element14 Community
element14 Community
    Register Log In
  • Site
  • Search
  • Log In Register
  • Community Hub
    Community Hub
    • What's New on element14
    • Feedback and Support
    • Benefits of Membership
    • Personal Blogs
    • Members Area
    • Achievement Levels
  • Learn
    Learn
    • Ask an Expert
    • eBooks
    • element14 presents
    • Learning Center
    • Tech Spotlight
    • STEM Academy
    • Webinars, Training and Events
    • Learning Groups
  • Technologies
    Technologies
    • 3D Printing
    • FPGA
    • Industrial Automation
    • Internet of Things
    • Power & Energy
    • Sensors
    • Technology Groups
  • Challenges & Projects
    Challenges & Projects
    • Design Challenges
    • element14 presents Projects
    • Project14
    • Arduino Projects
    • Raspberry Pi Projects
    • Project Groups
  • Products
    Products
    • Arduino
    • Avnet & Tria Boards Community
    • Dev Tools
    • Manufacturers
    • Multicomp Pro
    • Product Groups
    • Raspberry Pi
    • RoadTests & Reviews
  • About Us
    About the element14 Community
  • Store
    Store
    • Visit Your Store
    • Choose another store...
      • Europe
      •  Austria (German)
      •  Belgium (Dutch, French)
      •  Bulgaria (Bulgarian)
      •  Czech Republic (Czech)
      •  Denmark (Danish)
      •  Estonia (Estonian)
      •  Finland (Finnish)
      •  France (French)
      •  Germany (German)
      •  Hungary (Hungarian)
      •  Ireland
      •  Israel
      •  Italy (Italian)
      •  Latvia (Latvian)
      •  
      •  Lithuania (Lithuanian)
      •  Netherlands (Dutch)
      •  Norway (Norwegian)
      •  Poland (Polish)
      •  Portugal (Portuguese)
      •  Romania (Romanian)
      •  Russia (Russian)
      •  Slovakia (Slovak)
      •  Slovenia (Slovenian)
      •  Spain (Spanish)
      •  Sweden (Swedish)
      •  Switzerland(German, French)
      •  Turkey (Turkish)
      •  United Kingdom
      • Asia Pacific
      •  Australia
      •  China
      •  Hong Kong
      •  India
      •  Japan
      •  Korea (Korean)
      •  Malaysia
      •  New Zealand
      •  Philippines
      •  Singapore
      •  Taiwan
      •  Thailand (Thai)
      •  Vietnam
      • Americas
      •  Brazil (Portuguese)
      •  Canada
      •  Mexico (Spanish)
      •  United States
      Can't find the country/region you're looking for? Visit our export site or find a local distributor.
  • Translate
  • Profile
  • Settings
Altium CircuitStudio
  • Products
  • Manufacturers
  • Altium CircuitStudio
  • More
  • Cancel
Altium CircuitStudio
Altium CircuitStudio Forum New to CS - A few questions
  • Blog
  • Forum
  • Documents
  • Events
  • Polls
  • Members
  • Mentions
  • Sub-Groups
  • Tags
  • More
  • Cancel
  • New
Join Altium CircuitStudio to participate - click to join for free!
Actions
  • Share
  • More
  • Cancel
Forum Thread Details
  • State Not Answered
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 2 replies
  • Subscribers 90 subscribers
  • Views 378 views
  • Users 0 members are here
  • newbie
Related
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

New to CS - A few questions

systech
systech over 8 years ago

Hi all,

 

Just purchased CS.  I come from Eagle and even worse, ExpressPCB.  I have long wanted an Altium level tool and when the Eagle transition was offered I jumped.

 

Now I'm wading my way through trying to learn what I need to, to make the tool useful.  I'm visiting all the web pages and videos.

 

I have a few questions:

 

1) I know from prior experience that design rules are key.  The question is what to set them to.  I have yet to select a PCB vendor for use and some offered design rules files for Eagle.  Are there any that are offering design rules files or imports for CS?   I typically do very small 4-8 board runs so I need a place that is reasonable for that price.  That's another question next.

 

2) I've seen threads on US PCB houses.  I'm looking for a recommendation for up to 4 layer boards in small runs of 4-8 boards.  For comparison, ExpressPCB can do most of the boards I would want for like $450.  Willing to pay more but not orders of magnitude.  For that price I can get a board in about a week from them.  Their software sucks but sometimes when you need something fast it works.  I'd like to get away from using them and use a better tool hence the CS purchase.

 

3) Libraries.  While the vault was a good selling point I'm not finding the stuff I want and perhaps it is just being a newbie.  I wanted 1206 size caps for a hand built board but searching the libs and vault I could not find any.  So where are good places to get libs if any?  I do know I can create my own but hoping to find some already built stuff I can use.  Am I just not searching hard enough?

 

Anyway, happy to be here and hoping to get better with this thing.  Thanks in advance for your time in answering.

  • Cancel
Parents
  • michaelwylie
    0 michaelwylie over 8 years ago

    1. I've never done it, but when you go into the rule wizard you should be able to import rules by right clicking Design Rules and selecting import. Each vendor will have a *.RUL file if they support Altium. image

     

    2. I use Seeedstudio Fusion service. Shipping can be slow, but they meet all my needs for low cost prototyping. You can pay more to receive boards faster. I spend about $100 for a small 4 layer board with a stencil. https://www.seeedstudio.com/fusion_pcb.html

     

    3. You want the Altium Designer libraries - they are compatible with CircuitStudio. They are located here: http://techdocs.altium.com/display/ADOH/Download+Libraries.

    Choose the download all Libraries option. There are libraries for schematic symbols and PCB footprints. Adding the libraries can be tricky - definitely do a google search for that one and follow the steps closely.

     

    I did a review of this software a few months ago. I did it tutorial style, it may have a few useful tips for you:

    Win a 12 Month Licence to Altium CircuitStudio! - Review

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Cancel
Reply
  • michaelwylie
    0 michaelwylie over 8 years ago

    1. I've never done it, but when you go into the rule wizard you should be able to import rules by right clicking Design Rules and selecting import. Each vendor will have a *.RUL file if they support Altium. image

     

    2. I use Seeedstudio Fusion service. Shipping can be slow, but they meet all my needs for low cost prototyping. You can pay more to receive boards faster. I spend about $100 for a small 4 layer board with a stencil. https://www.seeedstudio.com/fusion_pcb.html

     

    3. You want the Altium Designer libraries - they are compatible with CircuitStudio. They are located here: http://techdocs.altium.com/display/ADOH/Download+Libraries.

    Choose the download all Libraries option. There are libraries for schematic symbols and PCB footprints. Adding the libraries can be tricky - definitely do a google search for that one and follow the steps closely.

     

    I did a review of this software a few months ago. I did it tutorial style, it may have a few useful tips for you:

    Win a 12 Month Licence to Altium CircuitStudio! - Review

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Cancel
Children
  • systech
    0 systech over 8 years ago in reply to michaelwylie

    Michael,

     

    Thank you so much.  Reading through your tutorial now.  It's great!

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Cancel
element14 Community

element14 is the first online community specifically for engineers. Connect with your peers and get expert answers to your questions.

  • Members
  • Learn
  • Technologies
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Products
  • Store
  • About Us
  • Feedback & Support
  • FAQs
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal and Copyright Notices
  • Sitemap
  • Cookies

An Avnet Company © 2026 Premier Farnell Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Premier Farnell Ltd, registered in England and Wales (no 00876412), registered office: Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds LS12 2NE.

ICP 备案号 10220084.

Follow element14

  • X
  • Facebook
  • linkedin
  • YouTube