New and new and worried - AD 18

[EE-digger]

I'm just about to change employers and the new company is Altium based.  To try and make an impression, I got a late evening license and downloaded and installed the latest version.

My system is an I7 , 64bit,  6GB memory. Graphics are Intel HD 3000.  It takes 1:45 to start AD.  Is this typical?

I wouldn't mind the startup time at all if it ran forever like my Cadence installations.   Been using Capture CIS and Allegro for about 6 years, in parallel with some PADS PCB (PADS logic / pcb for many years prior).

AD seems very prone to crashes, while in a simple schematic and while trying to add a PCB to the job.  Plus everything is SOOOOO slow.  The crashes are not even graceful but AD loops on the same send/close, etc. dialog box while also taking over screen graphics for the notebook.  As I compile this, it's locked up but other apps work and repaint their windows.

What may be causing this?  I know CAD is graphics sensitive but can anyone give some pointers on AD preferred graphic hardware and mode.

The integrated graphics have been fine for most of my work, including mechanical 3D solids.

I'm worried about these instabilities and what I'm walking into in terms of a potentially very fussy CAD system.  I've never had problems like this with Allegro.

[EE-digger]

Ok, panicked too soon.  Haven't had to track down dll problems in a long, long time.

It was one of the .dll for the integrated graphics.  That and the update, which was hard to find because Intel said all was fine, has support for Direct X 10.  I don't know if the older driver suported it or not.

My other programs had been using Open GL, hence had no problems.

Now on to the fun stuff !

[DerekG]

My system is an I7 , 64bit,  6GB memory. Graphics are Intel HD 3000.

Altium recommend a separate video card. The inbuilt Intel HD3000 is now pretty sluggish, so larger boards won't be an enjoyable experience for you.

6GB RAM is also on the low side. Altium recommend a minimum of 8GB. Things slow down once you open up a number of libraries.

[EE-digger]

Thanks.  I'll be on a better equipped system.  This was just an attempt to take a quick look at it.  So far so good except it's a different paradigm from Allegro or PADs.

Can you move a license to a different machine or does that need Altium help?

[DerekG]

Can you move a license to a different machine or does that need Altium help?

Altium allow you to install your license on two machines, provided only one license is used at the same time. This allows you to put the second copy on a home machine for backup purposes.

As far as I'm aware (with my license), when a machine is decommissioned (or fails), there is no restriction to installing Altium on a new machine.

Altium do log your license details, IP address & machine details when you log into their component vault. This means that they can track how many machines you have Altium installed on.

Someone else may have had experience with what happens if you attempt to install a single license on too many machines.

[ajb]

There are three different license types, IIRC, so if you have an evaluation license I'm not sure whether they handle that as a standard machine-based license or a floating license.  The floating licenses allow you to use AD anywhere, but you can only be active on one machine at a time, and you have to authenticate against Altium servers to activate a license when you start the software (but you can "roam" a floating license, which temporarily locks it to one machine, which is useful for instance while travelling with a laptop). 

As far as stability, IME it has been improving over the last few major versions, and on the whole AD18 is a lot more stable than AD16 or so.  Every once in a while I get the old "Please wait..." message, but it's been a while since I had a catastrophic crash.

An SSD definitely helps startup times, as well as making autosaves quicker.  Really, I'd say that every computer ought to have an SSD these days, but especially when doing CAD or software development.  I haven't found a huge amount of RAM to provide a noticeable benefit, but then my designs tend not to be terribly large.

[EE-digger]

Thanks guys for the license details 

As for stability, I ran for quite a few hours this weekend with no problems.  Was able to create a schematic, a board to go with it, and used components from the Vault.

I'm not sure Vault access is complete in the demo version, or else it is different on 18 from various materials and videos.  I do not have a "DXP" menu entry and my Vault access was solely via "libraries" in the add part dialog.  Even then, something is odd.  The libraries for a given manufacturer seem to have only a small sample of parts and for some, like Murata, only a single capacitor.

There is still much to learn but so far I'm a very happy camper.  If this thing remains stable, it blows away Cadence Capture CIS, which, although generally stable, has always been dodgy with network latencies for library and license servers.  (Thanks to Dave for the use of "dodgy")

[ajb]

or else it is different on 18 from various materials and videos.

This is definitely a problem with Altium documentation. Docs that reflect the most recent version often either don't exist or don't appear prominently in search results, so when they make a UI change it can be hard to make sense of the documentation you find.  This is especially true for AD18, which changed a lot of the front line UI.  Usually it's possible to translate old docs to the new interface, but I can definitely see how it would be a pain for a newcomer.

I don't use vaults, so I'm afraid I can't comment on that aspect. 

[free_electron]

For Vault access you need to install Nexus. And that requires a vault licence and a server running it.
AD18 uses local libraries.

[dmills]

I don't think that is quite true, IIRC you can point AD at Altiums public component vaults and use their parts with nothing but a standard license.

Not saying you should, I would rather have my own parts in my own library, but you can access their libraries from their public vault if you really want to.

I am staying with AD17 for the moment, still somewhat too conservative to make AD18 comfortable.

Regards, Dan.

[free_electron]

Yes, altiums vault is always accessible. But to access a private server and be able to commit to the library you need Nexus.

AD18 :- vaultless
Nexus : AD18  + vault

[DerekG]

I do not have a "DXP" menu entry and my Vault access was solely via "libraries" in the add part dialog.  Even then, something is odd.  The libraries for a given manufacturer seem to have only a small sample of parts and for some, like Murata, only a single capacitor.

Back in 2010, Altium moved to their "component vault" model.

They "froze" their existing libraries, but still make these available for all users, including those using the evaluation/trial software.

You can download it here:

 https://techdocs.altium.com/display/ADOH/Download+Libraries

One of the main reasons that companies pay so much for Altium Designer is it can (does) save them so much time having several hundreds of thousands of components in the vault. For SMD components there are often (usually) 3 footprints available. These are "standard" (for boards that have a reasonable amount of real estate), "miniaturised" (for boards that are really tight real estate wise) & "larger" (for boards with plenty of room).

Users in the past have found that the footprints are normally correct, however they should be checked before committing to a new design.

The evaluation version does not give you full access to the component vault. This prevents bootleg copies from accessing Altium's extensive libraries.

I believe the components you do have are all held locally on your machine.

A registered user can access the component vault & download the components they require. These downloaded components can then be assigned to a single "project database" which ensures each project does not take up more MB of data than absolutely necessary.

I hope this helps.

[Wilksey]

I7 CPU, Windows 10 x64 pro,  32GB, Geforce 750Ti 2GB, SSD, AD 17.1.9 - No problems, AD 18 - skid, skid, crash.
AD 17.1.9 - No problem connecting to my personal vault server.
AD 18 - Nope, need Nexus, I had issues with Nexus and local libraries, so so complicated, still have 2 tickets raised with Altium with no resolution.

Best feature about AD18 - Half the installer size, bit faster to launch, pretty much it.

AD 17 Takes around 10 seconds from icon to workspace.  That RAM and SSD makes a difference.