As a stripped down version of AD, if CS gets good support, then the above mentioned customer base will all move to CS.
I just downloaded a trial copy of CS1.5, I wanted to see what's inside.
I installed the program, applied for a trial key, and created a new schematic.
PP doesn't work, and PC does bring the familiar dialog up, but when I pick a part, the part symbol doesn't show alongside my mouse pointer, I had to place parts "blind". It feels super weird as a 1.5 decade Protel/AD user.
The next thing I did was win+r, appwiz.cpl, and you know what happened then.
If you want customers to upgrade to Altium Designer as i am sure that CS was introduced as a
teaser for this very reason, promote it.
If you want customers to upgrade to Altium Designer as i am sure that CS was introduced as a
teaser for this very reason, promote it.
Actually, Circuit Studio was only introduced because E14 asked for it, as they were after a mid range package to sell. Hence why it was sold and supported only by E14. When E14 got acquired they basically didn't care any more and I guess Altium were left holding the bag of this product they created for them.
The only reason I was able to afford a commercial copy of AD is because I like this thing too much (being a pirate user for years since Protel age), that I used my car fund to buy AD, and I spent the rest on a 20 year old Accord.
Unfortunately, I'm the only person I know in real life that uses a genuine copy of AD, despite more than half of the boards from our dept. are laid out using AD.
Like it or not, this is university.
One advantage to CS is that with it's similarities to AD the hobbyist or small self employed professional can learn the working of AD without buying it and that is nice to have on ones CV for moving into a more professional company.
I unfortunately learned about Altium's non existent service when I was trying to apply for free trials late last year as I'm a student. I had been cheekily applying for free trials throughout the whole year as I didn't want to pirate it on principle. Throughout the year I noticed that they started filtering out temporary email addresses and I simply stopped getting a reply from Altium on those emails, so I decided to just make fake gmail accounts instead. Unfortunately they then released the "robot" for applying for free trials, and it went completely down hill since and all the efforts I took, even trying to bloody call them for a free trial didn't work and I never got a response. I just learned KiCAD instead, and honestly I prefer it at this point.
Well CS does not even need cracking. You just export your license to a file and put it on as many machines as you like, I mean it's just crazy. China is china, no one in china cares about anyone or anything so long as they can make a buck. To be honest if CS carries on the way it is I would seriously consider a cracked AD, I paid my money....... I mean if the chinese can do it why shouldn't I ? I thought with the internet stopping piracy was easy and you can't design anything without an internet connection and if you spend £7500 on AD you bet you have an internet connection, no phoning home every 60s to validate your the only machine on this licence and it shuts down, simple as.
AD has the same license management system. A single alf file is all it takes.
I unfortunately learned about Altium's non existent service when I was trying to apply for free trials late last year as I'm a student. I had been cheekily applying for free trials throughout the whole year as I didn't want to pirate it on principle. Throughout the year I noticed that they started filtering out temporary email addresses and I simply stopped getting a reply from Altium on those emails, so I decided to just make fake gmail accounts instead. Unfortunately they then released the "robot" for applying for free trials, and it went completely down hill since and all the efforts I took, even trying to bloody call them for a free trial didn't work and I never got a response. I just learned KiCAD instead, and honestly I prefer it at this point.
So you tried to get free software and you complaining, you think your the only one trying to be clever. MicroChip also stopped giving samples to non business or university addresses as they got fed up with being played.
So you prefer to keep using cracked Altium rather than CS because you installed CS (for about 5 mins) and got annoyed that CS shortcuts were different to what you expected. Thanks for your very professional in-depth review. I wish your lab the very best of luck.
I have a commercial copy under my name with active sub, but some of my coworkers use cracked copy.
The university only offers one legit seat of AD, and it is AD6 back to stone age, and we have somewhere 500 students in the dept. of ECE.
Some research groups or students may shell out some money for a student license, but some others will only buy software if the funding source pays for that.
Unfortunately, our department doesn't allow general purchasing orders to contain software orders, and all software orders must go through ECE IT department, which means piles of paperwork.
So at the end of the day, many students just use cracked AD in the lab. Professors don't care, since they don't do CAD works at all. They only care the boards delivered on time, they won't be bothered with Gerber and PCBDOC.
Please keep in mind that even a student license is purchased, it's still technically piracy, because student license doesn't allow you to do paid jobs, including grant money in university.
PhD students here are paid $2000 per month, and $1700 after tax, from which $1000 is the bare minimum to survive. We can't possibly afford a $10k software.
We do have unlimited Allegro license, but nobody likes to remote login to a Linux server to use a software that looks very Unix-y form the 90s.
The only reason I was able to afford a commercial copy of AD is because I like this thing too much (being a pirate user for years since Protel age), that I used my car fund to buy AD, and I spent the rest on a 20 year old Accord.
Unfortunately, I'm the only person I know in real life that uses a genuine copy of AD, despite more than half of the boards from our dept. are laid out using AD.
Like it or not, this is university.
So you prefer to keep using cracked Altium rather than CS because you installed CS (for about 5 mins) and got annoyed that CS shortcuts were different to what you expected. Thanks for your very professional in-depth review. I wish your lab the very best of luck.
I have a commercial copy under my name with active sub, but some of my coworkers use cracked copy.
The university only offers one legit seat of AD, and it is AD6 back to stone age, and we have somewhere 500 students in the dept. of ECE.
Some research groups or students may shell out some money for a student license, but some others will only buy software if the funding source pays for that.
Unfortunately, our department doesn't allow general purchasing orders to contain software orders, and all software orders must go through ECE IT department, which means piles of paperwork.
So at the end of the day, many students just use cracked AD in the lab. Professors don't care, since they don't do CAD works at all. They only care the boards delivered on time, they won't be bothered with Gerber and PCBDOC.
Please keep in mind that even a student license is purchased, it's still technically piracy, because student license doesn't allow you to do paid jobs, including grant money in university.
PhD students here are paid $2000 per month, and $1700 after tax, from which $1000 is the bare minimum to survive. We can't possibly afford a $10k software.
We do have unlimited Allegro license, but nobody likes to remote login to a Linux server to use a software that looks very Unix-y form the 90s.
The only reason I was able to afford a commercial copy of AD is because I like this thing too much (being a pirate user for years since Protel age), that I used my car fund to buy AD, and I spent the rest on a 20 year old Accord.
Unfortunately, I'm the only person I know in real life that uses a genuine copy of AD, despite more than half of the boards from our dept. are laid out using AD.
Like it or not, this is university.
CircuitStudio support is via Element14, however *some* licensing issues or issues with Vault sign in may require them to involve Altium to solve, but normally this would be via Element14 rather than Altium directly, to avoid these sorts of communication problems.