CircuitMaker dead

[Bloch]

Sorry I did mean.


CircuitMaker momentum is fast dying.


In 2 days it is 1 month ago I did sign up for the >> CircuitMaker Community << there I was promised "by signing up you’ll receive notifications from time to time about the latest developments"


Well is the only email that i have received from them !


But if i go to the http://blog.circuitmaker.com the latest post is 14 days old. Ok then I did want to read that last post http://blog.circuitmaker.com/#Blogs/circuitmaker-community-09-30-14It did have this catcy line "Why are we putting so much effort into a solid community system for CircuitMaker?"
solid


Altium are taking ALL this  data cloud thing so serious that I am not even a little bit worried.


Or am I   

[miguelvp]

I remember when purchasing a CPU could take a couple of months from the local electronic store. We all know they are in close beta with open beta coming later before they go alpha testing and finally releasing it. Meaning it's probably at least 3 months from now with due diligence.

[Tac Eht Xilef]

I remember when purchasing a CPU could take a couple of months from the local electronic store. We all know they are in close beta with open beta coming later before they go alpha testing and finally releasing it. Meaning it's probably at least 3 months from now with due diligence.

I hope they aren't going to do things that way around.

Then again, we are talking about Altium...

[Bloch]

No they are doing the "safe" way. Let me say i am not surprised that Dave did use 5 ? minutes on CircuitMaker.
Nothing new     other than he did get some cheap pcb + a t-shirt.

[ehughes]

To rush it would be  dumb.    The idea of "momentum" doesn't hold here.    It is a free tool.  No one is going to starve, die or lose their limbs if it doesn't come out soon.
The sane thing is to release it when it is ready.   Altium has plenty of cash flow already. 

 The bitching will be 100 times worse if it is released still-born.

[miguelvp]

They only have one chance to make a good impression. It's like creating a good web front end, you only have a chance to capture a visitor, or they will never comeback again if they had a bad experience.

[Bud]

  It is a free tool. 

I did not see any specification of any tool there, just "Join us now and may be we will tell you what we have" type of thing. Their web site is amazingly dumb and useless. No wonder people do not come, it is like you go to a hardware store to buy a screwdriver and they stop you at the door and require your passport data before letting you in.

[Bud]

Let me say i am not surprised that Dave did use 5 ? minutes on CircuitMaker.

Just watch Dave's face when he talked, that tells you all.
 

[EEVblog]

They only have one chance to make a good impression. It's like creating a good web front end, you only have a chance to capture a visitor, or they will never comeback again if they had a bad experience.

I disagree.
I think people would happily come back in a years time if Altium did an about-face and suddenly made it a local program like AD.
It makes them look stupid, but it wouldn't stop people taking it up.

[EEVblog]

No they are doing the "safe" way. Let me say i am not surprised that Dave did use 5 ? minutes on CircuitMaker.
Nothing new     other than he did get some cheap pcb + a t-shirt.

What was I supposed to say?
Every item that gets sent into Mailbag gets opened and talked about.
I didn't have any new info to share, so I just ranted for a bit.

[Bloch]

I am just reporting  that i see. It you channel and you do just that you like to do with it.

It is may be the way the new media works. They have resources and did know a YouTuber. His address and did know that it important to mark it with Mailbag.  Did it work yes it did they got it mention in the YouTube/media again so it going a bit longer...before we may forget about them again.

[EEVblog]

It is may be the way the new media works. They have resources and did know a YouTuber. His address and did know that it important to mark it with Mailbag.  Did it work yes it did they did get fire going a bit longer...

That's how it work, yes. The mailbag segment is a way for anyone, including commercial companies, to send in product or stuff and get some free publicity on the blog, or just for kicks.
It's a win-win for most. I get content, I enjoy it, people seem to like mailbag and seeing different stuff, and companies or people get to plug their stuff in return.

[Bloch]

Just an update. They did get the blog up again. If there was others that did want to read it.
No menting on that did go wrong / or if they updated the server to a bigger one ?

[DanielS]

They only have one chance to make a good impression. It's like creating a good web front end, you only have a chance to capture a visitor, or they will never comeback again if they had a bad experience.

I disagree.
I think people would happily come back in a years time if Altium did an about-face and suddenly made it a local program like AD.
It makes them look stupid, but it wouldn't stop people taking it up.

If someone decides to invest their time, effort and possibly money in some other EDA suite because Altium failed to deliver what was expected of them on the first round, it may take quite a bit more effort for Altium to win them back. You rarely get a second chance at making a good first impression.

[Vasi]

I have nothing against if you (Altium) want to milk the hobby zone. If you have an idea of what "hobby zone" means. But you don't.

I many cases, a computer designated for hobby use, means a computer in a workshop, other than the family's computer. Is not even the most recent high end piece of hardware and many times, it is outside wifi coverage. It has XP/Win7 mostly but it happens also to have Linux and pretty rare, OS X.

The projects and libraries are archived on CD/DVDs and rarely a project get posted online - is the author's choice and nobody can force him to do anything else. A PCB designer is a tool which it must work mainly offline and save offline. A tool which must have low-to-medium hardware requirements. And of course, it has to be outstanding compared to Eagle, Kicad, gEDA, DipTrance and any other actor on the market.

Do this and become famous. Became the most used tool in the market and only then think something to make money. Yes, you will have to wait some years but this is the ONLY receipt to success in the hobby zone.

You can't or don't intend to be so "stupid"? You are too noble or you are coming from a different "social class"? Then, don't waste your money and time. Go back to your circles. Because a hobbyist already have the required tools for his work and it won't beg others for something else.

[Bloch]

About 4 months and no news   


Are there any beta testers there want to say anything ?

[miguelvp]

They are most likely under NDA, because some of the features they might be testing might not even make it if they have implementation issues that would take too many development resources and they might get cut.

It's normal for them to require the closed beta testers to be completely silent about it. And any versions given to the press for review would be under embargo until some established date, but since they are not even in open beta I would doubt that they would have anything ready for the press to review, that would come later.

The way things usually work is. They get green lit by their company and an announcement is made because the company has committed to bring the product forward, then development resources are put towards that goal. Then some hype for close beta and silence usually is the norm, some companies might put teasers for features that will definitely make it.
Then open beta where there will be more information leaks and some details, during that time is when marketing will start to ramp up the hype getting ready for the release.

Four months is nothing, usually products go quiet after being announced for half a year or even a full year until it's in a state that marketing can do their thing.

Someone mentioned open beta by January, and we are just on the first week, but the announcement wasn't an official one, so they have not really committed themselves to deliver anything yet.

[DerekG]

Someone mentioned open beta by January

Wasn't that January 2017?

I believe Altium has no intention of making a real go of CircuitMaker. Management is only rolling it out to give the shareholders some hope that their investment in the company was worthwhile.

[tszaboo]

Someone mentioned open beta by January

Wasn't that January 2017?

I believe Altium has no intention of making a real go of CircuitMaker. Management is only rolling it out to give the shareholders some hope that their investment in the company was worthwhile.

I've heard end of January from altium guys themselves.

[EEVblog]

Hopefully they are having a rethink on the cloud only model. I think this is a one shot deal. If they get it badly wrong it will be even harder to regain the traction necessary to recover lost ground.

Now that they are in bed with Element 14 (who own Eagle) to distribute their mid range CircuitStudio software, my fear is that they will drop the free CircuitMaker. I hope not, but as someone said above, this is Altium 

[DerekG]

Now that they are in bed with Element 14 (who own Eagle) to distribute their mid range CircuitStudio software, my fear is that they will drop the free CircuitMaker.

Dave, I think you are right.

With all the negative forum comments, Altium eventually woke up & worked out that they could not make any substantial money out of CircuitMaker.

A colleague of mine in the USA says that Element 14 actually approached Altium saying "let's work together".

For those who have not been watching the Circuit Studio thread, you can find it here:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/altium-circuit-studio/

Based on Element 14's management reply to a fellow forum member, Circuit Studio will likely sell for around US$2999.

Altium already have everyone's email address that signed up for CircuitMaker. What's the bet that all these people will be receiving an email shortly, pushing Circuit Studio from Element 14?

So the next question will be, what Altium Designer features will be left out of Circuit Studio?

[EEVblog]

With all the negative forum comments, Altium eventually woke up & worked out that they could not make any substantial money out of CircuitMaker.
A colleague of mine in the USA says that Element 14 actually approached Altium saying "let's work together".

That makes some sense, because in my communication with Altium over CircuitMaker there wasn't the slightest hint of CircuitStudio, that came out of the blue.

Based on Element 14's management reply to a fellow forum member, Circuit Studio will likely sell for around US$2999.

In that case *plonk*
No way I'd buy two seats at that price (me + upcoming assistant)
What's the bet they'd milk maintenance on top of that as well?

[Zeta]

A colleague of mine in the USA says that Element 14 actually approached Altium saying "let's work together".

"An anonymous friend of a friend of a friend of mine said ...."

Am I the only one who hates this kind of comment? seems like everyone else give certain credibility to this kind of comments when it has absolutely no support. Who is your friend? what is his association with E14 how does he know that?

[DerekG]

A colleague of mine in the USA says that Element 14 actually approached Altium saying "let's work together".

Who is your friend? what is his association with E14 how does he know that?

I can say that I always trust his input as he is knows more about the world wide industry of EDA/PCB design software than most companies themselves.

He was the one who first gave up this information which proved to be 100% right on the knocker:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/free-altium-is-coming/msg522538/#msg522538

I'm sure that if he wished to be identified, he would be a forum member himself.

[miguelvp]

It seems it's not dead, but I guess open beta is not going to be January
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/altium-circuit-studio/msg602099/#msg602099

Tried installing Circuit Studio trial at work today, but Corporate Rules stopped the fun.

So I enquired about an Circuit Studio, and Circuit Maker, and got this response:

Hi Simon,

I have been told very soon it will be released that is Circuit Studio is scheduled for release early Feb and then following that circuit maker will come out just after that but i just can't commit on an exact date until the announcement will go out just in case it moves.

Thanks for your comments it will be exciting times for Altium and obviously more options for our clients.

Best regards,



Viktor Haddo

Technical Sales Manager,
APAC

____________________
Altium APAC

3 Minna Close
Belrose NSW 2085 Australia

I'll try installing Circuit Studio at home tonight, and I wait for Circuit Maker with baited breath.

But to install Circuit studio you need the credentials that probably only registered users will get at some point.