Altium Designer vs. Studio 5000

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Altium Designer
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
Altium Designer is PCB design software for a variety of industries.
$355
per month per seat
Studio 5000
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Rockwell Automation offers the Studio 5000 suite of design and engineering applications, including Studio 5000 Architect engineering environment, Studio 5000 Logix Designer for management of Allen-Bradley Logix controllers, Studio 500 View Designer for graphic terminals and alarms, the Studio 5000 Application Code Manager libraries of re-usable code, and Studio 5000 Logix Emulate experiment and debugging environment.N/A
Pricing
Altium DesignerStudio 5000
Editions & Modules
Standard - Monthly
$355
per month per seat
Pro - Monthly
$460
per month per seat
Standard - Single Payment
$4,235
one-time fee per seat
Pro - Single Payment
$5,495
per year per seat
Enterprise
Contact Sales
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Altium DesignerStudio 5000
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAltium Designer® term-based licensing allows use of the licensed software for a specified period, for example, a 12-month term. Term-based licenses include a Standard subscription for the latest Altium Designer, and Altium 365®. Additional features and license options will affect price.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Altium DesignerStudio 5000
Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Best Alternatives
Altium DesignerStudio 5000
Small Businesses
SOLIDWORKS
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Score 8.4 out of 10
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Score 9.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SOLIDWORKS
SOLIDWORKS
Score 8.4 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 9.3 out of 10
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Score 7.9 out of 10
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Score 8.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Altium DesignerStudio 5000
Likelihood to Recommend
7.7
(25 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.9
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.9
(23 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
6.4
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
2.7
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
2.7
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Altium DesignerStudio 5000
Likelihood to Recommend
Altium
I think Altium shines especially in environments with lots of interdisciplinary collaboration. As a software developer who just needs to check the pinout or wants to suggest moving a specific component to another set of pins, as a mechanical engineer who is designing an enclosure for the PCB, or as someone in a role where they do mostly reviews, Altium is the ideal solution because of Altium 365
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Rockwell Automation
As I said before, it's the only tool known to man capable of programming Rockwell PLC's, so if any colleague needed to program one I 100% would recommend it. So, this software is appropiate only when using Rockwell PLC's. As far as I know it would program any other brand.
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Pros
Altium
  • The schematics have multiple possibilities and tools that allow the classification of various parts of a single project to obtain better documentation.
  • The PCB design section is extensive, allowing the making of simple PCBs and the development of more advanced ones, such as high-frequency ones.
  • CAD compatibility allows 3D elements to use the elements and preview everything in a complete project.
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Rockwell Automation
  • The tag system it uses for programming makes it easier than other softwares
  • Programming Rockwell PLC's
  • The management of the ladder code is easier
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Cons
Altium
  • Where to start? In my opinion, technical support, with or without a subscription is at best random. Several questions have remained unanswered.
  • I find that the interactive routing is more difficult than with the earlier Protel versions. There are so many snap options, that it is continually necessary to change a particular snap setting in order to perform a particular operation, otherwise, the track end will jump where it is not wished.
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Rockwell Automation
  • Price, it's realy expensive
  • Sometimes configuring communication with other devices can be hard
  • I'd like the ability to programm with languages such as C or Python
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Likelihood to Renew
Altium
ALTIUM DESIGNER is the reference tool in the electronic circuit design sector, its use is widespread worldwide. Although there are other alternatives, some of them free do not rival ALTIUM DESIGNER in terms of features and reliability. It is also very practical to request quotes with ALTIUM DESIGNER BOM reports since all suppliers are accustomed to using the tool.
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Rockwell Automation
No answers on this topic
Usability
Altium
Like any complicated program, it will always need some room for improvement. For example, it would be nicer to have other shortcuts than just the numpad Asterisk as the layer shift shortcut, or easy to shift layers via other ways. Some programs use a space bar instead, or similar. It would also be nice to manipulate or make 3D items better
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Rockwell Automation
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Altium
Not very stable. Sudden lack of functionality when the license expires is not indicated clearly and can lead to loss of work.
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Rockwell Automation
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Altium
I use the educational Program. And so far is the best technical support. Every time that I need one or I have a question. They respond so far and with excellent advice.
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Rockwell Automation
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Altium
easy to follow, Good technical materials. good videos The platform is easy to use.
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Rockwell Automation
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Altium
Overly complex, not designed for small organizations, core functionality poorly implemented to focus on flashy features.
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Rockwell Automation
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Altium
Altium Designer is far easier to use and has a simplified pricing model for use to forecast project costs. Altium Designer also has many value-added features such as Altium 365 and MCAD integration which we can use for no additional costs. Other vendors charge by feature. Altium Designer has no hidden costs.
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Rockwell Automation
Studio 5000 is a good product. Compared to Omrom's CX-Programmer feels more advanced and with more functions, altough that depends on the PLC being programmed. I choose Studio 5000 because there are no other options when programming Rockwell PLC's
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Scalability
Altium
Because, in my opinion, usage for small organization is poor, it is difficult to set up initial configuration to support scaling.
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Rockwell Automation
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Altium
  • We have been able to design over 10 different types of boards for our satellite and have been able to iterate on designs an endless number of times.
  • Our internal communication has significantly improved as we have been able to immediately see each others designs via Altium 365.
  • Onboarding new members can be difficult as the process of learning Altium Designer can take a few weeks and can be discouraging. I would recommend allowing users to go through designing a PCB when first opening the program, if they don't have experience already.
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Rockwell Automation
  • Well, there is one customer that only uses Rockwells PLC's, so I could say that Studio 5000 is a must have and a good percent of the bussiness depends on it.
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ScreenShots

Altium Designer Screenshots

Screenshot of 3D Collision - Altium Designer's 3D PCB editor offers the ability to perform 3D collision testing as well as catching general component-to-component collisions. The user can position one component under another, or test if the loaded board fits correctly into the enclosure.Screenshot of ActiveBOM - A Bill of Materials management editor that brings BOM management tools together with Altium Designer's part information aggregation technologies, helping to manage the component selection challenge.Screenshot of PCB Layout - Altium Designer presents a unified data model to make circuit board design and layout easier. The user can design schematics, use schematic capture to create a new PCB, route printed circuit traces, and prepare for PCB assembly in the program. The PCB layout design features also make component placement and routing easier.Screenshot of Schematic with Properties Panel - The Interactive Properties panel for schematics includes several functional improvements as well as productivity enhancements. The layout focuses on efficiency, icons and graphical previews have been improved over previous versions, and there is now a smart parameters filter both for schematic lists and components.Screenshot of Routing Differential Pairs - Differential pair PCB routing is a design technique employed to create a balanced transmission system able to carry differential (equal and opposite) signals across a printed circuit board. Typically this differential routing will interface to an external differential transmission system, such as a connector and cable. Altium Designer ensures that differential pairs are coupled together whether entering or leaving a pad or just navigating around obstacles on a board.Screenshot of Cross Probe - Cross-probing allows users to jump between and select objects in both the logical schematic and physical layout domains.