I am working, on 19 since one month. (at work for this price obviously, and done a PCB already)
It's kinda a bit different of what we are used in the way informations are displayed from 18. However it's same functionality and more glossy. I like it. Less bugs since the two patchs of this month.
Looks promissing of what we can do with this baby. I need to find back the best way to draw schematics in altium after two years of the horrific orcad
There is still missing some functions like parameter text draw in the good way. You can't set in the library where you want to show your parameter. So evry time you add you component it's still a mess.
Anyway looking back to orcad it's gonna get my live much better.
However Altium should stop to do the same this with different menus and different code doing different results. After you need to know where is the good menu to use and the bad menu to do the same thing bug not same result.
And you need spend hours for checking if it's the right method you want ... But same as Altium 18 or 17 or 16. So nothing changed, just more ways to do same
Export a step file there is at least two differents ways ... (from files menu it's gonna look ok first try. From job file, if you don't fucking check you want see pcb holes, the mounting holes are filled ... NOT SAME CODE WTF ! )
For a BOM i counted at least 3 f-cking methods
Can you stop that Altium ? I know there is small and big buisness and it's not same. Just please unify the methods of doing the work, and use a single code for the same functions. It's simple or not ?
edit :
PS I know this is not altium forum, I just want to talk about my experience on that tool, and if by chance they read Dave forum (I think they do and should), I would be proud to be a part this tool getting better
If someone is lost and want the best way to do a good library, post here I will do a video. For now what I have seen on youtube is really bad.
Hello,
I'm going to give you some suggestion hope they may help.
Indeed altium has menu replication issues, in 17 it was a nightmare. in 18 they just deleted a lot of menus, and got better (they actually overdid it a few times and dropped useful features, but they put them back).
Now there are still redundant ways to export. The underlying issue is probably that a lot of the code cannot be decently updated (embarcadero delphi) and they're just rewriting features from scratch as they go along (no point in fixing code when you're working on a dead framework)
In general, the exports from the menus are older and crappier, the outjobs tends to work better. If you want a good workflow i suggest doing the following:
* have a standard outjob for development were you export for example schematics, bom to share with colleagues, 3d step for mechanical engineer etc etc
* set up the exports inside the outjob in different containers
* set up a publishing destination, for example a shared folder on the network or a folder on the desktop
* now, when you want to export something, use the "generate and publish" link on the right in the outjob containers. it's 2 clicks. fast and easy.
* keep refining your single outjob as you go along
For bom expecially you REALLY want to go with the newer methods that merge all data together between schematics/pcb/database/cloud, they're pretty great. That means:
* add a bomdoc to your project, show only the columns you need on your day-to-day work
* generate the bom export from the outjob using the bomdoc as a source
A good suggestion, in general, read the release notes carefully for 17-18-19, you should get a sense of the direction the software is headed.