PCB design master class with altium designer + 3 board examp 4.4 (447 ratings) Course Ratings are calculated from individual students’ ratings and a variety of other signals, like age of rating and reliability, to ensure that they reflect course quality fairly and accurately.
Subreddit to discuss tips for Electronic Schematic Capture / PCB Layout / 3D Part Models / Board Assembly, and Schematic & PCB Reviews.Links within subreddit:.PCB / Schematic / EDA Software:.wikipedia:.online:,.hobbyist:,.pro ($$$$):,.Gerber File Viewer Software:.,.online:,.PCB Manufacturers:.,.PCB Info:. (3MB PDF).PCB Assembly Tips:. How to solder:,.Wikipedia:.,.Electronics Books:.($$).($$)Related SubReddits:.,. Yeh, tough question, I know.I've been using Eagle for something like 5 years now, in the beginning I thought PCB design was just a complicated affair itself, but with time I've grown to think that Eagle is basically a shitty program. Overcomplicated, lots of hidden things, things you'd expect to work in a certain way and they just don't, completely counterintuitive interface, I can go on and on, I know I'm not alone there.Thing is, I've learnt to use it, I built a nice fat library with all my custom and verified components, I wrote my scripts and ULPs, CAM job settings, etc.But STILL I do not like Eagle.So yeah, I'd love to transition to another cad program, I've been thinking about Altium Designer and KiCad.Let alone the price, KiCad is free (and open-source, which I really appreciate), Altium is not. Hmm.I’ll go against the majority opinion here:I actually used all three packages, Altium professionally, KiCad and Eagle for hobby.I like Eagle best from a usability and efficiency point of view.
Only thing that sucks is the licensing model. But still beats Altium’s cost. KiCad lacks an efficient way to keep schematic and layout in sync.
Very cumbersome to propagate changes back and forth. Eagle is the best in that respect, it has a real-time, very tight connection between the two. It’s fast, and it’s powerful. I’d stay with Eagle and avoid a switch.Just my 50ct. Uhm, ok, I see, back-annotation is important, of course!But apart from that, don't you hate the keyboard-mouse interface? Or the fact that when connecting things in either schematic or board mode, the programs doesn't really give you a confirmation of a successful connection.
And actually, if a symbol part doesn't have the pins aligned on a 100mil grid, it will NEVER connect. Or if you're not using a 100mil grid. I mean, once I found out it stuck and now I do it automatically. But holy shit WHY?Sorry for the rant, but I really have a hard time imagining how can one REALLY like Eagle.But thanks, let me know!.
I like Eagle.I never actually had a problem with the 0.1' schematic entry grid issue - it defaults to 0.1', and I toggle to 0.05' for some schematic symbol drawing, but I toggle back. Well, that's it.I've used Eagle for some reasonably complex (at least by my standards) designs - see for a PDF/board layout. I've just recently (for the above board) switched to using Konekt's autorouter - which is much more configurable than Eagle's autorouter, it's all script-driven by net-class or net, and you can tell it to manage the diff-pair lines or busses in a '.do' file - it's the same sort of router that Specctra have.I like it because it's intuitive (after 10 years of working with it) to use, it's got an efficient part-creation routine, which again is easy to use and understand (footprints are even easier now that there's a wizard-kind-of-thing), and it's supported by loads of places already. I also like that the files are all XML, which means I can (a) put them in a repository like GitHub, and (b) easily see differences between versions.
I've even been known to write the occasional ULP to do things, so I like the scriptability of the system.Example: Because it's XML, I could write a simple PHP script to assign a part-number as an attribute ('USE') to each component, which I can then use to generate the BOM that I send to Seeed for assembly. Scripting it means there's no 'damn, I meant that to be 10uF, not 0.1uF', and it also means I can add 'NOSTUFF' attributes to the part and the BOM script automatically deletes those from what is sent to Seeed.I don't like the new yearly licensing model, but I do appreciate the work that Autodesk are putting in to make the product much more stable and reliable. I've not actually had it crash on me since the management change-over, and I like that, I like that a lot.At the end of the day, YMMV.
I think Eagle/Electra is sufficient for all my PCB needs - and probably for far more if I'm being honest. I'm copying a post I made in a different thread to answer your question:I used to be a huge KiCAD fan until I started using Altium regularly at work and have since bought my own Altium license. IMO they're not even comparable, they're in totally different playing fields.Altium is insanely more capable than KiCAD when it comes to library management, setting up design rules, DRC, design reuse (hierarchical designs with rooms, multichannel designs), project release, project template management, fab and assembly drawing generation.' Altium's 'active router' is pretty handy when routing PCIe busses, DDR memory, etc. The interactive length tuning is really handy.
You can fan out BGAs in a matter of seconds. I would imagine that the time you save in layout alone is worth the cost, but this really only applies if you're doing a lot of high speed digital stuff, if you're just making the occasional breakout board or slapping down a 328P or ESP32, then you probably won't benefit from Altium's features.' Support, mostly.
While some FOSS packages (notably Linux itself) have professional paid support options, KiCAD doesn't. This scares large companies badly, even though the real-world business risks associated with 'unsupported' software are seldom worth all the angst.KiCAD is also under active development and undergoing more change from one version to the next than Altium. This seeming lack of stability tends to make industrial customers nervous.Finally, last I checked it is also missing some critical features, such as back annotation. If the KiCAD developers don't know how to implement that, can't do it for deep-seated architectural reasons, or simply don't understand why it's important, they will find it difficult to make any headway in the commercial space.There are a lot of people in your shoes, unfortunately.
I've used EAGLE for many years and actually like it, but Autodesk's subscription-only policy is an absolute showstopper going forward. I use it professionally so I'll most likely end up migrating to AD. I have nothing against KiCAD and would love to see them succeed, but it will take time, and from what I understand they aren't there yet. What is that makes Altium that better than KiCad, other than being an industry standard?' Hey guys, I need to move 50 tons of gravel from one place to another.
You say I should use a dump truck: why? Why is dump truck better for this job than a wheelbarrow and shovel, other than everyone driving dump trucks full of rocks around?' Altium is just way more capable in quite literally every way. Could you potentially make the same PCB in KiCAD or Eagle?
Yes, especially if the PCB is simple. Many hobbyists will never run into the '50 tons of gravel' design and therefore not need more, but if you have that sort of problem you're going to end up using professional tools. Say Altium for the prosMy situation is our company sells a thing to be integrated into other peopeoples product. Depending on what the product looks like, there is some amount of hardware that needs to be added. To do that, we have a reference design. The expectation is they will be able to copy and past stuff out of our reference design to their design. That means having the reference design in ether in Altium or whatever the package is form Mentor Graphics.When we only had Eagle, I would send over the files and instructions on how to open in Altium, and when the response would come back: 'WTF, do you have in ether Altium or ' I would respond by highlighting the Altum instructions and that would be it.Out of 40 ish customers, only one asked about a KiCad version and that was for a university.your mileage may vary.
ALTIUM DESIGNERThe most powerful, modern and easy-to-use PCB design tool for professional use.With the rapid growth of technology today, the need to create more advanced designs is greater than it has ever been before. You can’t afford to bet your future on PCB design tools that may or may not do the job that you need them to do, nor do you have the time to coax underperforming tools into giving you the results you need. You need the best PCB layout editor and library on the market today to keep up and exceed your expectations and requirements. You need Altium Designer and now you can.You no longer have the time, budget, or error tolerance to use different tools for the different phases of your design process. You need a single system platform based on the solid foundation of a unified design environment where every tool both looks and behaves the same and seamlessly interacts with each other.You also need a PCB design software vendor that has a proven track record of working with their customer base to consistently update and enhance the tools to make them more productive. Continuing on from that, you need your printed circuit board design software vendor to grow with you in technology enhancements so that the design tool capabilities that you once could only dream about become a reality in the next release.
Altium Designer Empowers You to Succeed With All Tools in One SystemThere’s no reason anymore to lose time to the confusion of multiple design systems. Altium Designer’s single-system architecture is the answer that you need.