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Is Circuit Studio still around?

Former Member

Hi,

 

I was interested in Circuit Studio because I have used Altium Designer before and loved it.

 

I used to use Design Spark PCB (free), and was looking for a better tool because DS is so slow to use, and the copper pours are especially tedious to clean and fix every edge.

 

Circuit Studio was out of my price bracket so I found KiCAD (also free), and have been using that and been impressed with it.

 

I hope day maybe to upgrade to Circuit Studio, but it seems dead? Any searches just reveal the claims of a new version with step export and DXF import (which happened long ago).

 

Has anything new since then happened? Anything new features planned?

I can not find a forum for Circuit Studio (only Circuit Maker), seems like there's no active community (was the price to high)?

 

Anyone have any news or updates to report on Circuit Studio?

Parents

  • My thought is that circuit studio is already dead.

    I am still having problems licensing which takes them forever to fix.

     

    I called Altium directly. they told me they don't support Circuit Studio while element14 points their finger at Alitum.

     

    Customer support is extremely poor.. I suspect circuit studio is already dead.

    Orcad has much better support.. at least the tech guys are much more responsive than element14/altium

  • in reply to celoke

    Hi Chun Eng Loke,

     

    I can assure you that CircuitStudio is not dead as we are working hard on 2 updates: a small one due soon and a larger one near year end.

     

    Altium doesn't support CircuitStudio support questions directly so you're better off going direct to element14 software support by emailing software@element14.com and they can definitely provide support.

     

    The eval license has had some teething problems as it is a new type that is different to the commercial license so it's possible that element14 needed to contact Altium to resolve the license problem you saw.

     

    Were you able to run the software while it was licensed? The workflow and libraries are similar to Altium Designer so it depends on the workflow/branding you're looking for when choosing between Altium/CS or Orcad.

     

    Best regards,

     

    James Harriman

    Altium

  • in reply to jamesharrimanaltium

    I am not sure though when something as simple as licensing got stuffed up.

     

    I bought the license but somehow the wrong email got activated.

    There is not much assurance as to the integrity of circuit studio licensing mechanism. So tell me how much longer do you expect me to wait?

     

    I called up element14 for a refund and they told me a new license has already been issued? what license? I have not received anything from altium or element14 for more than two weeks.

     

    This should be a buyer beware on how complicated your circuit studio licensing can be or at least, you should put up an ETA. Hope it doesn't take a year to fix something so simple, then your product is substantially defective!

  • in reply to celoke

    Hi Chun Eng Loke,

     

    Definitely email software@element14.com and let them know since you should receive it quickly after ordering and maybe the email was trapped by a spam filter or similar. I've just forwarded this thread to them so that they can investigate and if there is some problem then they can at least provide a temporary license while this is investigated.

     

    Best regards,

     

    James Harriman

    Altium

  • in reply to jamesharrimanaltium

    Hi Chun Eng Loke,

     

    I will reset your account and send you an activation link. This will let you setup the password on your new email address.

     

    Best regards,

     

    James Harriman

    Altium

  • in reply to jamesharrimanaltium

    Hi Chun Eng Loke,

     

    I've sent you the email to setup your new account. The email will probably have the same subject so your email program may group it together, if so, use the most recent email. Click the link, setup the account with a password, choose an avatar and submit the form.

     

    Once that is done, run CircuitStudio and sign in using the new email address and the password you set. On the Home screen (under View > Start), use My Account > Licenses, click the license activation code and click the Activate or Reactivate button. This will download the ALF file to your local drive, so you don't need to connect to the Internet for licensing purposes again, unless you choose to extend your subscription (aka maintenance) in 12 months time to get newer versions released after the subscription expiry date. The license is perpetual so will keep working with versions released prior to the subscription expiry date.

     

    Best regards,

     

    James Harriman

    Altium

  • in reply to jamesharrimanaltium

    Hello, James!

     

    Will CS get a new route engine like AD18 ?

     

    Thanks!

Reply Children
  • in reply to a.stepanov

    Hello a.stepanov,

     

    Altium Designer will always receive the higher end features first and over time we'll consider adding some features to CS. The new route engine is unlikely for the short term, as other features such as multi-object selecting with Find Similar Objects for example are the types of features we're considering for version 2.0.

     

    Best regards,

     

    James Harriman

    Altium