is it recommended t keep the serpentine width 30 mils?

The number one thing I would like to see fixed is 4K monitor support. I've used a 39" 4K monitor for almost 4 years now (on Win 10 since it came out), and out of the box CircuitStudio is close to unusable on a 4K display.  On a 4K monitor the library text size will be very tiny. This happens even though my 4K display is large so only runs at 125% scaling. Someone with a 28" 4K monitor would need a magnifier to read the type. Very decent 4K monitors are only $375 (28") to $550 (large), so are not exotic. I write software for my day job, and having a huge screen helps screen intensive work immensely.

I did manually edit the manifest file, as described on EEVblog as a 4K monitor workaround, and things are improved, but I now seem to see a variety of other scaling issues. Like if have a schematic/pcb open, and have the library panel docked on the right, and open it by clicking on the tab, if you try and adjust the width of the library window, the splitter window vertical bar is way across the screen, not on the boundary between the library and document. I was also resizing a pcb outline, and the cursor screen location and the numbers at the bottom left were utterly out of sync.

For us non-corporate users, the output options seem overly complex. I sometimes send gerbers to China, but for prototype boards I may not want to wait 3 weeks, and laser toner transfer or a photomask from a inkjet printed transparency do make an acceptable etch-able board in an hour or two. I'd like to see a simple option to send the selected top/bottom/mask layers to a printer, with positive/negative/mirrored options, and registration marks outside the PCB boundary to line up the top/bottom layers. I'd love to have a way to print the top/bottom on one page (correctly aligned), so I can just laser it, fold it in half, line up the PCB in the folded pocket and feed it through the laminator, for easy fast 2 sided boards. Today, I can generate gerbers, run gerber to pdf conversion, edit/merge the pdfs into a single page image to print, but this is a lot of manual steps which PCB software could just easily do.  Some people engrave PCBs on $200 CNC engravers too. All this would fall under easy prototype manufacturing workflow alternatives. I realize the folks writing PCB software are often not folks who ever have physically made a PCB, but really, the final end product is the physical PCB with parts on it. Having ways to efficiently and cheaply manufacture both one prototype and a 100K  production run is the goal.

The docs/training could certainly be improved too. I JUST stumbled across the blog posting about making trace length meanders, a feature I believed was not present.

Jan

This Competition is NOW CLOSED.

Thank you to all the entrants! 

Please feel free to continue to give your feedback as Altium are still reading this thread.

Winners are:

c4m4ch0

optoeng

slowertech

fvan

electrorubixtech

I will now contact them to discuss getting their prize to them.

Everyone that answered this Poll was put into the random name picker below and the first 5 were selected as per the GIF screen recording.

(Check out those targeted adds :-) )

Jason, it is just about possible to import Allegro PCB files although not an easy option. The method is as follows.

You would have to request a trial of Altium Designer. Then follow the procedure below, to ask the licensed Allegro user to convert their files to a special ASCII version that Altium Designer can import. Then they'd have to save the Altium Designer PcbDoc file to a binary 5.0 file, then import the binary 5.0 file into CircuitStudio.

The Allegro importer works with an intermediate ASCII file, that must be created on the machine that is licensed with Cadence Allegro. Please see the article below. It explains that you must provide the Allegro user with a batch file and some supporting files. The batch file is executed on the Allegro machine. This converts the .BRD file to a .ALG file, which can then be sent to you for import into Altium Designer. The licensed Allegro machine does not require Altium Designer to be installed.

http://wiki.altium.com/display/ADOH/Moving+to+Altium+Designer+from+Cadence+Allegro+PCB+Editor

In the article it says:

"1.Locate the following two files in the \System folder of your Altium Designer installation:"

Allegro2Altium.bat

It is recommend to copy all 10 of the files that begin with "Allegro", rather than just the 2 files mentioned in the wiki article.

There may be other options though. Can you provide a list of file types that Allegro PCB can export?

I'm not sure if the drawing is still open, but I see I can still complete the survey.  For my two questions where i answered other, here are my comments:

Import & export options too limited.  I can import Orcad schematics, but I cannot import Allegro PCB.  I am not sure if I can export a netlist suitable for importing into Allegro PCB.

I Don't have a tool right now.  We are using two independent 3rd party contractors, one uses Orcad Schematics, the other uses Allegro PCB.  Since I have a legacy design I need to support, while taking over the schematics design responsibility, having import/export options would be very beneficial.

There is a component wizard.  When you are in the PCB Library, right-click in the components selection window.  You should get options for new blank component and component wizard in addition to copy/paste etc.  It will do some of the work for you.

Hi David,

Basics are:

• Fill in the survey for a chance to win.
• 1 entry per person.
• Registered users only will be counted
• We will compile the users, assign them a number and use a random number generator to pick the first 5.
• We will then contact them to arrange an extension or new licence of Altium CircuitStudio.
• Due to e14 being owned by avnet an American company, we can only give prizes to individuals who live in countries not under US or UK trade embargos.
• We will announce the draw date shortly.
• The poll will remain open after the Draw but there will be no prize offered.

be entered into a lottery to win a free perpetual license of CircuitStudio or a 3 year subscription extension to your current license

What are the terms and conditions of the giveaway? 

Additional Answers to my votes:

2) Other: I highly value the IPC Compliant Footprint Wizard in Altium. It would be incredibly nice to have this feature.

7) Other: I currently use Zuken CADSTAR (work), Altium Designer 16 (work), and CircuitStudio (personal).

CS does support net classes, on the schematic see Home > Directives > Net Class, on the PCB use Home > Classes.

For multi-channel support see Project > Project Options > Multi-channel in the schematic or PCB editor.