3d model was very frustrating since there was a bug in the PCB editor which created a lot of copies of the same component. Now it seems solved, but we were forced to re-make all the projects affected with the last version of AD.
The documentation of the scripting language (i used DelphiScript since I thought it was the most supported from AD, especially older versions...) is TERRIBLE. Very hard to navigate, lack a lot of information and is basically rubbish. I had to search for script made by others and with A LOT of trial and error managed to design some of them (we used them in order to export the BoM to our company ERP).
Customer support is quite responsive, but more than once didn't solve my issues with bugs in: multi-part components handling with variants and scripts in delphi.
When exporting with the Project Releaser, if you use the specific CurrentDate variable in the file name, this doesn't work. (e.g. [OutputPath][ProjectName][CurrentDate].zip generates a file like "mypath/myprojectname.zip" without the current date, which we need to enter manually every time)
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Me and my team use AD on a daily basis to design FPGA based complex design with DDR memories and up to 10Gbps high speed lines with little effort.
Basically we most use:
- components generation for database libraries
- schematic design
- PCB design (rigid-flex, HDI, # of layer between 6 and 16)
- PCB rule management
- stackup manager (I like a lot the Via management)
- high speed design (FPGA, 10G ethernet PHY's, high speed industrial image sensors)
- controlled impedence tracks
- Project Releaser
- variants
- 3d view to check for clearance with mechanical components (or export the model and check directly in SolidWorks)
Basically we most use:
- components generation for database libraries
- schematic design
- PCB design (rigid-flex, HDI, # of layer between 6 and 16)
- PCB rule management
- stackup manager (I like a lot the Via management)
- high speed design (FPGA, 10G ethernet PHY's, high speed industrial image sensors)
- controlled impedence tracks
- Project Releaser
- variants
- 3d view to check for clearance with mechanical components (or export the model and check directly in SolidWorks)
As a student, I am very satisfied with Altium Designer
What do you like best about the product?
In Altium Designer, I like the wide feature that is contain. These features are organized and powerful.
What do you dislike about the product?
I deslike that the student licence can miss some feature like differential pair routing.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Making a custom PCB in a professional way can be guaranteed with Altium Designer, a powerful and feature-rich electronic design automation software. Altium Designer provides a comprehensive suite of tools that enable me to create high-quality PCBs.
Experience in Altium in senior year of computer engineering BaS
What do you like best about the product?
The responsiveness, compared to other similar hardware I've used throughout college,Altium just felt the highest quality to use. Within 3 months I went from having no experience in PCB design to designing my very own board, things are easy to find and there is no slowdown, everything just seems to work and work well.
What do you dislike about the product?
The obscurity of keybinds, this may be due to my own incompetence but I had difficulty in finding keybinds. I found myself looking up the key binds myself
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Designing a PCB, it benefited me especially as a beginner with tools such as the error reports, and rules to import from my chosen PCB printer. Everything came out just right and the only errors i ever encountered in my own board were my own errors from a design standpoint, but never a fault of Altium
I have been using Altium Designer for over 20 years
What do you like best about the product?
Easy to use, provide everything you need for PCB works and keep updating its functions.user friendly interface
What do you dislike about the product?
Gerber review is not that good. each reversion of AD releases fix some bugs but generate new bugs.As I know erery reversion with bugs just more or less.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Schematic and PCB design as well as Gerber generation for manufacturing for company's production lines as well as BOM managment
My Bachelor's Thesis
What do you like best about the product?
It is very good for the education system, it really helps a lot in pcb design
What do you dislike about the product?
Need more tutorials and try to make the menu more intuitive to select options when designing the schematic and pcb.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It helps me to design the footprints, to improve the pcb design, to have a clear perspective before sending it to manufacture.
Engineer
What do you like best about the product?
The link between schematic and pcb layout
What do you dislike about the product?
The spice simulator is not so easy to undesrtand and use.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The availability of components showing the life cycle and where to buy them
Recommended, but hard to use as only tool for system engineering
What do you like best about the product?
it is very user-friendly. Short learning curve.
What do you dislike about the product?
The flexibility in the analysis section is very limited. Exports as well from that section should be improved.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Moving away from a document based approach.
The Best Online Schematic and PCB Tool
What do you like best about the product?
I love the ability to easily share designs with both colleagues and external businesses. The data management tools are great for controlling our design data in a way that's compliant with our quality system. The customer support team are usually excellent, often resolving issues within days of raising them. Our electronics design team use Altium 365 almost every day, and have never encountered any issues with their servers.
What do you dislike about the product?
The increased cost of the "enterprise" license for the feature upgrades that are included with this level are impossible to justify to the business. As our Altium 365 admin, I'd like to make use of some of the enterprise features, but the jump in cost from "Pro" to "Enterprise" is unjustifiable for a business of our size.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Altium 365 allows us to manage PCB design data with ease, mainly through their release and lifecycle management tools. The design tool itself is the most effective schematic/PCB design tool I've used (having been doing electronics design for over 10 years), and massively reduces the time it takes me to complete design activities. I have implemented the lifecycle management tools in our workspace and this is now a part of our official internal design process, which makes it much easier to comply with our quality system.
Ph.D Student Satisfaction
What do you like best about the product?
Unlike other design software, Altium Designer is more professional and gives you many tools that will be beneficial for your future work.
What do you dislike about the product?
I got a student license as a PhD student. Unfortunately this version is limited in that you can't make changes in all rules, differential pairs are not included and some other features that limited my experience.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Altium Designer gives me the ability to create my own solutions, providing me with the tools to create minimized PCBs and view the final product before it is manufactured.
Top Cad for electronic design
What do you like best about the product?
The most hepful is the library management and the link of the components with suppliers
What do you dislike about the product?
Some times the routing in the PCB editor is not trivial.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The components management that with active BOM says if a component is active and you can find it.
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