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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

  • I'm using it.

     

    True there have been no updates for about 8 months but then again nothing is badly broken - it is doing what it said on the tin and doing it well. I still use my Labcenter Proteus to update legacy projects but anything new I am doing in CircuitStudio. It has better circuit integrity and layout tools than the Proteus and can handle more complex boards more easily. It was expensive but much less so than Altium Designer (about 1/3 I think and ongoing costs if you want support and manintenance about 1/4 of the Designer prices) and covers the functionality that I wanted. About the only gripe is that although you can share schematics easily with Altium Designer the PCBs are in an entirely different format (although support for the format is/was coming to Altium Designer).

     

    Actually I came on here to see if I need to wait for the current maintenance period (the initial 1 year) to expire before I buy the renewal - the live data on components and suppliers in designs is one of the better features image.

     

    In all - I recommend it.

  • in reply to Former Member

    I have been using CS for a year and I am getting frustrated with lack of support. The supplier link is a nice feature, but the Mouser link broke months ago and they don't seem to be interested in fixing it. I have contacted their support twice, but no response. There are also bugs in the program, maybe not badly broken, but certainly things that should get fixed.  These bugs have been "forwarded to Altium" by Newark but at this point I'm not holding my breath.

     

    The CS website video still promises "active and continuous stream of updates and new features". That certainly hasn't happened. After asking Newark about updates and bug fixes, I received a response a month or so ago that said Altium has CS on the "back burner" and their programmers are working on other projects. Not very professional. This is not an inexpensive program, it deserves better support. There hasn't been a update since last May, a few weeks away. Bug fixes once a year is not too much to ask.

     

    My one year expired yesterday. There is no way I will be paying the yearly maintenance if Altium is not putting any effort into maintaining the program. I will lose access to the vault, but its value is limited anyway.

  • in reply to Former Member

    Yes, CS is one year without any update nor newsletter.

    Few days ago free CircuitMaker (toy with cloud-only storage used by hobbyists or who?) was released in v.1.2 and CircuitStudio for $ 3,000 nothing.

    Really great practice from Altium, isnt it?

     

    Unfortunately CircuitStudio is undone tool:

    - every 20mins of work=crash of CS and restart needed

    - panelizing of same PCBs is practicaly impossible

    - thermal relief connected pads and direct conected vias at the same PCB impossible

    - long and dificult shortcuts for only half operations

    - missing gerber viewer (ok, AD viewer can be used..)

    - very few configurable items in system preferences (e.g. own path to project directory if I dont want use default)

    etc.

Reply
  • in reply to Former Member

    Yes, CS is one year without any update nor newsletter.

    Few days ago free CircuitMaker (toy with cloud-only storage used by hobbyists or who?) was released in v.1.2 and CircuitStudio for $ 3,000 nothing.

    Really great practice from Altium, isnt it?

     

    Unfortunately CircuitStudio is undone tool:

    - every 20mins of work=crash of CS and restart needed

    - panelizing of same PCBs is practicaly impossible

    - thermal relief connected pads and direct conected vias at the same PCB impossible

    - long and dificult shortcuts for only half operations

    - missing gerber viewer (ok, AD viewer can be used..)

    - very few configurable items in system preferences (e.g. own path to project directory if I dont want use default)

    etc.

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