Altium Develop

I use Altium Develop to create custom PCB designs for many types of customers. It is a core part of our business allowing us to provide custom electronics designs, protypes, and test fixtures to customers. Modern features like cloud integration and revision control also make things much easier when managing many different designs across many customers. Cloud features also make it easier to view and share designs with customers without being tied to an individual PC.

• Fastest Platform from Concept to Layout I've Used
• Good Value for Features Compared to Others
• Very Easy to Add Users

Siemens Xpedition Enterprise, KiCad EDA and OrCAD

SOLIDWORKS, Microsoft Visual Studio

I use it in all electronic device development, combined with either SolidWorks or Fusion, and integrated using Altium Co-Designer. Previously integrated with Arena at a previous job. I find that many reference designs are now being created in Altium, and that it accelerates the design process. Also, the large part library that minimizes PCB footprints saves significant effort. A new user of Altium Develop will have some start-up issues; however, the eventual goal is to use managed components. The existing parts in Altium libraries are not generally set up for this, as symbols like caps and resistors vary greatly, and models seem to come from many sources. The goal is to harmonize all the components, but the tools to do this are somewhat tedious. Another issue I have had is the new browser-based login. As sometimes the internet disappears for a few minutes, the login goes away, and you are locked until you can re-login when it comes back. This needs a better solution. Used to be that when you grabbed a license, you kept it until you logged out or forced a license disconnect. This would be a much better method. I miss some of the flexibility of the enterprise version, but I'm sure Altium Develop will improve. I also use it for simulating real components, PCB impedance, and timing analysis. It's a great tool overall, and I look forward to its continued use.

• At the moment couldn't do without it.

Autodesk Fusion, SOLIDWORKS, Atempo Time Navigator (TINA), Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Google Gemini

Altium Develop is our PCBA design platform. It serves as the single point of truth for PCB design. component library management, supply chain management, cross-functional design reviews, and MCAD collaboration. The platform solves the problem of bringing together electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, procurement, and other disciplines on a single, easy-to-manage platform without requiring multiple licences, viewers, or file exports.

• Reduced number of licensed viewers.
• Reduced time to design components.
• Reduced time to get from design to manufacturing release.

Cadence Virtuoso Studio, eCADSTAR PCB and KiCad EDA

I use Altium to design schematics and PCBs. I use the CAD codesigner to ensure the PCBs fit the mechanical enclosures and will integrate with the rest of the system. I also use altium 365 to track part inventory and get an estimate on part cost.

• Saves time in schematic design, layout, and BOM management. At least 3X savings compared to diptrace that our company was using prior to Altium.
• Moving from Altium to Altium develop was a painful process, it took several weeks to get moved over when that should have taken a day or less in my mind

Allegro X Design Platform

Cursor, Microsoft Visual Studio Code, Slack, Dropbox Business, SOLIDWORKS

Altium Develop addresses several issues.

The main issue is providing an environment for collaboration between electrical and mechanical engineers.

Altium Develop also is a much better EDA tool than our current solution because of the rich feature set. Features like routing of impedance matched signals, elaborate design rule constraints, and much more are so integral to electrical design these days.

• Improved time required for engineering tasks
• Standardized final documentation
• More efficient workflows between disciplines

Autodesk Fusion