Altium CircuitMaker Reviews

Very powerful PCB maker. To me the very best for free.

It's sometimes difficult to find help about circuit Maker. It's often redirected to Altium.

Autorouter inefficient to me.

I also don't like the link with Altium365 which is now mandatory.

Allium CircuitMaker is the most intuitive and straightforward circuit design solution that I have tried so far. For the most part, everything just works and is easy to get set up.

Creating new/custom components can feel a little buggy, and if you import a component that was made with a different grid spacing, circuit design can end up a little cumbersome. The only other area of friction is having everything saved through the cloud which can be an issue if I’m working away from my desk and internet connection.

Due to the streamlined layout, CircuitMaker has been the fastest way for me to prototype circuits and tweak designs. Time is valuable and any time saved not having to work around clunky programs is well appreciated.

I have been using this for my CIrcuit club, and it had helped me discover my love for hardware and embedded systems - how to design, how does circuits work and how we can effectively use it. I love many features of it, such as joint monitoring,or have the server version updated. Not to mention the version histories we can truncate and edit on demand :)

Took me a bit to make use of the tools, but in all honesty, that is a little laid out study that one would have to do when digging in.

Designed my first PCB model (albeit I did actually mess up with the Gerber files, but learnt an important lesson) and planning to use it for more complex designs.

So, I have a startup and initially altium gave me a good discount to use the software. Apart from it Main pros that i see is ease of use, very powerful layout designing tools and each file like step, gerber, schematic, production file, assembly file can be generated from one place.

Two things that i want to point out are

1. Very difficult for beginners but it is understood for software tool of this level.

2. It takes time to resolve any bug or issue of software.

The user interface is intuitive, and anyone can start hands-on with a minimal learning curve. The tools are great for even some industrial projects. It's a perfect step to start the journey to Professional PCB design, as it is built on the foundation of Altium Designer. It inherits the robust features of Schematic capture, PCB Layout, 3D visualisation. One of the greatest strengths is its active and supportive community forum, which has helped me enhance my learning and troubleshooting experience. For its no-cost entry point, we have quite frequently opted for CircuitMaker to train interns and students just getting started, and the projects that are created can be easily migrated and integrated with Altium Professional.

CircuitMaker’s reliance on cloud storage and mandatory project sharing limits its appeal for users needing privacy or offline access. The lack of advanced features like hierarchical schematics and limited third-party integration can hinder complex designs. Improved onboarding for beginners and more flexible project management options would significantly enhance its usability.

Rapid

The 3D viewer is awesome and makes it super easy to visualize how and what your product is going to physically look like. The Part assembly assistant is great too! It helps guide me through assembling your PCB by picking the parts and showing me where they go on my board. The Whole User Interface is nice to use. Easy to understand, controls and components aren't confusing. I have also found the rule checker to be super good! I find it easy to check by design rules and or normal rules, and it helps me identify anything out of the ordinary. I'm a student in engineering and have used KiCad and other various programs, but liked this one the best for the above, plus the libraries for parts, though I wish some components were updated more and had a footprint, and for how easy it is to learn the software.

I like cloud saving, but hate it at the same time. What I mean by this is that there is no good, easy way to save my projects locally on the software without downloading them from the cloud. I wish there were a save button with the option for the cloud or the option for local only. This is my only gripe so far, getting to know the software is pretty easy, but does take a minute to get used to the software,e just like any other software.

It helps me solve the lackluster handful of other free programs that lack the features of CircuitMaker with out needing to pay premiums for high-end software. As a student this is huge! I wish my collage would switch to this software for some of its classes.

I really enjoy the wide range of features Altium offers for PCB design. The schematic view is intuitive, and sheet symbols make project organization much easier. I also appreciate how simple it is to access component properties and modify them to fit your needs, not only manufacturer parts but internal libraries too. The routing tools are excellent, every aspect of them works perfectly. It just took me only 2 weeks to learn almost everything in the software to start my own projects.

The unit conversion system is frustrating and easily the least practical part of the software. The multiple tabs don’t interact smoothly, often causing me to accidentally close one or spend too much time switching between them. Another issue is the polygon pour colors, they’re overly intense and strain my eyes, yet I still haven’t found an option to change them

Altium integrate the PCB design process for our autonomous robotics competition team by addressing critical workflow challenges. Its integrated component libraries and easy access to datasheets save us hours of manual research. Then, the real-time design rule checks help us catch errors early, which is essential because we (I mean my robotic team) don't have the resources to reprint a PCB to correct tiny mistakes on the design.

The UI and workflow is similar to Altium Designer as it supports a real PCB level design not just simplified circuit drawing. Octopart and Altium's component libraries.

Not ideal for proprietary or even semi sensitive work. Saving and loading work relies on internet connectivity.

Since all projects are public, its great design to browsing existing design. We also have the feature of projects being shared and saved online making it easier to access from different machine.

Very wide library and very easy to learn.

Found PCB design functions a bit hard to use, but may be due to my lack of experience on this field.

Used to design circuits for my degree in electronics engineering.

Perfect CM tool for hard-core PCB design and embedded engineers.

Features that impress me and I liked best could be it's power full engine.