I got the product to work at my office and I think this product will be a success for the following reasons;
1) The internet requirement isn't a big thing. Who doesn't have internet noway days, really how much work can you do when traveling. You need the internet to do part and pricing research etc.
2) Saving in the cloud.. I actually like this, you can start a project at home at an desktop and continue at work or at your laptop in the garden. No more saving to google drive etc. No more version issue, you always work on the latest version.
Are others able to register?
Third day of:
"UH-OH SOMETHING WENT WRONG!
It looks like we’re experiencing some technical difficulties
Please try registering again in an hour or so."
if they sold CS for 800$ people would throw money at them.Of course they would. CS is currently ADx ($5k package) with a slightly different interface, right?
Is the software licensed?
No, there is no licensing to worry about, and no subscription to maintain. CircuitMaker is totally free, giving you all the tools to think big and make cool stuff, with features and functionality to facilitate creation of diverse and challenging designs.
So without a license you should have no legal worries about creating a slightly different version of the tool that enables offline mode?
Quote from: CircuitMaker websiteIs the software licensed?
No, there is no licensing to worry about, and no subscription to maintain.
if they sold CS for 800$ people would throw money at them.Of course they would. CS is currently ADx ($5k package) with a slightly different interface, right?CircuitStudio is $3000 USD + $500 p/a, Altium Designer is $8000 USD give or take $1000, with $1000 p/a upkeep. They are not the same, CircuitStudio is the offline version of CircuitMaker and misses some of the high end parts of Altium: CAM tools, Signal Integrity, FPGA integration, Hierarchical Schematics, ...others? and doesn't share keyboard commands but more critically CircuitStudio has the same total pad count limitation of CircuitMaker.
if they sold CS for 800$ people would throw money at them.Of course they would. CS is currently ADx ($5k package) with a slightly different interface, right?CircuitStudio is $3000 USD + $500 p/a, Altium Designer is $8000 USD give or take $1000, with $1000 p/a upkeep. They are not the same, CircuitStudio is the offline version of CircuitMaker and misses some of the high end parts of Altium: CAM tools, Signal Integrity, FPGA integration, Hierarchical Schematics, ...others? and doesn't share keyboard commands but more critically CircuitStudio has the same total pad count limitation of CircuitMaker.Altium's FAQ says CM/CS's upper pad limit is 50k. No loss in performance under 5k. Have many >10k pad designs?
...
I think we're both saying CS should be cheaper... $800 is a great price.... but I'm sure you'll agree that it needs more limitations than what it appears to have now for that to make sense, right?
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What are CircuitStudio's design limitations?
CircuitStudio supports:
Unlimited components.
Unlimited nets.
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).
To be honest hotkeys in CircuitMaker has been an extremely emotional topic, both internally and externally. Everyone has their opinions and preference. Those that are Altium Designer users want them the same as Altium Designer. Those that are Eagles users want us to make them the same as Eagle. One of the challenges is given the ribbon menu structure making all the keys the same as Altium Designer or Eagle does not make sense. Each Ribbon has it's own accelerator hence 'P' activating the Project Ribbon. For an Altium Designer user 'P' 'P' makes perfect sense as it reflects the Place->Part menu. For a new user in CM there is no Place menu so the context of that hotkey structure does not make sense. What we've decided to do is incorporate Altium Designer hotkeys where it makes sense and than map the other keys to single keys that would be obvious. An example of this would be just 'P' instead of 'P' 'P' to place part or just 'W' to wire a net.
Hopefully this offers some clarity and once again this in no way was to make the software less productive.
We also understand that many users can't/won't adopt cloud storage and are willing to pay for an affordable offline solution. We've heard the community and going from free to CircuitStudio ($3K) is to large a price gap. We've had plans all along to offer an in between solution, but wanted to hear the feedback from users to confirm our beliefs. This product will be announced in the not so distant future - stay tune...
Also I think they might be using subversion under the hood for public change control, since I noticed a copy of the client in the program files directory
I haven't seen many CS productivity limitations beyond learning a different set of hotkeys and a different user interface. I'd try it out, but I'd rather spend a couple hundred more and get AD15&16.
Just to be clear, Altium only sells their software for $8k to big companies who don't care what it costs. REAL people who work hard for that money negotiate and pay <$6k easily. Don't be a sucker and pay retail folks.
It's rare that I get genuinely annoyed, especially at someone else who is screwing themselves - but in this case, Altium is being really annoying. It seems incredibly obvious that they are missing a huge opportunity.
I can't tell if they are just inept, or (like I've seen in other places) management is so afraid of doing something new or losing something they already have that they actively end up screwing themselves over.
Mind boggling.
I haven't seen many CS productivity limitations beyond learning a different set of hotkeys and a different user interface. I'd try it out, but I'd rather spend a couple hundred more and get AD15&16.
Just to be clear, Altium only sells their software for $8k to big companies who don't care what it costs. REAL people who work hard for that money negotiate and pay <$6k easily. Don't be a sucker and pay retail folks.
AD is more than a few hundred more than CS, it's about double.
Altium plans to add many of the keyboard shortcuts in, although they have yet to do so. See the following except from a post from Dan Fernsebner (Corporate Director, Technology Partnerships and Business Development) of Altium on the CM forums:QuoteTo be honest hotkeys in CircuitMaker has been an extremely emotional topic, both internally and externally. Everyone has their opinions and preference.
There's going to be a vocal minority with bad internet connections that will hate it. But that's a small percentage of people. They have to make it an online only tool, and force the project files to the public so that it won't eat into AD sales.