Fred 453 Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 I'm sure many of you keep an eye on the EEVBlog forum and may know already, but it looks like a free version of Altium is coming. http://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/free-altium-is-coming/ http://circuitmaker.com/ tldr; The model is that you can rent extra features temporarily. The catch is that your board files are stored online only - no local saving. I've not used Altium but look forward to giving it a try if I have time. spirilis, pine, bluehash and 1 other 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
greeeg 460 Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 Altium is great. I used it at uni. So I went and bought a student license. The only downside I see is that the student license is like 10% of the cost of an individual license. In fact it's cheaper if I kept re-enrolling at uni to satisfy a student license. :$ Fred and abecedarian 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
abecedarian 330 Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 Altium is great. I used it at uni. So I went and bought a student license. The only downside I see is that the student license is like 10% of the cost of an individual license. In fact it's cheaper if I kept re-enrolling at uni to satisfy a student license. :$ at the expense of the cost of re-enrolling? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
greeeg 460 Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 at the expense of the cost of re-enrolling? You have to talk to a sales team member to get an actual price. But I believe it is quite dear. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fred 453 Posted September 18, 2014 Author Share Posted September 18, 2014 I'm now imagining you as the worst student ever. "Well Mr. Greeeg, I'm afraid you've failed yet again. You'll have to repeat the year. And why are you smiling?" GeekDoc 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rampadc 29 Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 This is awesome! I love using Altium Designer, I used it in uni then bought a student license last year. The only downside I see is that the student license is like 10% of the cost of an individual license. Hehe you're way off, the student license is actually 1.5% of the cost of an individual license. GeekDoc 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
roadrunner84 466 Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 This is awesome! I love using Altium Designer, I used it in uni then bought a student license last year. Hehe you're way off, the student license is actually 1.5% of the cost of an individual license. It used to be 10%. A classmate of mine bought a student license (I think it was in 2008) at Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zeke 693 Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 The present retail price of Altium is $9250 USD. If you are a "service bureau" then you can ask for a discount. It is possible to get up to 45% as that discount. The student price is $110 USD. Altium is a no nonsense program and a very useful tool. Some people and companies base their entire business model on what they can produce with it. This is how the price is justified. greeeg 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rockets4kids 204 Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 I've heard that the "free" version of Altium (1) won't be Altium at all, but something else (2) will only save to the cloud and (3) will only run under Windows. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
greeeg 460 Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 I've heard that the "free" version of Altium (1) won't be Altium at all, but something else (2) will only save to the cloud and (3) will only run under Windows.It kind of has to be a different name since altium has to keep its share holders happy. They wouldn't understand the benefit of a FREE version. Truth is, it isn't release. Nobody really knows yet. Initially it will likely only run in windows since Altium is windows only. But depends how they develop it. If it is a different product they could potentially make it Xplatform. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rockets4kids 204 Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Yup, those are just rumors along with everything else so far. Regardless, as with all things that are vaporware, I'm still going to assume they are crap until proven otherwise. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fred 453 Posted September 19, 2014 Author Share Posted September 19, 2014 The links above have all that info. Everything can change, but it's more than just rumour. It's called Circuit Maker and will be in beta soon. It's Windows only. The plan is to save to the cloud only although that seems particularly unpopular with the EEVBlog crowd. That could change but it seems core to their idea so I doubt it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rockets4kids 204 Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Windows only is deal-killer #1 for me. Not being able to export is deal-killer #2 for me. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
roadrunner84 466 Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 I have taken a glance on their website, and I came to a clear conclusion. this is not a free product It's a free to use below-bare-metal framework for EDA on top of which modules for real functionality can be purchased. Te say that it's free is as saying I get a free crate of beer, but I have to buy the beer separately, I just get the crate for free. Oh and the crate is not mine, I cannot keep it, just as I cannot keep my own EDA drawings with Circuit Maker. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rockets4kids 204 Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 There are, of course, multiple definitions of "free", but there is absolutely no doubt that the Circuit Maker is less free than Eagle. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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