Free Altium is Coming

[tszaboo]

makes me wonder, if it is already version 1.0 (and not 0.9.9.9.9.5 rev 16553) why it is not released?
Ah wait. On the blog they say they will be at maker faire, so I think it is either released today, or not.

[SeanB]

If you want your design on your hard drive the answer may be to pay for your software!
Just sayin', they have have to have some incentive for you to upgrade your membership if your designs are that sensitive.  Considering they'er permitting some commercial work I wouldn't be surprised if there's a clause that states that the online storage doesn't meet requirements for engineering design management standards

Let me rephrase that. If you want your design on your hard drive you have to pay to LEASE our software, and if you do not continue to pay every year for your LEASED software it will cease to work until you PAY up your lease to date to get it to operate again.

[kaz911]

Just wait until the release - and it tweets every time you modify a component -  "kaz911 just placed R10 resistor on the VibratorExtraStong schematic.cloud"

[EEVblog]

Let me rephrase that. If you want your design on your hard drive you have to pay to LEASE our software, and if you do not continue to pay every year for your LEASED software it will cease to work until you PAY up your lease to date to get it to operate again.

How is that any different to the current Altium Designer software?, unless you bought a perpetual license.

[SeanB]

It is not, somehow they expect the free to be different.

[timb]

Wow, this looks really nice. I'd like to see a voting system on the public patterns/components though, maybe a reward system if you submit a part that gets X many positive votes or something. It could give you credit towards an upgrade or something.

I really hope I can get in the beta ASAP, I'm about to start a big open source design and it would be a good trial run of the software (plus shaking out bugs, etc.)


Sent from my Smartphone

[Rigby]

I can't wait to catch all you turkeys bitchin' about the cloud to use this tool.  Like your footprints are proprietary to you or something.  As if each of you make your own parts with extra special features no one else has...

[c4757p]

I dislike the cloud idea if it means I cannot store locally. You know, because I don't always have an internet connection.

[tszaboo]

I dislike the cloud idea if it means I cannot store locally. You know, because I don't always have an internet connection.

Yes, because there are always like dozen of PCB designers at airports in suits, designing PCBs on their 10" ultrabook.

If you like making anything PCB related without internet connection and being able to google anything, having access to the datasheets and application notes, mind as well draw the PCB with a fountain pen.

[Precipice]

Like your footprints are proprietary to you or something.

Well, yes, they are. They're certainly not the same as would be useful for a handsoldering newbie. Many of my parts have been tweaked for manufacture.
Even the IPC accept that different jobs need different footprints, and they're addressing a much narrower world than Altium's about to.

My library parts are also confidential - some made from nda'd data, some made for nda'd projects, some are just none of your damn business. There's no way I'm just going to expose the libraries as a whole.

[timb]

LOL NDA footprints? That's a new one!


Sent from my Smartphone

[Precipice]

LOL NDA footprints? That's a new one!

The NDA's lapsed, but yeah. <hypothetical> You've just released, under NDA, a new wifi module. It's quite spiffy, and you want to manage the product launch, yet have dev boards ready to buy. So, in your usual over-reaching NDA, you specify that the footprint is not to be disclosed. </hypothetical>.

Don't forget the insanity of pretty much all datasheets being copyrighted. 'Protecting' 'IP' is 'fun' and 'profitable'.

[zapta]

How is that any different to the current Altium Designer software?, unless you bought a perpetual license.

It's different from free eagle, the competition. That's what matters.

[timb]

I can see that. They said you can have designs kept private, so I assume that would extend to libraries as well.


Sent from my Smartphone

[madires]

I dislike the cloud idea if it means I cannot store locally. You know, because I don't always have an internet connection.

Yes, because there are always like dozen of PCB designers at airports in suits, designing PCBs on their 10" ultrabook.

If you like making anything PCB related without internet connection and being able to google anything, having access to the datasheets and application notes, mind as well draw the PCB with a fountain pen.

And if the servers are shut down for any reason your precious work is lost. Thank you very much Mr. Cloud! I prefer to have a local copy.

[mikeselectricstuff]

If you like making anything PCB related without internet connection and being able to google anything, having access to the datasheets and application notes, mind as well draw the PCB with a fountain pen.

of course nobody ever designed PCBs before the internet....

Once you've done your placement & netlist, you don't often need to refer to anything, and routing is just the sort of menial task that can be fitted into odd bits of available time like travelling.

[c4757p]

I dislike the cloud idea if it means I cannot store locally. You know, because I don't always have an internet connection.

Yes, because there are always like dozen of PCB designers at airports in suits, designing PCBs on their 10" ultrabook.

If you like making anything PCB related without internet connection and being able to google anything, having access to the datasheets and application notes, mind as well draw the PCB with a fountain pen.

Uh, no, there are dozens (of dozens of dozens, I'd wager) of people with unreliable connections at home.

And I don't need to Google anything to do the layout - at the layout stage, that's all done already, because I'm not an idiot and I actually prepare for my unreliable connection. Important documents are saved. That's what local storage is for.

It's 2014, not 2054. We don't all have the internet surgically implanted into our skulls.

[janoc]

Yes, because there are always like dozen of PCB designers at airports in suits, designing PCBs on their 10" ultrabook.

If you like making anything PCB related without internet connection and being able to google anything, having access to the datasheets and application notes, mind as well draw the PCB with a fountain pen.

Not having an internet connection could well mean: "My DSL just went down and I have unsaved work on my screen!" Then what? Leave the machine running until the connection comes back (and pray things don't crash in the meantime)? What if you can't leave the machine running for some reason? Yeah, you can suspend it - which works once out of 10 attempts on desktop machines (it suspends, but whether it will resume correctly is a lottery).

Unhindered local save ability is not simply a matter of convenience for a tool that is marketed for serious work.

[zapta]

Uh, no, there are dozens (of dozens of dozens, I'd wager) of people with unreliable connections at home.
...
It's 2014, not 2054. We don't all have the internet surgically implanted into our skulls.

Git/Github have an excellent model of working with the cloud.  Everything is cached locally in an accessible form and you sync in and out at the point of your choosing. While offline you can still have full repository functionality (add/reverter/remove/diff/log/branch/commit etc).

Other repositories like Perforce allow you to develop off line but without repository operations.

Online applications like Google docs do not even allow to edit offline (maybe the Android mobile app does, not sure, but you get the idea).

Will be interesting to see where free CM falls on this scale, possibly the later because of artificial restrictions.

[Precipice]

Are you sure this free version is 'marketed for serious work'?
If it is, it's going to gut their existing market, and currently, we're the ones paying their wages / dividends.

[zapta]

Are you sure this free version is 'marketed for serious work'?
If it is, it's going to gut their existing market, and currently, we're the ones paying their wages / dividends.

That's the handicap of Altium when addressing to the maker market. They need to protect their legacy bread and butter. This is for example why Silicon Graphics and other dinosaurs died.

[Precipice]

That's the handicap of Altium when addressing to the maker market. They need to protect their legacy bread and butter. This is for example why Silicon Graphics and other dinosaurs died.

Crumbs, maybe the recent cashpile is because they really are throwing the existing userbase away. That would be... brave...
Mind you, if local working and secure storage exists, I'd get a hell of a lot of maker-priced 'upgrades' for the price of my current maintenance. I'm not sure how I feel about this train of thought.

[c4757p]

Uh, no, there are dozens (of dozens of dozens, I'd wager) of people with unreliable connections at home.
...
It's 2014, not 2054. We don't all have the internet surgically implanted into our skulls.

Git/Github have an excellent model of working with the cloud.  Everything is cached locally in an accessible form and you sync in and out at the point of your choosing. While offline you can still have full repository functionality (add/reverter/remove/diff/log/branch/commit etc).

Other repositories like Perforce allow you to develop off line but without repository operations.

Yup. If it fit the git model I'd be quite pleased. It seems, though, that they want to use this 'cloud' restriction as a way to differentiate between the low-end and high-end solutions, and a git-like system with both local and remote storage wouldn't really help them do that.

I certainly wouldn't be one of the ones howling if that's what they did. I love git

[IanJ]

Not having an internet connection could well mean: "My DSL just went down and I have unsaved work on my screen!" Then what? Leave the machine running until the connection comes back (and pray things don't crash in the meantime)? What if you can't leave the machine running for some reason? Yeah, you can suspend it - which works once out of 10 attempts on desktop machines (it suspends, but whether it will resume correctly is a lottery).

Unhindered local save ability is not simply a matter of convenience for a tool that is marketed for serious work.

As much as I don't like the cloud thing......I gotta say the chances are Altium have thought about all of this (surely?)...............The easy way is to have the app save locally (but unaccessible to the user) and then if and when the Internet is back up the app does it save to the cloud. This would allow the app to be shut down etc etc etc.
There's no reason to lose anything or be unable to shutdown your PC just because the Net goes down.

I hope!

Ian.

[tszaboo]

I dislike the cloud idea if it means I cannot store locally. You know, because I don't always have an internet connection.

Yes, because there are always like dozen of PCB designers at airports in suits, designing PCBs on their 10" ultrabook.

If you like making anything PCB related without internet connection and being able to google anything, having access to the datasheets and application notes, mind as well draw the PCB with a fountain pen.

Uh, no, there are dozens (of dozens of dozens, I'd wager) of people with unreliable connections at home.

And I don't need to Google anything to do the layout - at the layout stage, that's all done already, because I'm not an idiot and I actually prepare for my unreliable connection. Important documents are saved. That's what local storage is for.

It's 2014, not 2054. We don't all have the internet surgically implanted into our skulls.

And all the others

This is not a professional tool, dont consider it as one. It is not here to replace AD. Forcing you to be online is not nice, but let's face it, everyone does that. You can use Office for free if you use it online. And guess what, if you want to use it offline, you have to buy it. You have to realise: This is not made for people making money from doing PCB job. This includes one man companies. It is made for hobbiests, makers, people who buy Sparkfun stuff or desing an arduino shield with Microchip ADCs, and maybe they will order 5 PCB and dont know in the end what to do with the other 4.
I'm sure there will be something in between the 9000 dollar AD and the circuitmaker (like option for 150 dollars), but saving offline Should not be free, for the same reasons that we dont want this to be the last release from Altium. IF you make money with it, concerned about IP, dont want your data directly sent to NSA, KGB , Australian Secret Intelligence Service, and who knows where else, pay up. Simple as that.
If the internet connection is down at work, that is payed coffee break anyway.