What's up with Allium CircuitMaker?

[zapta]

Now that it is released for some time, how well does it do? Does it have a vibrant community?  Does it gain traction market wise? Any adoption by a major OSH vendor?

Haven't hear much about it recently.

[Dubbie]

I've made a few boards successfully in it. I vastly prefer it to Eagle, but it's not perfect. But for $0 I can't really complain. The board house never said anything about the files I sent so guessing there were no problems there.

As far as my designs being open to the world, I've gotten over that. No-one is going to want my designs. I'm not kidding myself that I am some sort of Jim Williams. As far as anyone else is concerned, they are completely undocumented, untested and worthless.

So all up, I rate it "best of a bad bunch" (the bunch being free pcb design software.)


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[rdl]

The whole thing was nothing but a marketing stunt.

I can't imagine there are many people who would want to use something that exposed and "shared" their designs by default and, more importantly, didn't easily permit local storage of files. Cloud? 

If you dislike Eagle, try Diptrace or KiCad first.

[tszaboo]

I hear from it a lot of times. I clicked somewhere, now I get mails when someone is making a change to the project I've downloaded. There is no unsubscribe button in the mail.
Because all I've needed was some extra spam.

[FrankBuss]

I can't imagine there are many people who would want to use something that exposed and "shared" their designs by default and, more importantly, didn't easily permit local storage of files. Cloud? 

You can create two sandbox projects, which are not shared unless you release them. I tried it now for two days, I've used Eagle for the last 20 years, and I really like CircuitMaker. I only have to get used to it that it doesn't have automatical forward- and backward annotation (if you change something in the schematic, it is changed in the board immediatly and vice versa). I renamed some components in the schematic and managed to break it so that "import changes" didn't work anymore. I had to delete the components manually on the board, then import it again, but maybe that's because I'm a newbie.

Another thing is the designator number. Is there a way for example to auto number all "R?". I know there is a feature with shift-click-move, which copies a part and increments the number automatically, but if I do this with R1, it creates R2, even if there is already R2 And if I place new components, I have to keep track of it manually. It is only a minor problem, but at least this is something Eagle does better, or I missed some setting or how to do it right in CircuitMaker. Could be really a problem if you have hundreads of resistors.

Btw, this is my first CircuitMaker board:

[fenclu]

Having a big part of Altium's functionality for free is a huge deal. You can start two sandbox projects, which is kind of a limitation (certainly better than the 300 pins limit od free version of Diptrace).

The problem I have with circuit maker is that it's really sluggish. On my very decent laptop with 8GB of RAM and i7 4720HQ proccessor it's pretty much unusable (possibly due to the fact that I don't have an SSD in it). On my PC also with 8GB of RAM and an oldschool Intel Dual Core it's much more comfortable to work with but not nearly as good as other packages, even Altium. CM is still in beta phase, so we might have to be patient.

A couple of things bug me, like the necessity to search for a part number if you want to place something as simple as a resistor or a cap (seriously, I can't find a button assigned to fast discrete part placement, I have to literally search the Octopart library for a "capacitor").

[v8dave]

Another thing is the designator number. Is there a way for example to auto number all "R?". I know there is a feature with shift-click-move, which copies a part and increments the number automatically, but if I do this with R1, it creates R2, even if there is already R2 And if I place new components, I have to keep track of it manually. It is only a minor problem, but at least this is something Eagle does better, or I missed some setting or how to do it right in CircuitMaker. Could be really a problem if you have hundreads of resistors.

I have not yet used CircuitMaker as I have the full Altium licensed version but in that there is an option in the tools menu to annotate schematics quietly. It will then replace all the ? with the next available number. I checked and CircuitMaker has this too. Just make sure that when you place your parts, all the references have the ? and then run the Tools, Annotate Schematics Quietly. It's much faster than the other 2 options and uses the default across and then down.

[FrankBuss]

The problem I have with circuit maker is that it's really sluggish. On my very decent laptop with 8GB of RAM and i7 4720HQ proccessor it's pretty much unusable (possibly due to the fact that I don't have an SSD in it). On my PC also with 8GB of RAM and an oldschool Intel Dual Core it's much more comfortable to work with but not nearly as good as other packages, even Altium. CM is still in beta phase, so we might have to be patient.

Works reasonable fast on my PC. But some operations require internet access. If you use Wifi on your laptop, might be slower than when using ethernet on your PC.

A couple of things bug me, like the necessity to search for a part number if you want to place something as simple as a resistor or a cap (seriously, I can't find a button assigned to fast discrete part placement, I have to literally search the Octopart library for a "capacitor").

Yes, this is really annoying. I've seen the real Altium Designer and it comes with a lot of nice big libraries with all the basic stuff. But I like the idea that all the components you create are shared and referenced on Ocotopart with links to the distributors to buy them. Even if you don't want to share your projects, it doesn't make sense that everyone has to re-create standard components. But if you do have to create them, it is much easier than in Eagle, even with a basic 3D outline if you don't have a Step file for it. Hopefully all user created components are high quality.

My first component I created was the tlv61220. Does it look ok? I used a bigger distance between the pins to make it easier to place a coil between VBAT and SW in the schematic and a resistor between VOUT and FB. First I wanted to place VBAT at the top side and GND at the bottom side, but then the designators are placed at the right side, which didn't look good, and I didn't find a setting to change the default position of the designator. But no problem, looks like most IC symbols are drawn like I did it.

Just make sure that when you place your parts, all the references have the ? and then run the Tools, Annotate Schematics Quietly. It's much faster than the other 2 options and uses the default across and then down.

Thanks, works, and "Force Annotate" for already numbered components on the schematic, if not in the right order. Is there the same tool for the PCB? I think it is better to have the number order on the PCB, from left to right and top to bottom, because then it is easier when you hand solder it to check the parts with the parts list. In Eagle there is a script which renumbers it on the board. And can I write my own scripts?