Altium Develop vs. NX CAD

It's the most approachable "professional" package for small to medium-sized businesses, given the price point. It's fairly mature feature-wise and has improved stability enough over the last 5 years that it no longer constantly crashes. But it feels like there's a push to constantly increase prices until it's no longer an obvious choice. That, coupled with the insistence on subscription models and the terrible user experience when on poorly connected mobile data plans, means it's still my CAD package of choice, but I'm now a reluctant user rather than a fan.

There is perfect integration between NX CAD and NX CAM modules with less data loss. Better graphical interface and simplified commands makes NX CAD a better software then others. The tool has scope to develop an algorithm for generating surfaces from the point data. Include of option to convert .STL to any CAD format will be helpful. The connectivity of splines laying in different planes can be improvised.

Incentivized

• Extremely straightforward and easy to use
• Easy to find all tools, including laying traces, adding net labels, etc.
• Great training documents and videos, very using friendly; especially for first time users
• 3D models of the PCB are excellent
• Easy to generate files; including schematics, BOMs, Gerber files, etc.

Incentivized

• Seamless interaction across multiple departments.
• The software allows you to create a very high level of control and organization within your engineering staff. This reduces the companies mistakes and maximizes productivity.
• The software makes it very easy to track your product through every phase of the production cycle.

Incentivized

• It is difficult to create new components while reusing existing footprints/symbols. For example, reuse a 1206 package footprint, create a variant for resistors with an appropriate 3D model, and then a variant for capacitors with an appropriate 3D model.
• The software's overall responsiveness seems slow, and it does not update properly in all instances. For example, clicking a component in the schematic will not always show its properties; it usually shows the properties of the last selected component. Clicking the blank space in the schematic first, then selecting the component, seems to load some of the correct data. But the 3D model in the properties view would still show the last EDITED part.
• Saving components to the server would not always register correctly, requiring the component editor to be closed 'without saving' to close the part out, even though no changes were made since the last save to the server.
• It is unclear where a list of footprints/symbols can be managed. For example, deleting a deprecated footprint so that it does not appear as a valid option in the future.
• BOM part choice data has an NRFND component selected as in use, causing the status to be yellow. There is no apparent way to select a different manufacturer part as the 'in use' part to resolve the warning.
• Updating from the library does not pull the most up-to-date symbol/footprint data for a given component. So far, there does not appear to be a way to do this, even though the component itself has been updated to use the correct references. This may be related to the general delays and consistency/reliability issues with the online link.

Incentivized

• Keeping the colors of surfaces if volume bodies are linked
• Show and keep symbolic threads
• For me, I miss more information why a surface can't be deleted or a radius is not possible. And maybe a solution, how could it look like, if NX CAD adds a new surface.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

possibility of integration and customization

Incentivized

I originally chose Altium Develop for its superior usability. All operations being handled in one cohesive platform greatly improves efficiency. When handling many different designs, project setup and component creation eat into every project's productivity. Templates, defaults and design reuse all speed up design. I hold back from a higher rating because development focus on those usability features seems to have stagnated a bit. Simple missing features requested seem to remain missing. New collaboration features, simulation and sourcing features are released, but I just want to be able to draw dashed lines! I think this reflects a general focus on the 10% of datacenter/AI/smartphone customers over the 90% of 2-4 layer designs. The lack of information available during the platform transition gave me significant pause before buying in as well.

Incentivized

Siemens NX CAD has been has been simple in design & user interface. It is best among the competitors. It can develop heavy models & designs with very ease. It has Layers options for arranging multiple assemblies in the same file. It does not require heavy system investment & works fine on professional PCs

Not very stable. Sudden lack of functionality when the license expires is not indicated clearly and can lead to loss of work.

Incentivized

Long process for solving problems. Problem solved after multiple emails, but not explained what was the solution, just "it is solved now"

Incentivized

NX CAD version is going out of support after only 12 months. Changes will not be implemented after 12 months from prodcution

Incentivized

easy to follow, Good technical materials. good videos The platform is easy to use.

Incentivized

Some times it is slow down PC due to polygons

Incentivized

the manitenance period is too small for our implementation timeline

Incentivized

In terms of collaborative work, Altium 365 is the easiest to use since KiCad nor OrCAD have sophisticated infrastructure for team members to interact with each other. By allowing features such as organizations and version control, Altium 365 is by far the best product for collaborative work. Additionally, electronics parts management and creation is better in Altium 365 than the other products. Actions such as importing schematic libraries, creating bills of materials, and conducting simulations are simply better in Altium 365.

Incentivized

NX CAD is very good for interoperability between different three dimensional modelling softwares, it can convert to .jt models, from native format such as .CATPart, .CATProduct, and ones from SOLIDWORKS. Also it is integrated to Siemens Teamcenter, which also enables other downstream workflow, such as Tecnomatix Process Simulate. Other software packages would need more integration effort to make this possible

Incentivized

Because, in my opinion, usage for small organization is poor, it is difficult to set up initial configuration to support scaling.

Incentivized

• I can only guess, but I think the investment, at least for real industry, is a no-brainer. The labor savings are obvious and far over the outlay.
• To be more specific, the time saved on component selection/procurement is phenomenal. I will no longer waste days poring over catalogs and websites.
• The biggest downside I know of is the time spent explaining the above to the accounts department because, let's face it, it's still pretty spendy.

Incentivized

• The software itself is pretty expensive compared to other CAD-systems.
• Implementation is not out of the box, it requires a lot of consulting and iteration cycles.
• On the positive side is to mention the seamless of downstream functionalities, from product development to manufacturing and visualization, etc.

Incentivized