Altium CircuitStudio Forum - Recent Threads

CircuitStudio Assembly Drawing - mechanical layers do not generate

obywatel_lk — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 16:14:28 GMT

I have a problem with generating an assembly drawing. I set it up for the layers that I want:

Whenever I generate this drawing, mechanical layers are not visible (Yes I clearly have things on these layers).

To be more precise - it looks like they are replaced with Top layer. When I open Layer Proparties window for these layers the "print layer type" value is set to Top Layer:

When I change it, the name in PCB Printout Propertiees window change, but in the Layer Properties window it is still Top Layer. The only layers that generates properly is Top Layer, Bottom Layer, Multilayer, Top Overlay and Bottom Overlay.

Generating it with Outputs => Assembly Drawing option does not help. Pdf is generated with some initial settings, different from the one I set in "printout" window. Mechanical layers are also not visible.

Anyone had this problem? At this point I am not able at all to generate this drawing.

Additionaly, I don't know if this is normal, but my mechanical layers seems to have two names. So for example 3D Top layer is not listed as 3D Top, but Mechanical13. To be more precies 3D Top is its "long layer name" and Mechanical13 is "short layer name" and "medium layer name"

Thank you for support

Hang on loading PCB file

Mux — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 22:14:31 GMT

Howdy!

For whatever reason CS doesn't seem to be able to read PCB files. Schematics are fine but it refuses to load PCB files from my project. Note that this worked FINE before. The files are all under source control. Something changed and it preventing it from loading PCB files which, kinda sucks.

Anyone else encounter this? If so, any suggestions / resolutions as to how to get around it?

Thanks!

Circuit studio Infinite license is showing as expired.. why? How do I fix it?

dmjohns2012 — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 03:53:57 GMT

I purchased an infinite license for Circuit Studio several years ago. It is showing "Expired on 5-Jun-2021" under "Subscription Status". Why? How do I fix it?

RE: Circuit studio Infinite license is showing as expired.. why? How do I fix it?

rami-6711 — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 19:31:20 GMT

Don't worry. That's a Vault subscription. You don't need that.

RE: Circuit studio Infinite license is showing as expired.. why? How do I fix it?

shabaz — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 04:43:51 GMT

See this message from Altium which contains a link to their forum:

Announcement: CircuitStudio will no longer be sold by Farnell. It is available direct from Altium.

Worth also raising the issue there since their staff may see it.

RE: Circuit Studio V1.5.2: I'm getting an error when I try to do a DRC check: C:\users\public\documents\Altium\Templates\report_drc_xsl does not exist.

shabaz — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 04:40:53 GMT

Worth raising this on the Altium forum. See the Altium post here which contains the link:

Announcement: CircuitStudio will no longer be sold by Farnell. It is available direct from Altium.

Circuit Studio V1.5.2: I'm getting an error when I try to do a DRC check: C:\users\public\documents\Altium\Templates\report_drc_xsl does not exist.

dmjohns2012 — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 03:40:10 GMT

I've just started receiving this error. The HTML DRC list does not show in my design space. How do I fix the error?

Circuit Studio V1.5.2: Trying to use Add/Remove programs to "Modify" installation - login error

dmjohns2012 — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 03:44:04 GMT

I'm trying to modify my Circuit Studio installation - when I click "Modify" in the add/remove installed apps window, I get a popup in the Circuit Studio installer that asks me to login to my account. My user name and password are correct but the login fails. Why? I can successfully log into my CS application home page. I can log into Altium Live. How do I fix this?

Octopart Libraries in Circuit Studio

SloFloLab — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 02:25:36 GMT

I've enjoyed using Altium's free Circuit Maker but a client has convinced me to switch to Circuit Studio to be compatible with their Chinese manufacturer's ancient version of Altium.

To echo a previous post on this forum posted eight years ago:

"The Octopart library is one of the best things about CircuitMaker.

Seeing that CircuitStudio is a paid product I would expect the features from the free package to be included in CircuitStudio."

What the heck? I'm having to mess about with installed libraries again?

I understand from an Altium seminar last year that Altium owns Octopart; can we please have this feature in current products?

RE: Octopart Libraries in Circuit Studio

shabaz — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 02:31:27 GMT

CircuitStudio has not seen any updates in more than half a decade, so I don't think it will get any new features.

RE: Windows 11 support

bidrohini — Sun, 20 Oct 2024 18:06:58 GMT

Thanks for the feedback.

Windows 11 support

Otwin38BoH — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 13:43:48 GMT

Has anyone used Circuit Studio on Windows 11? The official support is only up to Windows 10.

activating Standalone Circuit Studio License Errors?

SloFloLab — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 07:26:27 GMT

Hello,

I'm hoping someone can provide some guidance on how to get past "system errors" when trying to activate Circuit Studio.

I followed the install and activation steps as per email to myself on Jun 2024 and I get the following error:

"insufficient privileges to enter this space".

I can login into web space profile.altium.com/.../ with userid ... which is linked to my gmail account in my profile.

However this same account doesn't allow me to login to shell.circuitstudio.com/ ... perhaps my assumption that the altium and Circuit studio accounts are linked is incorrect??
...If I use this userid in and ask to reset password it reports "Failed to reset password: Reset password failed: Insufficient privileges. User is not registered in this space"

If you could provide advice on how to proceed that would be appreciated.

RE: activating Standalone Circuit Studio License Errors?

bidrohini — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 07:31:03 GMT

"Insufficient privileges to enter this space" indicates a lack of permission to access certain features or areas, possibly because the Circuit Studio and Altium accounts are not correctly linked.

RE: Windows 11 support

statusas — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 22:39:46 GMT

Hi, I run CircuitStudio in a Windows11 virtual machine using Parallels on MacOS for ARM quite happily, so I would imagine it _should_ run fine on a bare metal install.
Windows 11 for ARM is different from Windows for Intel but I'd be really surprised if it wouldn't run on Intel as that's 99% of installs.

I do occasionally get an exception on startup which I have also seen on Intel versions, but once accepted I haven't found anything in CS that doesn't work.
Disclaimer: I'm not a power user so there are plenty of dark corners of CS that I don't use!

Andrew

RE: activating Standalone Circuit Studio License Errors?

statusas — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 22:24:48 GMT

Hi, I don't know the answer sorry.

I tried logging into shell.circuitstudio.com which just redirected me to altium.com which asked me to log in again.
I could do that but it seems odd.

CircuitStudio appears to be abandonware now, you will have to try and get help from Altium (good luck with that), element14 don't have anything to do with it any more.
Last time I tried to get help Altium helpdesk didn't even know that they made a product called CircuitStudio.
I have heard some people have actually managed to get help since though.

RE: Renesas Acquires Altium

DAB — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 20:24:57 GMT

With all these types of acquisitions, you have to wait until they unveil what they are going to do with the combined company.

Renesas Acquires Altium

aswinvenu — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 08:29:05 GMT

Renesas, Japanese semicon giant announced the completion of successful acquisition of Altium.
Renesas acquired all the outstanding shares of Altium at $68.5 per share, for a total equity value of approximately A$9.1 billion.

Let's see what value this strategic acquisition bring to the customers!

RE: Renesas Acquires Altium

dang74 — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 15:20:02 GMT

I had no idea that Altium had a market cap just shy of $10 Billion.

RE: Renesas Acquires Altium

dougw — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 13:04:31 GMT

It seems to be a trend with Siemens acquiring Mentor and Renesas acquiring Altium.

I wonder what the business case is....

RE: Renesas Acquires Altium

aswinvenu — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 09:37:01 GMT

Kicad has come a long way. I have been using it for years now. Kicad 8 is truely a matured PCB Design tool.
More advanced plugins are in pipeline for the Kicad 9 release. If Kicad can keep the momentum, They will do really good.
I wish more companies come foreard to support their funding.

RE: Renesas Acquires Altium

michaelkellett — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 08:51:36 GMT

I suspect that it will hasten Altium's demise (I am a bit biased - I have never liked their product - right back to when it was Protel).

Rival semiconductor companies will be very reluctant to use a competitors PCB design product for dev boards etc.

I expect more money and support heading in Kicad's direction.

RE: Trying to create a component with different numbers of pins

GoobFromSpace — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 17:49:38 GMT

The "xx" is a variable for the amount of memory. One of the full part numbers is Attiny3226. There's a 20 pin SOIC, a 20 pin SSOP, and a 20 pin + thermal pad VQFN.

ww1.microchip.com/.../ATtiny3224-3226-3227-Data-Sheet-DS40002345A.pdf

Trying to create a component with different numbers of pins

GoobFromSpace — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 04:29:33 GMT

I've made a library component for the Attinyxx26, but the component comes in 3 packages. 2 have 20 pins. The 3rd has 21 pins from a thermal pad. I'd like to have 1 library component that I can switch between the 3 footprints. Is there any way to do this without

1: having the thermal pad also be set as pin 20

2: The software complaining about extra pins when it compiles

RE: Trying to create a component with different numbers of pins

aswinvenu — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 06:40:46 GMT

From a quick search I can see Attiny26 comes in 20 pin PDIP and SOIC. The third option is a 32pin QFN. Am I missing something here?