Altium Develop
Altium, IncReviews from AWS customer
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Difficult to Learn
What do you like best about the product?
It certainly has all the important features I need and more. I particularly like the 3D view of my board, which updates as I go along. Cross Probe is an excellent feature.
What do you dislike about the product?
Many features are not intuitive to use. The learning curve is steep and if I don't use it for a few months, then come back to it, I must relearn many aspects all over again.One thing I especially dislike is that some feaetures work a certain way in Schematics, but to use the same feature in PCB takes different commands. This is insane to me as learning it one way is hard enough, but I must learn certain commands two ways. It would be very helpful if Altium Designer were more intuitive. Finally, it should have basic parts like L, R, & C, NPN, PNP, N-CH MOSFET, P-CH MOSFET, Voltage Source, etc for drawing schematics used for instruction instead of to make a PCB.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I'm getting my PCB layout done. The DRC checking is especially good, but gives too many false hits. That is one of the biggest problems AD has. Since the layout has taken so long due to several various problems in AD, It's not helped me to get my PCB done quickly. I hope it will be better and faster on the next PCB layout.
Fast design
What do you like best about the product?
Copy rooms for repeated circuits and easy placement
What do you dislike about the product?
The constantly updates, sometimes the positions of tools change and its frustrating
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Fast and easy design for power electronics circuits
Tool made by Software Engineers
What do you like best about the product?
The interface and the possibilities that it unveils. I particullarly like how the ECOs are implemented, the masking of components and the item lists.
What do you dislike about the product?
In what concerns the electronic flow, it shows quite a lack of understanding of what an electronic designer realy needs.
This is why it took so long to implement a reliable signal integrity feature in Altium (I'm a user with over 20 years of Altium) and the implementation is still far from optimal.
When one wants to simulate signal integrity, we are mostly interested in a few high speed lines, not the whole design. Your engineers simply don't seem to understand this.
Also, in regards to circuit simulation, even acknowledging that a big effort was put into incorporating a circuit simulator into Altium, I can say the implementation is quite lame.
1) It should be possible to assign a different tolerance to each component. Having a single parameter for all components simply won't do.
2) Normally a simulation is done on a part of the circuit. The actual implementation only allows two options. Document or Project. It should be possible to have a blanket mask defined over the circuits that we want to simulate, and also, all the simulation sources, and probes should not be considered as components. Ideally, they should be hidden when the blanket is closed. That means, when we print a schematic for review, we don't want to have all the spice primitives polluting the schematic.
There are other examples that I now can't recall.
This is why it took so long to implement a reliable signal integrity feature in Altium (I'm a user with over 20 years of Altium) and the implementation is still far from optimal.
When one wants to simulate signal integrity, we are mostly interested in a few high speed lines, not the whole design. Your engineers simply don't seem to understand this.
Also, in regards to circuit simulation, even acknowledging that a big effort was put into incorporating a circuit simulator into Altium, I can say the implementation is quite lame.
1) It should be possible to assign a different tolerance to each component. Having a single parameter for all components simply won't do.
2) Normally a simulation is done on a part of the circuit. The actual implementation only allows two options. Document or Project. It should be possible to have a blanket mask defined over the circuits that we want to simulate, and also, all the simulation sources, and probes should not be considered as components. Ideally, they should be hidden when the blanket is closed. That means, when we print a schematic for review, we don't want to have all the spice primitives polluting the schematic.
There are other examples that I now can't recall.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
A good documentation
The best software for PCB designers, easy collaboration with mechanics
What do you like best about the product?
Straightforward collaboration with mechanics designers
What do you dislike about the product?
The licence price should be lower and free preview will be obligatory
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Mechanical adjustment of the PCB on the first approach
Complete PCB Package in one tool
What do you like best about the product?
I like that the complete project is designed in one tool, and everything is in one project file. No need to export netlists to layout tools. The ability to export 3D models of a board is very valuable. The possibility for several users to work simultaneously on the same project simplifies the design procuedure a LOT! Altium also has many good videos and tutorials that are freely available on the web.
What do you dislike about the product?
Some bugs remain unsolved for years, without the hope that they will ever be fixed. Sometimes Altium adds new features to compete with other tools outside of the PCB design realm, like simulation, coding, component sourcing. I think altium should focus on that one task: Create schematics, design a PCB, export a BOM and documentation files.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We create PCBs that can easily be used for mechanical design and simulation. The manufacturing outputs are of high quality. The possibility to cooperate in a same project speeds up our design flow.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Consider building your own database library against using the Altium 365 cloud.
Very good tool, but with a steep learning curve.
What do you like best about the product?
Import and export features and export job files are very helpful.
Also, the visualization in 3D mode is something I often use for checking the layout.
The rules system is important.
Also, the visualization in 3D mode is something I often use for checking the layout.
The rules system is important.
What do you dislike about the product?
I wish there would be more features for layouting custom geometries in footprints. I often import antenna geometries into Altium and use footprints to store them into libaries. Importing DXF files works nicely, but more direct layouting options for geometries would be great. Also rules tight to the footprint itself would be very useful to prevent lots of errors when they are inserted into another layout. E.g. if you use a differentially fed antenna which has DC connected copper. It would be nice to supress such errors already in the footprint.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I'm nostly doing simpler PCBs in terms of digital design, but lots of RF structures. Therefore, importing from CAD and EM tools and exporting for doing EM simulations is one of my main areas of work.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
If you switch from some other tool to Altium I can give you this hint: Don't try to take shortcuts. Start with schematic and proper naming even for small PCBs. If you try to work on a layout directly, it will cost you more time in the long run.
Good Workflow, Supports State of the Art Technologies
What do you like best about the product?
All ease of use functions (Selection FIlters), Hierarchical Designs, Manufacturer Data intergration,
What do you dislike about the product?
Sometimes Altium Crashes and loses some of the Work (maybe a pc issue, rather than altium issue)
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Highspeed Designs for products that are on the edge of Technogie
Mighty tool for Electronic Design
What do you like best about the product?
The hIgh degree of interconnection between mechanical design and electrical design.
What do you dislike about the product?
Sometimes difficult to find certain functions and "hidden features" which are not easy to remember or to find again.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Altium is very helpful for solving difficult design in terms of mechanical and PCB design
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Take the chance to attend to one of the Altium seminars. Keep up to date with webinars and tutorials.
Altium user for over 25 years since Protel time...
What do you like best about the product?
Relatively user-friendly, intuitive, and easy to use. One useful feature now is the ability to flip between 2D view and 3D view incorporating the 3D model of the components from the manufacturer into the library.
What do you dislike about the product?
It is getting more and more complex to navigate. Also, no standard footprint for sma and coaxial connectors.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
To build reliable PCBs, and to be able to open and re-use old projects/ libraries. The cloud platform is convenient and useful, too.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
The software to use for designing PCBs.
Very powerful PCB Design Software with a few Quality of Life issues.
What do you like best about the product?
I enjoy the new cloud-based project management and Solidworks collaboration tools. They make it quite easy to keep designs updated and work with mechanical engineers to get specific details right.
What do you dislike about the product?
There are a few issues such as managing your pars libraries, that should be more intuitive and flexible. For instance, I can't edit a part that if got from the manufacturer part search. It would be really helpful in a lot of instances if I could make some changes to those.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I'm able to more easily and effictively create boards that fit unique size and shape constraints. Being able to quickly push an update back and forth between mechanical and electrical designers allows us to really quickly iterate and create a very integrated system.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
It is the best PCB design software I have used.
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