Circuit Studio "stick time"

[jmarkwolf]

Not much discussion here lately, so I'll stir the pot.

I've been getting quite a bit of stick time on Circuit Studio lately.

Haven't generated Gerber outputs yet, but will soon.

I've loaded/imported many of my previous designs and libraries from the current and previous versions of Altium Designer, and from as far as back as Protel 99SE. Everything, schematics, libraries and PCB's, loaded without mishap and with no errors.

I have not used the Vault nor Circuit Studio or Altium "canned" libraries (never have, always generated and maintained my own) so I can't speak to that.

I've completed a couple schematic designs and can report that I am still pleased with my purchase decision to buy Circuit Studio. It has 90% of everything I use in Altium Designer everyday at work.

The underlying dialogs are pure Altium Designer, although the Circuit Studio ribbon menu SUCKS! If they had left the menus intact and just grayed out or deleted the features they didn't want us to have, instead of the wholesale change they made with the ribbon, Circuit Studio would be mopping up the competition. I can get used to it though.

I believe subsequent revisions will make it an even better bargain.

For the money, the new price in particular, you can't go wrong.

No affiliation, just a happy customer.

[voltsandjolts]

Agreed!

I enjoy using CS but have a few minor gripes.

I would really like to see a fixed release schedule for CS to encourage me to actually pay for yearly renewal. Hopefully after the big Altium release little Altium will get some attention.

[IanJ]

Hi all,

I've been running CircuitStudio since beta.......and coming from Eagle (and a couple others before that) I think CS is the dogs bollocks......lovin' it.
I agree i'd like to see more frequent updates also.....I'm sure the dev team must be making some mods in the long interim periods when we see nothing.

Two minor gripes:

1. Despite the ability to save/load layouts I find that with my dual monitor setup that when I switch from one project to another the layout gets messed up and I have to set it up again manually.

2. I'd like to see a SAVE-AS PROJECT or DUPLICATE PROJECT so I can easily and quickly duplicate my project. I often like to duplicate an entire project just so I can play around with a few test alterations of a pcb or schematic design.

Ian.

[iainwhite]

I'd like to see a SAVE-AS PROJECT or DUPLICATE PROJECT so I can easily and quickly duplicate my project.

Could you just go to explorer and copy the folder structure for the project to a new name?
My CS install seems to save projects in a folder under "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Altium\Projects\<project name>

[IanJ]

I'd like to see a SAVE-AS PROJECT or DUPLICATE PROJECT so I can easily and quickly duplicate my project.

Could you just go to explorer and copy the folder structure for the project to a new name?
My CS install seems to save projects in a folder under "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Altium\Projects\<project name>

As you build your project there becomes files in the folder with internal references to the project path, so it's not a good idea.......the idea is to let CS have control of it all hence my wee gripe.

Ian.

[iainwhite]

Ah, understood.

[negativ3]

Fully agree regarding the ribbon.

[jmarkwolf]

Fully agree regarding the ribbon.

Some CAD packages, AutoCAD fer instance, allows or used to allow changing the menu structure to previous "vintage" menus. It was just a simple config change if I recall correctly.

I'd love to see Circuit Studio do something like that. Probably too much to hope for.

A proper "Find" option on the PCB side would be a treat also. If I have several projects open at a time, and do a search in the upper right search field for "C7" for instance, it'll report all instances of "C7" in all the open projects. Maybe I'm overlooking something.

[IanJ]

Fully agree regarding the ribbon.

Some CAD packages, AutoCAD fer instance, allows or used to allow changing the menu structure to previous "vintage" menus. It was just a simple config change if I recall correctly.

I'd love to see Circuit Studio do something like that. Probably too much to hope for.

A proper "Find" option on the PCB side would be a treat also. If I have several projects open at a time, and do a search in the upper right search field for "C7" for instance, it'll report all instances of "C7" in all the open projects. Maybe I'm overlooking something.

AutoCad does indeed allow you to switch between ribbon and 'classic' mode.....and as a long time AutoCad user I stuck with the old school 'classic' mode up until a few months ago when I bit the bullet and tried the ribbon.......and after a bit of getting used to I am sold on it. So many more commands to hand rather than typing in manually. The ribbon is so much more dynamic for the functions that are being carried out which helps present the commands to the user.

Ian.

[negativ3]

It's all about screen real-estate. Auto-hiding the ribbon works but traditional menus are intuitive after a short while.