Altium Designer 18
KingVita89 , 10-04-2017, 02:13 PM
what do you think about new AD 18? Let's discuss 
mairomaster , 10-05-2017, 02:18 AM
I watched the presentation and it looks awesome! I would want to test it myself though, before having a proper opinion. Altium have been very good at making great presentations about not so great features - I hope that is not the case this time.
I really like the big performance boost - feature that has been requested for years. Being 64 bit means that it will be able to work with huge projects without running out of memory. Also it seem that many operations are a lot quicker - re-pouring polygons, exporting outputs, etc. Switching between 2D and 3D is super quick as well.
I also like the new search bar which allows you to search for all sorts of stuff in the project more efficiently than it was before. Having a net list in the schematics explorer is neat as well. They finally seem to have fixed the buggy tool bars.
I am only afraid that the new release might be full of bugs in the first few months, until they fix them. As always, I will try not to switch to it right away - maybe just give it a test when it gets released.
I really like the big performance boost - feature that has been requested for years. Being 64 bit means that it will be able to work with huge projects without running out of memory. Also it seem that many operations are a lot quicker - re-pouring polygons, exporting outputs, etc. Switching between 2D and 3D is super quick as well.
I also like the new search bar which allows you to search for all sorts of stuff in the project more efficiently than it was before. Having a net list in the schematics explorer is neat as well. They finally seem to have fixed the buggy tool bars.
I am only afraid that the new release might be full of bugs in the first few months, until they fix them. As always, I will try not to switch to it right away - maybe just give it a test when it gets released.
robertferanec , 10-06-2017, 05:04 PM
AD18 looks good and faster. I like the panels, so you do not have to keep double clicking to see properties.
I do agree with @mairomaster, let's wait and see how buggy it is (during live presentation at AltiumLive, AD17 crashed and AD18 also had problem - didn't crash, but had an error and didn't want to continue working correctly when they demonstrated active routing). Also, because Altium made many changes, they may keep updating AD18 features, so my plan is wait at least couple of months from release and wait until it all settles down. I will install it and I will use it for checking projects, but if I use it for the new project .. honestly I am not sure yet ... needs to earn my trust (especially since altium made changes in output job files and they were generating inaccurate pad around holes I have never really fully trusted versions above AD14 even we used the later versions for some stuff).
I have seen also the Draftsman, looks now faster (and maybe they improved designator size), but I need to check it with bigger projects. I am still waiting until they improve the Variant view in Drafstman. I like the outputs from job files more (e.g. I like thinner silkscreen of unfitted components, better hashing, etc.)
I do agree with @mairomaster, let's wait and see how buggy it is (during live presentation at AltiumLive, AD17 crashed and AD18 also had problem - didn't crash, but had an error and didn't want to continue working correctly when they demonstrated active routing). Also, because Altium made many changes, they may keep updating AD18 features, so my plan is wait at least couple of months from release and wait until it all settles down. I will install it and I will use it for checking projects, but if I use it for the new project .. honestly I am not sure yet ... needs to earn my trust (especially since altium made changes in output job files and they were generating inaccurate pad around holes I have never really fully trusted versions above AD14 even we used the later versions for some stuff).
I have seen also the Draftsman, looks now faster (and maybe they improved designator size), but I need to check it with bigger projects. I am still waiting until they improve the Variant view in Drafstman. I like the outputs from job files more (e.g. I like thinner silkscreen of unfitted components, better hashing, etc.)
popest , 11-06-2017, 03:50 PM
Inaccurate pad around hole sounds interesting. What does exactly mean? Thus, AD14 is the latest version which doesn't have this problem?
robertferanec , 11-07-2017, 06:38 PM
Maybe they fixed it by now, but I know it was there for quite some time. This was the problem (screenshot from my Facebook):
mairomaster , 11-08-2017, 03:38 AM
They released the open Beta a few days ago, so anybody can test it (you must have a license already):
I tried it briefly and it feels awesome! Can't wait to get the proper release.
I tried it briefly and it feels awesome! Can't wait to get the proper release.
robertferanec , 11-08-2017, 06:30 AM
Nice, new approach - AD18 Open Beta. That may help to reduce number of bugs in the final released version. I like that.
PS: I saw AD18 at the Summit and I liked it too.
PS: I saw AD18 at the Summit and I liked it too.
JohnsonMiller , 11-10-2017, 05:14 AM
I was looking for SI simulation, which is not added yet.
what is your opinion?
what is your opinion?
robertferanec , 11-10-2017, 06:24 PM
I do not simulate in Altium - it would have to be tested. Some time ago I tried some basic simulations, but Altium was not the best - e.g. when I did some changes in layout, there were no visible differences in Altium simulation results which otherwise were visible in software like Hyperlynx. But maybe Altium improved it (however I have not heard Altium speaking about simulations for a while, so I am not sure if they are doing some changes there - if they did, I would imagine they would promote it .. but I may be wrong)
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