Free Altium is Coming

[free_electron]

I need users....

Ok, i am trying ... Go read the topic i created. I am stuck. The autowiring algorithm doesn't work. How do iturn it off ?

There is already a long list of things you can start tweaking to make DEX better.

[c4757p]

I am very interested in expanding AutoTRAX to take into account signal integrity etc.

no no no dont do that yet! fix the basic thing first, people are put off by this basic things impracticality and overwhelmed by your buttons with less manual instructions. expanding to complicated stuffs will do no good if people are not using the sw because of trivial (but important) stuffs. but if you wish to waste another time and have money poll to live, then carry on, i dont have the right to object its your sw afterall.

+1

Seems like it's got some trouble with basic things, like easily drawing schematics. Fix that first! You want a nice product to add some special features to, not a pile of bells and whistles that smells like wee

[hikariuk]

All I can say is different tools are for different markets. If you go to McDonalds to eat with royalty you're gonna have a bad time.

Princess Diana used to take William and Harry to McD's all the time...

[Zeta]

There is tons of peoe out there that could make great stuff if knly they could get their hands on decent tools. That is my 'fight'

That's not your 'fight' that is your tantrum. If it were your fight you would we building those tools instead of just whining about the existing ones.

[Rigby]

There is tons of peoe out there that could make great stuff if knly they could get their hands on decent tools. That is my 'fight'

That's not your 'fight' that is your tantrum. If it were your fight you would we building those tools instead of just whining about the existing ones.

There are many fronts to a fight.  There's all kinds of ways to actively fight against a software problem that don't involve actual programming.

Besides, once you get to a point where you can know circuit and board design very well, it's because you spent time designing circuits and boards and not programming.

[Zeta]

There is tons of peoe out there that could make great stuff if knly they could get their hands on decent tools. That is my 'fight'

That's not your 'fight' that is your tantrum. If it were your fight you would we building those tools instead of just whining about the existing ones.

There are many fronts to a fight.  There's all kinds of ways to actively fight against a software problem that don't involve actual programming.

Besides, once you get to a point where you can know circuit and board design very well, it's because you spent time designing circuits and boards and not programming.

There are many ways to help build a software product that don't require programming expertise. Whining about it or bugging others to do as you wish is not one of those.

I would have thought the OSS movement had made that clear long ago.

[Rigby]

The only thing that the OSS "movement" has made clear to me is that without someone being responsible for software quality, as in OSS, the software quality is absolute shit.

Plenty of non-free software is shit too, mind you, but not having someone who is responsible for quality, be it to themselves or to others, then there won't be any impetus to increase quality.  "works for me" is where it stops.

[nixfu]

OSS, the software quality is absolute shit.

That statement has been proven statistically wrong.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/250543/actually_open_source_code_is_better_report.html

http://www.zdnet.com/article/coverity-finds-open-source-software-quality-better-than-proprietary-code/

//just sayin

[Zeta]

The only thing that the OSS "movement" has made clear to me is that without someone being responsible for software quality, as in OSS, the software quality is absolute shit.

Plenty of non-free software is shit too, mind you, but not having someone who is responsible for quality, be it to themselves or to others, then there won't be any impetus to increase quality.  "works for me" is where it stops.

I hope we agree that quality control, usability and UI design require expertise in that particular field. No project, be it OSS or propietary, be it big or small, would appoint a cry baby for such task only on the merit of their whining.

[DerekG]

With the new deal done with Farnell, I suspect the name of this thread should now read "Free Altium is NOT Coming".

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/altium-circuit-studio/msg598018/#msg598018

[miguelvp]

As far as everyone knows, they are still in close beta with open beta around the corner.

Just because they have circuit studio it doesn't mean a thing. Marketing wise it makes sense they keep quiet during this time and hype it up once open beta comes, then quiet again and more hype close to release. That repetition of hype-quiet reinforces the customer awareness of the product when it's ready to come out.

I would worry if they don't have anything by the end of February because slipping one month is nothing in projects like this.
Then again there are two days left in January so the open beta could be still on schedule, we just don't know, and guessing is not going to help bring it to market faster

[Iliya]

As far as everyone knows, they are still in close beta with open beta around the corner.

Just because they have circuit studio it doesn't mean a thing. Marketing wise it makes sense they keep quiet during this time and hype it up once open beta comes, then quiet again and more hype close to release. That repetition of hype-quiet reinforces the customer awareness of the product when it's ready to come out.

I would worry if they don't have anything by the end of February because slipping one month is nothing in projects like this.
Then again there are two days left in January so the open beta could be still on schedule, we just don't know, and guessing is not going to help bring it to market faster

It's April now, I'd love to take a peek. If I slipped a month, well over 2 in this case, I'd be sacking people. Oh, there's only me to sack 
I signed up for Beta last year. Nothing!

[DerekG]

It's April now, I'd love to take a peek. If I slipped a month, well over 2 in this case, I'd be sacking people.
I signed up for Beta last year. Nothing!

Perhaps that is why there is another thread running called "CircuitMaker Dead".

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/eda/circuitmaker-dead/

As I've said before, Altium will not be putting much effort into this product now that they have come to their new agreement with Farnell with the product called "Circuit Studio".

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/altium-circuit-studio/

Now before all the hopefuls yell me down, I state the above due to being privy to some inside information.

You will find that Altium does just a little on the product until their shareholders have forgotten most of their presentation to them last year .......... and Altium will be ramping up Circuit Studio as the money making replacement.

No doubt most of their shareholders will swallow this hook, line & 10kg sinker.

[miguelvp]

Just saying vague statements is nothing more than spreading rumors for whatever agenda you or your insider informant has because of internal politics and his statements might not have any truth behind them at all.

Why would Altium announce just a couple of weeks ago that they'll go open beta at the Maker Faire in one month from now?
http://blog.circuitmaker.com/#Blogs/The-Road-to-Maker-Faire

So what is your professional relationship with Altium to be privy on that information? And what did you actually hear that it's a done deal that is a no deal?

Show a memo/annoucement from someone that actually has authority on the subject or what you know are just rumors.

[DerekG]

Just saying vague statements

I don't think my statement was in any way "vague". In fact it is very much black & white.

"As I've said before, Altium will not be putting much effort into this product now that they have come to their new agreement with Farnell with the product called Circuit Studio".

So what is your professional relationship with Altium to be privy on that information?

I am very close to one of the developing team members.

Still, best you don't believe & just observe what happens over the next 18 months.

I will point you back to this post once the end result is known.

[miguelvp]

I'm very close to a lot of developers in my field but we do have company policies that state not to spread points of view from even collaborating companies because individuals might not really be in the know and because it can waste millions of marketing funds by thinking the insider information is in black and white.

So you are saying that the open beta is not going to happen? or is it? and octopart has nothing in stake with this?

I guess we can wait one month and change and see what happens at Maker Faire.

Short of sharing Altium's roadmap for CM indicating an early EOL it's just speculation since they are updating news to the masses and the press.

[DerekG]

So you are saying that the open beta is not going to happen?

No, I did not say that.

Clearly if you read my posts above (& in the CircuitMaker thread) you will have a pretty good overview of where this product is heading (it will be released, but not much will be done with it in the future - if you want something that is usable/workable for production, you will need to move up to Circuit Studio which you will find will be having a lot of work done to it over the next 2 to 12 months to bring it quickly up to speed).

it's just speculation since they are updating news to the masses and the press.

As I said above, we will revisit this in 18 months. You will have the benefit of hindsight then.

I will be kind to you when I ask for your apology.

[miguelvp]

I will have no need to apologize since you are not disclosing details on your relation with Altium, so I can take it with a grain of salt and would not feel the obligation to apologize since you are not doing a full disclosure.

If for example you were giving proof and I was denying it then I would feel obligated to apologize but to me this is no different than a guy at the bar telling me that he is Ted Nugent's closest hunting buddy.

If I don't believe him I would not feel obligated to apologize even if it was true.

Edit: The only thing I get out of your statements are conflicts of interests as far as Altium and your employer are concerned with you outing this miss/information (false or true) it doesn't matter.

[LabSpokane]

In light of the fact that Altium is publicly traded, the "insider information" could work out badly for the folks providing it.  Not sure what the laws are in Aussieland, but in the US, it's a major no-no. 

[DerekG]

Not sure what the laws are in Aussieland

You may not be aware of it, but many of Altium's most talented programmers are in the Ukraine.

I don't think they care too much about the laws in Australia.

They are more interested in the war that rages within their country & their immigration applications for the USA.

[Corporate666]

Not sure what the laws are in Aussieland

You may not be aware of it, but many of Altium's most talented programmers are in the Ukraine.

I don't think they care too much about the laws in Australia.

They are more interested in the war that rages within their country & their immigration applications for the USA.

It's also likely that Altium management aren't sharing the long term vision of each product with their programmers in Ukraine.  And a lot can change in a year or two... even if they are putting one product on the back burner in favor of another, it doesn't mean things will say that way.  After all, Altium isn't the best at predicting the direction the market will take.

[DerekG]

It's also likely that Altium management aren't sharing the long term vision of each product with their programmers in Ukraine.

You are right on two counts:

1/ The programmers are simply directed on what features & bugs are to be worked on for certain products. This only gives a short term "picture" of which products are being moved ahead (& which aren't).

2/ Altium's Management have no term vision on anything. They lost their way in the early 2000's & I don't expect them to refind it anytime soon.

And a lot can change in a year or two... even if they are putting one product on the back burner in favor of another, it doesn't mean things will say that way.

You are right again. As Altium realises that they are making next to no money from CircuitMaker, they will only be determined to spend even less time on it.

After all, Altium isn't the best at predicting the direction the market will take.

For the third time in a row - you are correct again.

Altium is pretty poor at predicting, pretty poor at fixing bugs, pretty poor at following up on what they tell their shareholders.

[ehughes]

Now that the NDA is lifted, you will probably hear a lot more about CM.     I have been on it from the 1st beta.    There has been a lot of iterating to get a free version that balances all of the interests.    Contrary to certain belief, it is not dead.


There was just another version posted for testers tonight    In particular, there is a lot of development on the component workflow to get it smooth.    There is still work to do but it looks better on every release.     Part of the good news is that Altium has been working on modeling everything in the Common Parts  library.


I have been doing quite a bit of testing on the component workflow and project management.     My daughter and I are working on a project for world maker faire 2015.   She is new to the electronics world and is having a good time with CircuitMaker.   The ability to save in the cloud works quite nicely.


I currently have CM on 3 machines.   Being able to seamlessly moving between them without having to setup a license server, etc is quite nice.   That and I can work between them and manage versions without a hiccup is very nice.


Not to say their aren't issues to be worked out but it is coming along.

[EEVblog]

Altium is pretty poor at predicting, pretty poor at fixing bugs, pretty poor at following up on what they tell their shareholders.

I can remember when they didn't even bother to tell the Australia Stock Exchange that they sacked their President and COO. And that's required by law 

[Ice-Tea]

I just love how my distributor just send me a bill for renewing my subscription without even a mention of new licensing or product options.

I wonder if they will offer upgrade/downgrade paths for current licence owners...