Altium Cicuit Maker?

[spec]

I know that there is a wealth of useful information on this forum about the various ECADs: Altium Designer. Eagle, Proteous, ORCAD... but with the change of ownership of EAGLE, which is the most widely used ECAD for home use, I am reevaluating the various free packages.

One package of interest is Altium Circuit Maker, which I downloaded about a year ago, but have never installed or taken for a spin.

What is the general view of Circuit Maker. It is touted to be the best free package.

spec

 

[JonSea]

What turned me off to Circuit Maker - they force you to share your designs. Your files are public. I think you can have 2 private designs but everything else is available for anybody to look at and use.

Some of my Gerbers, I'm happy to share, like the TAP-28 files, but not everything. And of the stuff I'm willing to share, I'll share it when I done with it, not every step of the way.

 

[spec]

What turned me off to Circuit Maker - they force you to share your designs. Your files are public. I think you can have 2 private designs but everything else is available for anybody to look at and use.

Some of my Gerbers, I'm happy to share, like the TAP-28 files, but not everything. And of the stuff I'm willing to share, I'll share it when I done with it, not every step of the way.

Yes, very good point- that put me off too.

Even EAGLE, under their new owner, Autodesk, want you to open an account with them. That is why I have stuck with EAFLE 7.7.0 rather than going for 8.0.0.

In spite of the sharing problem with Circuit Maker, do you (or any body) have any experience with Circuit Maker- is it any good technically?

spec

 

[JonSea]

I believe Dave Jones of the EEVBlog and former Altium employee, has made a video about it.

 

[spec]

I believe Dave Jones of the EEVBlog and former Altium employee, has made a video about it.

Many thanks, I will look that video up.

spec

 

[DerStrom8]

 

[Mikebits]

Hey Derstrom, I just read your sig. Very cool I like it.

 

[dougy83]

I used it a while back and it was painfully slow/laggy. I had to wait maybe 10 seconds after clicking on any component before it could be moved or I could access the properties. It was not fun, even for a very small circuit.

Hopefully it's a little quicker now.