Altium 365 vs. Siemens Valor

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

Automate the process for DFM and DFT. Reduce rework.

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

• VPL: component info from Siemens library server, component management.
• NPI: integration with Xpedition Designer.
• Easy to install and configure Valor.

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

• Valor NPI licenses: we are working with Siemens to resolve the issue that Siemens doesn't check out the "command-line" Valor NPI Xpedition license when running Valor checking from Xpedition Designer.
• Valor Process Prep: we discovered a defect in the product. Currently waiting for a fix.
• Rule checking: Too many false positives.

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

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

• 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

• Helps us establish a standard of work.
• Help us streamline the DFM and DFT process.
• Help us reduce rework.

Incentivized