Importing/exporting projects between CM and CS

Simply open a design in Circuit Maker.

Find the cached project in c:\ProgramData\Altium\CircuitMaker {...}\Projects\

open .PrjPcb in CircuitStudio it will open every used file without the pcb file

File -> Import -> CircuitMaker .CMPcbDoc file

Enjoy :-)

Hi!

Sorry for my late reply. Thank you! It works!

However, I would also like to know if it is possible to do it the other way around? To open a project in CM, that has been created in CS. It doesn´t seem to be possible in the same way as opening a CM project in CS.

Once again. Thanks!

/Daniel

I have the same problem as Daniel, I need for someone to import in to CircuitMaker a project created in CircuitStudio. Looks like projects as a whole can not be imported, but the CS schematic file(s) can be imported in to CM.

However I can't figure out how to move the PCB Layout from CS to CM;  I don't find an "export" in CircuitStudio nor "import" support for .CSPcbDoc in CircuitMaker.

Not as critical to me at the moment is the need to go the other way (CM ->CS) with an entire project but that will also be needed in the future.

This is a somewhat critical need for the open source hardware I'm working on and the ability to move across Altium products was a key decision in picking CS; looks like in my prior research I confused Designer's ability to ex/import to CM with what CS can do.  I'm hoping there's something obvious I overlooked in how to do this as I don't have Designer.

Thanks,

There is no export CM option for PCBs in CS even though CS can import from CM. Would be interesting why you needed to export out of CM if it was a open source project that didn't need to be confidential.

<sigh> So Altium is as bad as all of the other CAE companies that I vowed to never use again because you couldn't move designs between their own products...maybe 30 years ago when nobody collaborated on designs with other vendors/consultants/etc you could say it wasn't important...I realize moving designs across CAE vendors is not going to happen but lack of basic database compatibility for a vendor's own products is just inexcusable.

About CM -> CS design movement: For reasons beyond the scope of this thread the "masters" for the designs in this project are all in CS. Some people working on it have other tools but the ability to use CM removed a barrier (i.e. it's free). The design flow was intended to be:

• Clone CircuitStudio project in to CircuitMaker
• Create new design by modifying the cloned design. In a lot of cases this would be mostly mechanical, change connectors, reposition parts, etc. vs. much schematic work.
• Copy CircuitMaker project back in to CircuitStudio (fix component libraries as part of that, but that wasn't seen as an issue since most of the boards only have a dozen or two part types)

As I said my bad for being confused on difference between Designer and Circuitstudio documentation but Altium should be ashamed to have developed a "new" product that doesn't work with other Altium products. To me it's particularly confusing; blocking use of Circuitmaker projects in Circuitstudio might decreases revenue, i.e. I start in the free CircuitMaker, find I like Altium, and then want to trade up to CircuitStudio. But if I can't bring my designs along I might as well go get some other product...Or as a CircuitStudio user who might someday be able to afford (and have need for) Designer this IMHO leaves a pretty significant concern about tools compatibility wide open.

I have no issue with segmenting the market based on features of the tools (as long as it relates in some sane way to the benefits I receive for spending more). But locking up "my data" arbitrarily is where my concerns start.

Does anyone on the extended team have access to Altium Designer as this would provide a way for exporting the design in a format suitable for both CM and CS?

Only very indirectly - friend of a friend of a friend type thing, Not practical for the expected normal use.

I also wonder about what gets lost if you go CS -> AD -> CM?

Not sure about the full chain of events but CS <-> AD has good compatibility as far as we know, see this article. Would it not be possible to make the conversion once into CM and then use that as the master given it is a free product and everyone could have access.

Hi Peter,

The originals/masters would always be in CS (or AD if something in the design required an AD feature, though at the moment that seems unlikely)

The reasons would pull this thread farther off topic (feel free to PM me if you want)...maybe I can summarize it as not everything being done is aimed at open-source hardware.

Though I will make a shameless plug for the Audio Builders Workshop as working on an unrelated project for them brought the Altium compatibility issue (or lack there of...) to the forefront. Audio Builders Workshop Metronome Project source files – Clockworks Signal Processing

Thanks

"not everything open source" - that explains why you cannot use CM. Difficult to think of a good answer. Obviously everyone should by CS... but that would be a shameless plug by us and not really that practical. A friendly AD user seems the best bet - maybe someone on the forum knows someone or can offer their services.