Half price Circuit Studio

[Dubbie]

I was helping a newb design their first PCB the other day. I set them up with circuitmaker and was pleasantly surprised at how easy they found it. I think the part that made it most simple was the fact that they didn't have to draw any library parts. They got lucky and all the parts they were using were there already.


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[slowertech]

Does anyone know if CircuitStudio has any trace length matching tools? In the reference design for the PCI card, it looks like they added meanders but I cannot find any of those features in the tool.

Thanks

[tszaboo]

Does anyone know if CircuitStudio has any trace length matching tools? In the reference design for the PCI card, it looks like they added meanders but I cannot find any of those features in the tool.

Thanks

No it does not have those features.
https://www.element14.com/community/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/76216-102-1-315698/CS%20v%20AD%20Feature%20Comparison%20-%20Final.pdf

[plazma]

F*ck!!! They registered the SW to an old email account which have been closed for years. It is not even in my Farnell account details. Where did they dig it?
I needed to work today with Circuit Studio.

I hope the fix will not take a month as with an other forum member.

[gowithyourself]

I've been looking to move away from Eagle for awhile, even before the subscription only thing. But this is less of a no-brainer than I thought. It seem like Autodesk will put some effort into Eagle. At the same time Altium isn't known for having a stable offering either. I guess I will have to evaluate CircuitStudio and see if I like it enough to take the risk regardless of how Eagle develops.

[fcb]

Does anyone know how long this promotion is going to last?

[trevwhite]

I was wondering how long the promo is on for. That's if it is a promo or just a new price. Farnell does not show it as on sale. 

Maybe Altium see Eagle will be a threat later on and are striking early to gain some market traction.

Circuit Studio really does look like a no brainer. I use Easy PC at present and CS looks to be very polished in comparison. I get boards done fine with EasyPC and can use it with my eyes closed but I really am tempted to make the move to CS. I had a client last week ask for a Step file of a board design I did for them. I could not do it and I think EasyPC may never do it. CS seems to handle file import better. Certainly Eagle files I tested from a TI Webench design imported into CS perfectly. Easy PC struggled to import it properly.

It just feels if CS is Altium designer core then for £395 it really is very cheap. I am waiting for the gotcha.

Trev

[Agent86]

Does anyone know how long this promotion is going to last?

I don't know about the sale price, but it looks like the EAGLE promotion goes until March 30.

For me as an EAGLE user, the $150/year maintenance costs make CS considerably less expensive for the long term, even if I don't get the sale price.  I plan to contribute to KiCad development (1/2 day) and I'll still save $100/year...

[H.O]

I've downloaded the 30 day trial of CS and will spend a couple of nights probing around in it.

At €550 including VAT it's less than a years worth of EAGLE Premium. (I don't have the equivalent of EAGLE Premium today but that's the version CS matches).

[trevwhite]

I just spoke to Farnell regarding the price of CS. Currently its £395 in uk. They said that price is on until the end of March. It is related to the Eagle subscription but seems they have opened it up to everyone. The software is sold with a perpetual license and that includes 1 year subscription.

Least now I can spend a few weeks properly evaluating it without concern the price will go back up again at any time.

Trev

[plazma]

Have anybody here bought a licence?

Farnell registered the licence to a non-working email.

Does the email need to work during registration for the CircuitStudio account?

I just want to know if I need to wait for Farnell to change the email or can I proceed with the non-working email.
The wrong email is in "Step 1 - Account Activation"

[hammy]

Have anybody here bought a licence?
Farnell registered the licence to a non-working email.
Does the email need to work during registration for the CircuitStudio account?

I only got a message from element14 with information how to proceed to this email-address I used for the shop order. This address is not neccessary during activation.

After the CircuitStudio activation you can find a tab called "My Account" where you can edit all your information. Including the email address. I would say you can change the address afterwards.

Good luck!
hammy

 

[Zbig]

While browsing the Circuit Studio documentation, I stumbled across this little gem on http://documentation.circuitstudio.com/display/CSTU/CircuitStudio+-+((FAQs)):

While there are no 'hard limits' per se, the software has been engineered to make it impractical for use with large designs. To this end, the PCB Editor will start to exibit performance degradation when editing designs containing 5000 pads, becoming virtually unusable with designs containing 50,000 pads. Degradation itself takes the form of progressive slow-down in PCB editing functions (such as routing, placing components, polygon pours, etc).

Now, I can't decide whether that's just a really awkward wording on their side or they have actually implemented some kind of "crippling algorithm" that kicks in after reaching 5000 pads and gradually inserts longer and longer delays, making your life harder and harder, trying to (not so subtly) nudge you towards Altium Designer? If so, wouldn't that be quite a weird thing to openly admit to just like that?

[tszaboo]

While browsing the Circuit Studio documentation, I stumbled across this little gem on http://documentation.circuitstudio.com/display/CSTU/CircuitStudio+-+((FAQs)):

While there are no 'hard limits' per se, the software has been engineered to make it impractical for use with large designs. To this end, the PCB Editor will start to exibit performance degradation when editing designs containing 5000 pads, becoming virtually unusable with designs containing 50,000 pads. Degradation itself takes the form of progressive slow-down in PCB editing functions (such as routing, placing components, polygon pours, etc).

Now, I can't decide whether that's just a really awkward wording on their side or they have actually implemented some kind of "crippling algorithm" that kicks in after reaching 5000 pads and gradually inserts longer and longer delays, making your life harder and harder, trying to (not so subtly) nudge you towards Altium Designer? If so, wouldn't that be quite a weird thing to openly admit to just like that?

Even Altium struggles, if you have multiple large designs open. First it starts with "please wait a moment" window popping up several times, and then "chatastrophic failure". This is the time to save your work re-start it and close what you dont need. I think it has to do something with the memory used, but I cannot pinpoint it.
What I've experienced, with CS, that this happens much faster. At around 500MB used it start having this issues. So a few complex 3D model can set you back a lot.

Also, layer re-pour is exponentially growing with complexity. And online DRC can be a few seconds, which does not sound a lot, but if you have to wait 100 times...

This being said, you get some discount for AD if you have CS. If you dont know the tool, it might be better to learn the basics on that.

[1lulu2]

Can you still purchase CS without having an Eagle license at the discount price?

1lulu2

[Zbig]

Even Altium struggles, if you have multiple large designs open. First it starts with "please wait a moment" window popping up several times, and then "chatastrophic failure". This is the time to save your work re-start it and close what you dont need. I think it has to do something with the memory used, but I cannot pinpoint it.
What I've experienced, with CS, that this happens much faster. At around 500MB used it start having this issues. So a few complex 3D model can set you back a lot.

Also, layer re-pour is exponentially growing with complexity. And online DRC can be a few seconds, which does not sound a lot, but if you have to wait 100 times...

This being said, you get some discount for AD if you have CS. If you dont know the tool, it might be better to learn the basics on that.

Hmm... yes, I do understand that it's by no means a walk in the park from the computational complexity perspective but their words are, quote: "has been engineered to make it impractical" Is that possible that a non-native English speaker wrote that? Or perhaps it only sounds so obviously evil to a non-native English reader, like me

[Agent86]

Can you still purchase CS without having an Eagle license at the discount price?

Go to the Newark web site and search for Circuit Studio.  It's listed there for $495.

[plazma]

Have anybody here bought a licence?
Farnell registered the licence to a non-working email.
Does the email need to work during registration for the CircuitStudio account?

I only got a message from element14 with information how to proceed to this email-address I used for the shop order. This address is not neccessary during activation.

After the CircuitStudio activation you can find a tab called "My Account" where you can edit all your information. Including the email address. I would say you can change the address afterwards.

Good luck!
hammy

Looks like you need the email only for password recovery. I did not get it changed in the account details. 

Well Farnell still have to fix it. No reply from them. Altium replied they can'thelp.

[voltsandjolts]

Try voucher code "ACS10" for another 10% off Circuit Studio at Farnell.
Are we being lured into CS for a price hike on subscription next year?

[Neganur]

Have anybody here bought a licence?
Farnell registered the licence to a non-working email.
Does the email need to work during registration for the CircuitStudio account?

Actually, I was trying to buy it but I can't register an account with Farnell because I don't have a tax number (the registration page asks asks for ALV-numero as requirement).

So what's the point of using Farnell/ Element14 EXCLUSIVELY to sell the software when mere mortals can't use the website?

[plazma]

Actually, I was trying to buy it but I can't register an account with Farnell because I don't have a tax number (the registration page asks asks for ALV-numero as requirement).

So what's the point of using Farnell/ Element14 EXCLUSIVELY to sell the software when mere mortals can't use the website?

Good point. At this price it is also good for private individuals.

[voltsandjolts]

I've been using Farnell for years with a private/personal account paying with credit card.
Maybe their registration process has changed, give them a call and they should sort out an account for you 

[gowithyourself]

I think it has always been like this for the Nordic countries. It basically says "we only sell to corporate customers" on the registration page. In Sweden there's a distributor to use as a broker, but I think they add 10% and might not accept the discount code either (at least not by default).

I guess one could try to register on the UK site, since it's a download.

[2N3055]

I pulled the trigger today and bought the license..

And good news is voucher code "ACS10" still works...

[bill.coghill]

"ACS10" doesn't work on the Australian Element14 site.  Its $650 at the moment with the special pricing.
Still playing with the demo. 3d part placement is a bit of a pig, but it seems to tick the rest of the boxes without the AD price tag.

bill