How's CS progressing? Is it no longer "beta"?

[Simon]

Yea I have been wondering the same.

[Warhawk]

I can't believe how much the price has dropped. Also glad that I did not buy it and invested my time in something else.

[Simon]

Yea £2500 down to £380, I am a firm beleiver in "you get what you pay for" or should. So was it only worth £380 when being sold for £2500. Maybe James Harriman of Altium can tell us if he is not hiding.......

[mc6800]

I would say £380 is a closer estimate of its true price. For example, one competitor is EasyPC, and that costs about £500 for the "unlimited pins" version (compared to the ~5000 pins maximum for CS).

I must admit I really don't understand why Altium/E14/Farnell didn't just create a feature-limited version of AD, instead of a new clone with some bits disabled, others badly removed, new UI etc etc. It would have made updating it so much easier for them. They could have just limited things like pins, layers, board area etc in a fraction of the time that making an entirely new system required. If they really wanted to stop substitution for AD, they could have made the file formats compatible upwards (ie CS to AD) but not the other way round.

[Simon]

Yep, told them that and many think it but as we all know Altium are incompetent,

[kaz911]

Happy Birthday CS 1.5

Now it has been a year with only tiny "bug fixes"

[Simon]

Happy Birthday CS 1.5

Now it has been a year with only tiny "bug fixes"

Yea, that was £1000 down the drain that I will never get back. Currently working with KiCad again, screw CS and all the various wanker corporates behind it.

[IanJ]

Hi all,

Well, I have to be positive.....because thats the way I feel about CS.

I came from many years with Eagle PCB, and Wintek's HiWireII/SmartWork before that.......and, I did try KiCad and DipTrace when I was looking to move from Eagle but found the workflow and importantly the GUI completely alien......yeucchhh!
So, when CS beta came out I signed up and have not looked back.......it suits my workflow just fine, and the library management is quite flexible so suits me ok as well. The ribbon I really like, and just like when AutoCad went to the ribbon folks hated it......but once you "get it" (less experienced = quicker) you never move back.

The word from Altium to me a few months ago was that their dev team is somewhat split between AD and CS, the latter taking a clear lesser priority. I was also told that the team were looking to move back to CS soon. Whether this is true etc I don't know.

One wonders WHY Altium have so many apparent problems managing/fixing bugs versus adding new features (AD/CS).....it does seem like the accountants are running the company which is a shame.........but again, I am glad for CS as the PCB world is a better place for it........and will stick with it for now.

Ian.

[Simon]

Nah, CS is no better than KiCad, but KiCad is being worked on. The development team are not split betwenn AD and CS, they are trying to keep up with AD whilst launching a shiny new program that is even more expensive than AD. Farnell have tried to force interest in CS by cutting the price from £2500 down to under £400 and it has not had any significant work done since I paid £800 for it. I'm sick of it and I'm off. Christ they can't even put 4K support in whereas KiCad natively does 4K.

i am not going to wait around for them to finally loose interest.

Why they did not just do a multi licence of AD with features turned off I do not know, it would have been more efficient but like you say the company is run by accountants.

[toshas]

I was also told that the team were looking to move back to CS soon. Whether this is true etc I don't know.

I have asked them around a year ago. Answer was the same : we will move back to CS soon and 2.0 will be released at the end of year.

[Simon]

even if they do, what about nexh time they need to do work on it but AD or their new $20K+ software needs attention?

[kaz911]

I was also told that the team were looking to move back to CS soon. Whether this is true etc I don't know.

I have asked them around a year ago. Answer was the same : we will move back to CS soon and 2.0 will be released at the end of year.

Yes V2 was supposed to be out late '18 according to promises made.

[Simon]

I was also told that the team were looking to move back to CS soon. Whether this is true etc I don't know.

I have asked them around a year ago. Answer was the same : we will move back to CS soon and 2.0 will be released at the end of year.

Yes V2 was supposed to be out late '18 according to promises made.

Is AD ver 18 out yet? James hariman told me that they could not do CS until the latest release of AD, then that pathetic non update came along with the promise of a roadmap. And since then? nothing!

With the price now reduced further I think CS is a binned project. They may tinker with it, make sure it runs on windows but I suspect the show is over. It was a disaster at launch and has not got much bettor, now standing at 15% it's launch price it's clearly a gonna. It has a bad reputation and it will only loose credentials as it is left to rot as the gone wrong project it is.

The way i see it at the moment KiCad and CS are at about the same state. Mostly functional with bugs and with work to be done. But KiCad is actually being worked on and there is more transparency.. CS we get fed one cock-a-bull story after the other.

[voltsandjolts]

I use CS most of my working days and while it has some bugs and lacks some features, it works well for me.
Its a good tool at a great price and helps me produce boards with a minimum of re-spins.
However, more regular updates would give me better confidence in its future.

[Simon]

That is my bigger concern. Yes it works with niggles but given the massive price drop even from £900 down to £380 tells me that someone is not making as much money on it as they used to and they are admitting a failure. Even the way they did the price reduction worries me masking it as a "sale" except that sale just never ended. at £380 from Farnell, how much is Altium getting? has it reduced or was it always that bad?, you can see why Altium can't be bothered, it's genuinely not worth their money. I wonder if they are locked in a contract or if there will be a time out date and it will simply slip away as a now incompatible program.

[plazma]

Hi all,

Well, I have to be positive.....because thats the way I feel about CS.
....

I have about the same experience. Free Eagle got too restricted so tried Diptrace and KiCAD. Bought CircuitStudio and have been happy with it. The routing engine is great.

[Simon]

Their autorouter is not great. I found the manual routing fairly good but it can misbehave. Editing traces was impossible in one project but of course bugs are normal and they are not interested.