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CircuitStudio vs Altium Designer

I’ve used Altium Designer for many years but the cost is not currently in our budget. So I’m looking to purchase CircuitStudio for our small engineering team. I've installed the trial and now looking to check a few features.

1. How do you create a .schlib file from an imported schematic?

2. How do you create a .pcblib file from an imported pcb design file?

3. Is there a parameter management feature that allows global changes to parts?

0 adamwebber over 5 years ago

I'm not sure exactly what you are trying to import but I'm assuming it's Altium schematics and PCB files. So here's a link:
Importing Altium Circuit Studio files to Altium Designer and Vice Versa
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0 tarribred61 over 5 years ago

Hi,

In CS there is no parameter manager in either schematic or PCB. Global changes are tedious. You can do some with the selection filters but I find it hit or miss. Also, CS has no find similar objects function which would be really nice if it did.

You can use existing SCHLIB and PCBLIB files and also INTLIB.

If you have a schematic and want to make a library then you can select the parts and copy them to a new SCHLIB. Then edit as needed.

For PCBs, the link above is useful if you have access to AD and can export from it. You could get a trial version of AD and do this for the time it permits. Else, you can't read an AD PCB directly in CS.

I haven't tried it but I suspect you could use less expensive seat(s) of CS for schematic editing and entry and have a single seat of AD for PCB and library management and for the productivity boost it gives for parameter management and find similar objects. Altium is aggressive on sales so even if you get CS you should be able to upgrade to AD later when they have their periodic sales pushes.

Good luck.
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0 clem57 over 5 years ago in reply to tarribred61

Great summary of features. I will save when I go down this road.
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0 tarribred61 over 5 years ago

Hi SK,

You may find this link useful: https://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-86175#comment-106165

There are a number of comments that discuss features and differences with AD. This is from a couple of years ago but I think they are still valid.
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