Altium Designer and Circuit Studio compatibility?

[Alex Nikitin]

I'm pretty sure that this question was asked before however I can not find the answer. My employer is considering a move to Altium Designer. Would it help me in any way to get Circuit Studio at home so I can spend some time learning on my own? Or it would be a waste of time/money? Is it possible to import a layout/schematics from Designer to Circuit Studio and vise versa? Libraries? Components? How different is the operation between two? Would be grateful for any insight on these questions.

Cheers

Alex

[GlowingGhoul]

Yes, you can use files between CD and AD:

https://www.element14.com/community/community/manufacturers/altium/blog/2015/07/24/importing-altium-circuit-studio-files-to-altium-designer-and-vice-versa

Circuit Studio is very close to Altium Designer. While there are differences, using Circuit Studio would most definitely give the user a big head start in learning Altium Designer.

[trevwhite]

I am using CS and have imported Altium Designer libraries so I think they are compatible/same.

I believe the schematic capture between the two works pretty much the same but CS uses the Ribbon interface rather than dropdown menus. I have had no problem loading Designer Schematic files into CS. You can save Altium Designer PCBs as a version 5 and they load into CS from what I understand but I have not had much experience with this. I also understand that Designer can load in CS files but this needs to be verified. I think someone also said the shortcut keys are all different between the two so you might end up getting a bit confused between the two if you are using them both all the time but depends really how much you intend to use them both at the same time

My gut feeling is that once you master CS, using Designer is probably going to be a familiar but more feature packed experience.

[Alex Nikitin]

Thank you guys, it looks like it makes sense for me to get the Circuit Studio.

Cheers

Alex