Altium 365 vs. Rhino 3D

Altium 365 is fantastic for students learning about PCB design and for large team-based PCB projects. Because this product is relatively easier to use than other ECAD software and it enables collaboration, students and professional engineers would greatly benefit from having this software in their skill set. In other words, Altium 365 is great for academic and industry purposes.

Incentivized

One of the main highlights of Rhino is the built-in visual programming system "Grasshopper". It is widely used for parametric architectural design, by a variety of world-class architectural offices. It is also very popular within architectural schools and universities. Its usefulness has increased a lot by having add-ins, plug-ins, scripts, and integrations with Revit and ARCHICAD for BIM workflows.

Incentivized

• Assembly guides - giving our prototype builders an easy experience while reducing error.
• 3D collaboration with our manufacturing team - giving them an 'almost error-free first-time' experience with their physical prototypes.
• The automatic feed-forward updating of replacement components was a particular bugbear of our previous solution(s) and is now painless.

Incentivized

• Parametric Modeling - Grasshopper allows for easy/rapid iterative process
• White box renders display - looks great as a quick diagram export with no post-production required.
• robust command prompts - rhino was originally made for industrial design and it flexes a lot of unique modeling commands that put it up there with SolidWorks

Incentivized

• Periodic crashes
• New component creation, the silly script file system never works
• I want to grab a new component off the web and instantly import into my designs, no hassles
• Naming schemes need to be structured as well, so I can find parts fast and use them in my designs
• For example, if I could check a couple boxes for a capacitor, and have the database filter on those choices, I could very quickly get the right part into the design
• Wire harnesses are still a pain and hard to visualize

Incentivized

• Rhino has very limited sheet layout tools.
• Grasshopper could be better integrated into the main interface.
• Lack of backwards file compatibility can be frustrating.

Incentivized

All its features provide the possibility to improve the work together and also to improve the associated documentation in a practical way to better understand the implementations that are made in various projects, such as presenting a product to a potential customer or evaluator.

Incentivized

A majority of the support for Rhinoceros 3D does not come from the company itself, but from online forums and boards where other Rhinoceros 3D users outline their issues and solutions. The Rhinoceros 3D website does not offer much in-depth support and just outlines general how to's. At the same time, online forums allow for more specific issues to be addressed and solved by the Rhinoceros 3D community.

Incentivized

Altium 365 can not be compared to open source programs for doing the same function. The open source programs like KiCad does the simple job but Altium 365 has a lot more tools to offer. Its multi project is one of them. The shared vault is better and allows more people to collaborate together. Its interface and usability is also better.

Incentivized

It's hard to compare Rhino to other modeling software as Rhino is in a niche of its own. No other software (to my knowledge) is as customizable/programmable and has such a large community and such a large amount of free, open-source addons. Rhino (and Grasshopper) can be intimidating at first but once you get familiar with it and grow your toolbox with your own scripts, so much time will be saved

Incentivized

• I can not say much about it. It is not a cheap service, by the way. It is useful for being remote and working on the same design from anywhere—that's very collaborative. I don't know how much it impacts our financials compared to its benefits. I am an HW engineer. I don't usually take these into consideration.

Incentivized

• Right away Rhino3D is useful for simple and accurate 3D model import, repair and export all in a variety of formats.
• Rhino3D is easy to use and learn. The time to productivity is very short with this modeling tool.
• The price is low for the value received, a great investment.

Incentivized