Altium 365 Reviews & Product Details

I mainly use Altium 365 to design the schematic and PCB of communication module products. For our platform based design, Altium 365 can quickly modify the schematic and export the PCB. We use it almost every day in our work. For complex designs, it can also be divided into different modules for design and is easy to integrate. Experienced engineers rarely make mistakes, which ensures the delivery of our products to customers. Even if there are problems encountered during use, customer service personnel can patiently help solve them。 Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It's also related to my own software usage ability. I think setting PCB routing rules is quite complex and involves some programming, which may not be very user-friendly for beginners. However, after learning and proficiently using it, it will be much better. Of course, I still need to strengthen my practice Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

PCB layout process is especially smooth for me. It's hard to summarise such a complex process, but I will try to list a few processes which I find especially satysfying when using Altium ( I am using version 25)

- Amazing support for .step 3D bodies. Visualising the fit of components is extremely easy on tight boards. Never having to worry about having an "exceedingly complex" step file - the speed of rendering is great. Positioning even the most awkward 3D bodies is easy using the "snap points" feature.

- "Work guides" feature makes positioning pads within a footprint easier. For some reason, footprint drawings in the datasheets seem to be drawn by people who never had to create one. Why give dimensions to the edge of the pad, not the centre? Pads are always placed by the centre. Anyhow, work guides go a long way towards solving this issue, as it's easy to visually alight the edge of a newly placed pad to the work guide. Presto.

- Draftsman tool makes generating quality assembly drawings a breeze. It takes a few clicks, and it looks great. Get massive kudos from manufacturing colleages who are used to old-skool documentation generated from Gerber layers

- Routing is generally very smooth, including differential pairs. Push-and-shove is brilliant. xSignals are really valuable too for complex, impedance- and length-controlled designs.

- The repeatable output generation using Output jobs is a massive time saver. The degree of customisation of the output leaves not much to be desired

- Custom queiries in Design Rules allow almost infinite degree of precision when specifying pretty much every aspect of the design

- Powerful library model allows each company to find a level of complexity/simplicity of library organisation which suits their size and style of working, from simple file-based to database-based

There will be lost of other positives, these are just the ones which stand out. The quality of documentation is generally brilliant, which makes it fast and easy to upskill and become productive, fast. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It mostly "just works", however there are some small niggles (as with any products). The ones I specifially came across are:

- Sometimes the design rules don't seem to work quite right with custom queries. For example, trying to create a rule to ignore supposedly interfering components don't always work. Specifically, if one creates a "Component clearance" rule, "where the first object matches" X and "where the second matches" Y, and set the minimum vertical and horisontal clearances to 0, it's meant to be a canonical way of ignoring a collision. However, it's a guess whether the "collision" will actually be igonored - more often than not I find the rule just does not work unfortunately, even with the priority set right.

- Another example of seemingly awkward/unworkable rule seems trying to ignore an unconnected class of polygons. I have a design where I have a few unconnected (no net) polygons underneath the switching inductors to prevent magnetic field from coupling onto the rest of the place. Altium correctly marks them as an "un-routed net", however I've not found a way to create a rule under "un-routed net" category to ignore them. Further on that point, the same query, "InPolygonClass('L3_unconnected')" works in PCB filter but does not work in the rule dialog. More consistency would be great.

One can always waive the resulting violations, but that does not convey the design intent as well.

- My colleagues and I found that sometimes the track length calculation ignores small segments of the track on a certain layer. This is potentially a big problem when trying to precisely tune/match track length.

-Very occasionally, Altium hangs with a memory violation error or some such error. I guess it's mostly inevitable for a product of such complexity, but it's still a bug! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like Altium 365 because it’s easy to create and edit library components, and the project and library management tools are great for handling complex designs. The PCB layout editor is smart and customizable, and the 3D view helps with visualizing the board and checking it against enclosures. I also appreciate the ability to create custom project templates, which saves time when starting new designs. It’s relatively easy to implement, and I can use it almost every week for various PCB designs. The integration with other tools works well, though sometimes there are small issues when importing or exporting files. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It can be slow to start up and access files, especially on a network. Some of the default settings, like the connection matrix, create unnecessary warnings that make it harder to spot real issues. The Bill of Materials feature takes a while to generate and needs to be updated if changes are made to the schematic. The software can slow down when working with larger designs, and although it integrates well with third-party components, sometimes there are issues with different footprints or symbol standards. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

• The integration between schematics and pcb design.

• The ease of switching between the machine design of the board and the schematic/PCB design.

• Cloud projects where I can collaborate between multiple people on the same project.

• Built in footprints of common components and IC's.

• Ease of generating industry standard schematics and reports of design.

• Enforing a wide range of design rules that are accurately checked. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

• The software has a long startup time that did not seem to depend on system capabilities, as it was long on my home PC and laptop.

• Sometimes it was easy to get lost in the tools as a beginner. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

-Best thing about Altium 365 is its web interface

-It allow collebration with differents developers

-Provide a interactive and easy to understanding type user interface is provided by Altium 365

-Next thing is version control is always very helpfull for a devloper

- Documentation are always be a good guider to resolve the problems and for get a path to make things possible so, thatwhy i this i don't need any customer support

-Best part is integration with 3D shapes

-Before altium I used almost every pcb designing software but when i start using altium that provide a amazing experience now, i am use altium frequently.

Altium Designer is known for its intuitive and unified design environment, which significantly enhances productivity of devs that is the ease of implementation of Altium 365. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

So many times i face a issue with altium 365 that is

Project sharing, altium allow devs to share project using URL but that not in working it reflects an error for that was need customer support.

one more thing altium is a very heavy software local system are not capable to use it frequently if web application is also provided then i think that will a best thing for user.

Altium needs to provide more content on simulation and VLSI designing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like most about Altium 365 is the relentless way it facilitates collaboration in the cloud. It's perfect for working on PCB design projects in real time, which is ideal for international teams. The seamless integration with Altium Designer and the ability to access designs from anywhere makes it, for me, the most convenient tool (the one I use practically every day). Additionally, for those of us who use version control tools (such as Git), we really appreciate the centralized library management and the option to reuse designs that help speed up the development process. The interface is intuitive (like any tool, you have to invest in some time to understand the different functions so you can actually discover how easy it is to implement in practically any PCB project) and the support from the growing community is key. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

This may not apply to many users, but for me, given the environments in which I occasionally work (nautical or outdoor environments), the dependence on a stable Internet connection is very inconvenient, since like any cloud platform, it presents a problem in places with poor or intermittent connectivity (although it is logical that in the absence of Internet, there can be no data exchange, and then proper interaction, I think that one or another mechanism for offline work can be improved). Also, the cost of the tool can be a tremendous challenge for small teams or individual users. Finally, I haven't interacted enough with customer support to generalize, but perhaps there is an area of opportunity in response times and ticket resolution. Otherwise, I think everything else is very well done. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

One of the best features of Altium 365 is its cloud-based collaboration. It allows teams to work together on PCB designs in real-time, sharing designs and libraries easily, which makes it highly efficient for remote and distributed teams. The ability to access and review designs from anywhere, coupled with the seamless integration with Altium Designer, is a huge advantage for design workflows. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

However, a common drawback is that Altium 365 can be resource-intensive, meaning it might require high-performance hardware and a stable internet connection to work smoothly. This can be challenging in environments with limited resources or bandwidth. Additionally, some users find the subscription model expensive for smaller teams or hobbyists. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I used Altium designer on a regular basis for designing PCB's. These are the best parts of Altium :

1. Simulations :- While designing a heat-sensitive PCB , I could run a simulation which showed me which parts of the PCB would heat up the most and allowed me to design appropriate cooling systems.

2. Differential routing :- The differential route tool allowed me to quickly route differential signals and ensured that my PCB was least succeptible to EMI.

3. Ease of Export : I loved the ease of converting a PCB Project into an output job with Altiums built in UI. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I disliked the lack of a native library loader for Altium. I used the extension script library loader, but would love to have that feature in built so that it functions seamlessly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Altium 365 is a good and easy way to keep your projects, components, and models organized. The simplicity of syncing the mechanical side of design with the PCB design is a great feature that can make collaboration a lot easier. Integrating this for projects is nice since you can easily update your project and not worry about loosing progress if your system were to crash. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Some downsides may include keeping track or assigning the admin. We may not have much experience managing this but may not be an issue for others. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Since the time when Altium was a local program, engineers knew that this design software had the potential to surpass all existing programs. In my case, I started using the local version of Altium, not Altium 365, but I was already satisfied with its powerful manufacturer component search feature and the integration of the PCB editor. However, after using Altium 365, I was amazed by how much faster I could access and use the same features from anywhere on the cloud, further accelerating the design process. On top of that, I could also enjoy the excellent remote customer service that Altium is known for, as well as the seamless implementation with design file standards from other companies. Since switching to Altium 365, my usage frequency has significantly increased compared to when I was using the local version, probably because I no longer have to wait through long loading times. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Aside from the fact that it is more expensive compared to other cloud-based EDA tools, there is nothing else. However, I can confidently say that the features and convenience of Altium 365 more than justify its high price. If your organization adopts this, you will likely achieve at least a 20% reduction in design time compared to the current process. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.