Many thanks for your thoughtful reply, I have made the relevant people at Altium and element14 aware to help influence the future direction of the software and forums.

Proteus is quite good but I get the feeling that it is old software that may not cope well with adding new features of ways of working. Quirky is to put it mildly but broadly it works and when you do run into trouble you can get help fast if it's during office hours. I have gotten a bit fed up with it's quirkyness and suspect that changing how things work to make them easier will not happen as the software is so old and ideas entrenched. I hit a wall when I tried 4 layer designs.

In CS I hope to find a modern software that is not very strange to use (I have used many and proteus does rather stand out as turning some things on their head). I was hoping for pre-made libraris that I don't see, the ones you can download from Altium are a joke as many parts are missing, for example if you download the samtec header library a 10 pin header is there but not a 6 pin one in the same series which is bizarre and frankly unprofessional. I assume perhaps wrongly that CS will inherit some of what AD does well but maybe despite it's multi thousand pound price tag AD is not all it is cracked up to be. The software itself does not seem so bad but it seems that marketing and support are a mess. Element 14 is not a great forum, it's awful to use, something like simple machines forum software would have been far easier to use as a support forum than the element 14 mess. I can't even find this website unless I good circuit studio. My usual forum (eevblog) is easily logged into with a simple address, considering element 14 is the official support site you would not believe it considering how hidden away the CS section is.

Simon, out of interest why are you switching from Proteus to CircuitStudio? You've listed things you don't like about CS but there must be something good about it for you to want to use it.

I have a full license of proteus, any discount on offer for that ? no I thought not. The difference between proteus and eagle and CS is that I can phone proteus and get instant phone support for under £600, yet CS comes with no support and costs £210 more!!!! further you rub salt into the wound of those you sold down the river with an eagle license in offering them a discount to come back to you, will they be shafted again and I learn what they have already gone through when element 14 thinks it can make a quick buck and sell CS off to someone that will screw us over ? you do nothing but trumpet Altium being behind CS yet the altium library offering is non existent and a disaster and altium deny any knowledge of CS, they don't even list CS as an option when you want to download a library from altium such as their incomplete libraries are. But element 14 offers 0 support with the odd helpful user on this poor excuse for a forum knowing a tip or two but basically I am on my own. I feel very shafted for tht £805 I have paid.

I would respectfully disagree that it is 'given away', this is a very time limited discount offer and you are welcome to purchase extra seats at this special price. The Eagle cross-grade offers are very special manufacturer supported prices, cross-grades are quite common in the industry. Could it be considered a good thing that you hadn't paid for Eagle and then found you needed to switch to a different package?

When will element 14 stop screwing with users ? why was I charged full price when e14 can give it away cheaper and charge eagle users half price, considering this software has no documentation and virtually non existent support why would anyone want to buy it for £800+vat ?