Free Altium is Coming

[EEVblog]

Where can I see the features and limitations of this CircuitMaker?
And why Altium seems to not advertise it on their website?

Because it is practically Alpha software and they are still working on huge parts of it and exactly how it will work.
They need early beta testers to help guide them on what direction to take.

[Rory]

Since Dave has had his hands on the new gee-whiz, it will be interesting to get his take on this. 

I have not used it yet, just been given a demo of it via Skype.

I guess it's premature to ask cogent questions without arguing UI or OS nuances ad nauseum with the rest of the monkeys. All I want to know is if it'll be worth using it as a stepping stone to the "Pro" software. Hopefully, once you get your hands on it you'll give us a useful review. As it is, I'm really getting tired of wading through the bullshit getting generated on this thread.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

Who cares about push n shove, if copy - paste doesn't work.

That's complete misinformation. Pebkac.
If you want to argue about it take it to another thread.

[Rigby]

Yeah. Rebind the keys to your liking.  Fixed.

[zapta]

So whats the catch how are they gonna make money of this "free" tool?

Check the other thread on this topic. Dave posted some information.

[nixfu]

Cloud only storage shows they still don't have a clue about the market they think they are going for.

It's standard practice to share your eagle files with people in the open hardware, maker, arduino communities so that they can take your design and make it better, change the form factor, maybe swap a part, take out feature they don't want etc. 

Only being able to share gerbers will NOT cut it, people will just go back to eagle or kicad after being asked a few times for the "eagle files please". 

[Rigby]

We don't know how "cloud-locked" the release version will be, so griping about it at this point is pointless.

And who says one can't share their stuff just because their stuff isn't stored locally?  No one.  No one says that.

[apelly]

Circuitmaker. If you've never heard of Altium it sounds like run-of-the-mill over-hyped marketing wank. I wonder what percentage of the maker community has heard of Altium, let alone heard free-electron and Dave banging on about how good it is? Maybe they'll address the branding later, but as far as brand distinction goes, this isn't off to a great start.

And; really? A four page brochure-ware website that requires scripting?

[Mechatrommer]

Ribbon!?  ....

So?, it's a good way of grouping functionality

Agreed. What's the problem? I like it.
Is this like a Comic Sans hatred thing? 

I like the ribbon, also.

and ye all must be loving AutoTRAX DEX by that one guy, he got it much earlier than this multi million company. one issue i have with ribbon is they took several pixels more at the top compared to classic 16 pixels toolbuttons. and too much of it wont help, finding one particular button in the ribbon is like finding needle in a plate full of spaggethy. i dont tend to click ribbon or button now and then while working, i prefer shortcut keys.

[Zad]

One thing has emerged over the past few days; Cloud storage is a really clever device for Altium.

Ask yourself one question: What is the BIG thing that Altium want to avoid happening? Answer: Professional engineers and companies using the free version of their commercial software, and eating into profits.

Solution: No engineer or commercial company will go within a country mile of storage on a system outside their control and security. Arduino hipsters with homeless guy beards, clutching their Apple products and fixed-gear bicycles will love it! Two problems solved in one stroke of the marketing pen.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

Solution: No engineer or commercial company will go within a country mile of storage on a system outside their control and security. Arduino hipsters with homeless guy beards, clutching their Apple products and fixed-gear bicycles will love it! Two problems solved in one stroke of the marketing pen.

I think you hit the nail on the head there. In fact I might go and have a shave.

[AlfBaz]

Ribbon!?  ....

So?, it's a good way of grouping functionality

Agreed. What's the problem? I like it.
Is this like a Comic Sans hatred thing? 

A ribbon is like a bain marie at a smorgasbord, you have to walk up and down to look at all the food and come away wondering what half of it is. Most people that can read prefer a menu. Adopting UI's designed for n00bs in what is ostensibly a highly technical application reeks of design by mass wanking. Personally, it makes me want to punch someone in the ribbon!

[zapta]

A ribbon is like a bain marie at a smorgasbord, you have to walk up and down to look at all the food and come away wondering what half of it is. Most people that can read prefer a menu. Adopting UI's designed for n00bs in what is ostensibly a highly technical application reeks of design by mass wanking. Personally, it makes me want to punch someone in the ribbon!

+1

When Microsoft Office came with a Ribbon I switched to Open (Libre) Office. It just made things more complex for me. This is subjective of course.

[AlfBaz]

When Microsoft Office...

To me it felt like I went from using professional tools to being given a plastic hammer that squeaked

[EEVblog]

Only being able to share gerbers will NOT cut it

It is nothing of the sort, the complete opposite in fact.
The whole point of the program is that allows community sharing of the design project files and libraries etc. And all the good stuff like rating projects and parts and libraries and finding were parts are used, project branching etc.

[Kjelt]

Well I think we need more info before we can have a verdict on this one.
More companies are doing free software with cloud storage, there are some serious things to consider though:
- what if the company goes belly up, is all data lost ?  (remember megaupload.com)
- what code will be in the program on your computer and what code will run on their servers (you might not be able to work if there are connection issues)
- what is the catch, how do they make money, it starts to smell like in app purchases  ?

[george graves]

Does anyone have a re-cap of what is actually know about AD free?

[EEVblog]

- what is the catch, how do they make money, it starts to smell like in app purchases  ?

That's exactly what it is.
If you need more capability than the free version offers then you can rent the option(s) for 3 or 12 months to finish your project, then revert back to the free version.
I think it's an excellent idea.
On top of that if you finish your design early and don't need that feature any more, you can trade the difference in price for something else. So can chop and change as your design needs change.

[Precipice]

Since it'll have a billing method, will it also have a 'press button, get boards' option?
And possibly a 'press button, get stuffed boards'? That would be quite cool, but rather harder work, some kind of bidding engine behind the scenes?

[mikeselectricstuff]

If you need more capability than the free version offers then you can rent the option(s) for 3 or 12 months to finish your project, then revert back to the free version.

Can you also buy a permanent upgrade though?

[mrpackethead]

Feeling pretty grumpy that i've spent a lot of money with Altium not so long ago and they are about to essentially give everyone else the same stuff for free.

[Precipice]

I thought that at first, too - but I bet they're not.
Every time I pay for my three seats, it's a distinct wrench, and I guess that's the same for a lot of people. Freezing a seat or two and letting the small projects use the free stuff is so appealing, surely Altium will try quite hard to avoid that.

[T3sl4co1l]

Ribbon!?  ....

So?, it's a good way of grouping functionality

Agreed. What's the problem? I like it.
Is this like a Comic Sans hatred thing? 

A ribbon is like a bain marie at a smorgasbord, you have to walk up and down to look at all the food and come away wondering what half of it is. Most people that can read prefer a menu. Adopting UI's designed for n00bs in what is ostensibly a highly technical application reeks of design by mass wanking. Personally, it makes me want to punch someone in the ribbon!

The problem isn't so much the presentation (yeah, it's still just a menu, at its heart), but the exclusive promotion of point-and-click operation at the expense of keyboard usability.  Back in the menu days, there was always, you know, "Edit/Copy ... CTRL+C" for every single option that had a key combo.

AD is a bit more obscure using key presses, which for the menu shortcuts, you have to guess at (there's no top level menu "Align", but "A" pops it up nonetheless), and the commands / submenus you have to squint for the underlined letters, but after playing with it for a few months, you catch on to the most useful sequences.

Yes, MS Office gives you the keys when you tap ALT, but it's the same key sequence thing, which is completely inconsistent with the entire history of Windows operability up to that point!  The most irritating part: CTRL+key combos STILL EXIST, but they don't tell you what (you have to dig in obscure help articles, or even third party documentations), and I'm pretty sure they don't want you to know because they're changing their interface methods to be mouse oriented.

And so the point is, AD is quirky enough on its own (it doesn't use CTRL+key combos, not primarily anyway), but if they're fucking it up even more (mouse oriented, if not mouse-only operation!), that's a killer.

Tim

[alimirjamali]

Alright, let's see if we can get some not so interesting technical details:

• RAM requirement, HDD requirement, 3D requirement
• Does it require continues connection to Altium Cloud? or maybe only on Save/Open/Syncing with the Cloud? In other words, is it possible to work with it on a flight from Sidney to London?

System requirements is irrelevant for professional/enthusiast, yet important for a hobbyist who wants to tweak some Arduino shields rapidly. Many hobbyist do not have access to a system which currently Altium recommends for AD:

• 8 GByte RAM
• 10 GByte hard disk space (Install + User Files) - Oh, that is too much for your average Macbook Air toy
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640 series or AMD® Radeon® HD 7770, 1024MB (or more) graphics card or better - Minimum requirement is Intel HD4000
• Dual monitors with at least 1680x1050 (widescreen) or 1600x1200 (4:3) screen resolution

[janekm]

Alright, let's see if we can get some not so interesting technical details:

(snip)

• 8 GByte RAM
• 10 GByte hard disk space (Install + User Files) - Oh, that is too much for your average Macbook Air toy
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640 series or AMD® Radeon® HD 7770, 1024MB (or more) graphics card or better - Minimum requirement is Intel HD4000
• Dual monitors with at least 1680x1050 (widescreen) or 1600x1200 (4:3) screen resolution

Dual monitors is nice I'm sure (simultaneous view of schematic and layout) but hardly needed for regular Altium. The rest of the specs I would expect to be the same going by the screenshots, it's clearly the same underlying code. But those specs are hardly crazy these days, even a Macbook Air would be fine (with an external monitor, but a Macbook Pro Retina works great with the built-in display too, great for those Sidney->London flights...).

It's quite likely they'd be able to reduce the base installation size since a lot of the tutorial and library files could stay "in the cloud" after all.