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Circuit Studio Alternatives?

jgauthier

I bought CS in the summer of 2021 for $500.  For a schematic and CAD program, that is a reasonable price.   Throughout the year I experienced a TON of frustrations.

Nets not connecting to wires, wires not connecting to parts (And not knowing until getting to the PCB import)

If I open multiple projects I get violations like this one:

"Access violation at address 1117F270 in module 'IntegratedLibrary.DLL'. Write of address 004D02E1 at 1117F270."

I am comfortable (mostly) with the tool now.   I don't want to switch tools due to the training set back.  However, the cost jump to AD is ridiculous.

The fact that CS hasn't seen an  update in ~3 years leads me to believe I will not see any improvement any time soon.

Can someone suggest a tool that is reasonably priced, offers compatibility with CS, and doesn't constantly anger me? 

(The last part is subjective)

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  • This comes up so often and the answer is always the same; use KiCad.  It has a short learning curve, is under continual maintenance and release, is well supported and is free.  I honestly do not understand why anyone is buying CS anymore or paying for non-existent support.  You have my sympathies because I know it’s frustrating.

  • in reply to Andrew J

    I use KiCad at home for personal projects. It's great!

    However, at my company they disallow use of open-source software for hardware development. So we are using CS for now. I haven't had many issues with CS yet, however seeing posts like this one worries me. If CS becomes a roadblock for my company, I think I will ask them to replace with Fusion360. 

  • in reply to RyanR

    Ah, well that's a shame really but companies can be a bit like that.  If they won't lump out for AD, and who can blame them, then you may just have to wait for CircuitMaker Pro.  If you look at the end of this linked thread, it would seem September this year is a possibility, but frankly, after over 3 years, I think it could be a case of optimism over reality!

    /products/manufacturers/altium/f/forum/9910/altium-circuit-studio-development

    I've never used Fusion360 for schematics but I guess that's something you could evaluate seeing as you have experience with two other products.  You could also ask a wider question in the members forum and see if anyone else uses it.  Why do I think that Eagle is in the equation somewhere when it comes to Fusion360???  I might be getting mixed up with something else.

  • in reply to Andrew J

    You're right, it's EAGLE functionality as part of the license. I preferred EAGLE over Circuit Studio (I've used EAGLE a lot, and I've used DXP which is the predecessor to Circuit Studio, it looks near-identical). However, I've stopped using EAGLE, since for what I do, KiCAD is fine, and it's easy to use. My productivity isn't as high as EAGLE (but I used EAGLE for many years, and KiCAD for just over half a year, so it's unsurprising), but productivity is way higher than DXP (which was awful).

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  • in reply to Andrew J

    You're right, it's EAGLE functionality as part of the license. I preferred EAGLE over Circuit Studio (I've used EAGLE a lot, and I've used DXP which is the predecessor to Circuit Studio, it looks near-identical). However, I've stopped using EAGLE, since for what I do, KiCAD is fine, and it's easy to use. My productivity isn't as high as EAGLE (but I used EAGLE for many years, and KiCAD for just over half a year, so it's unsurprising), but productivity is way higher than DXP (which was awful).

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