Altium 365 vs. Vectorworks Fundamentals

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

It is perfectly suited for residential work, and work where the project requires integrated 2d and 3d. It is terrible for integrated energy modeling. This needs to be fixed immediately.

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

• 3D modeling - no need to start in SketchUp or other more rudimentary programs.
• Seamless import/export with other programs - ideal communication with consultants.
• Superb customer service, training, and tech support.

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

• The program is getting a little 'fat', and needs to be slimmed down. It is starting to bog down a bit when doing certain functions. The program of late is more buggy then we are used to seeing.
• I like how smooth Sketchup is in 3D. It would be great to get VW's to be more responsive in 3D.
• The space tool is very clunky.
• I would be great if a texture map could be a video and not just a still image. We could really use that.
• PLEASE get the energy modeling capabilities up to speed. It needs to be much more intuitive and NOT based on Passive House standards. Please include a clear output for a projects Energy Use Intensity (EUI) and how a project is doing relative to the 2030 Commitment.

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

• Subscription model ensures we always have the latest versions - per-seat license is very affordable.
• Training costs are low (i.e. new hires get up to speed quickly).

Incentivized