Coming Soon: Altium CircuitMaker Pro®

Created: September 22, 2020

Coming Soon: Altium CircuitMaker Pro®

In 2015, Altium released Altium CircuitStudio® to best meet the needs of casual users, hobbyists, students, and PCB design aficionados on a budget.

The program helped further Altium’s goal of advancing the electronic design industry, offering the community a straight-forward schematic capture and project management tool combined with a powerful PCB design engine that supports 3D PCB editing at an accessible price.

A New Life for An Old Favorite

Altium is continuing to develop a family of Altium products for PCB design that meet the needs of everyone from maker/hobbyist to enterprise design professionals. To support these efforts, Altium CircuitStudio has been completely upgraded and renamed as Altium CircuitMaker Pro, with robust new features and a brand new User Interface.

Significant advancements include:

A new color scheme option with a dark background, with lighter text to make the image-intensive interface easier on the eyes
New panels, including a brand-new Inspector panel and Manufacturer Part Search and Components panels; both significantly streamline placing, editing, and component sourcing
New graphical engines for Schematic and PCB 3D; Schematic also now features dynamic compilation capabilities
A new KiCAD Importer for pro, sch, lib, and kicad_pcb files
Enhanced support for Eagle Importer for Eagle 9.x formats

Altium CircuitMaker Pro’s code has been updated to align the code base with the latest Altium Designer technology, enabling further development and quicker adaptations to changes in the operating system environment.

At Altium, we are dedicated to providing PCB design tools to everyone interested in board design, from highschool students to professional designers and engineers. We will continue to provide CircuitMaker Pro at a very affordable price point, and CircuitMaker (that is so popular with many of our users) will remain as a free version.

Beta and Beyond

Altium CircuitMaker Pro is currently in Beta testing. After the Beta cycle is complete, the program will be released for commercial sale.

The classic Altium CircuitMaker remains accessible at https://circuitmaker.com/.

Altium will continue to support existing Altium CircuitStudio customers; current users who are on a valid subscription will have the option to upgrade to Altium CircuitMaker Pro at no additional cost after the Beta cycle is successfully completed.

For more information, please visit altium.com.

Explore CircuitMaker Software Download CircuitMaker Free PCB Design Software

Related Resources

3D Printing versus Real Time, Pre-Build Clearance Checking

3D Printing versus Real Time, Pre-Build Clearance Checking 3D printing has been revolutionizing the manufacturing industry. Once you have your completed design, just feed it into your printer and press a button, and it can be fabricated automatically. 3D printing is used for fast and easy prototyping of all sorts of complex and intricate items. So why not use it to fabricate your completed printed circuit board designs? Well, because when it comes to PCBs, there’s a better way. The Problem with 3D Read Article

Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery vs Lithium Ion For Embedded Systems

Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery vs Lithium Ion For Embedded Systems Two of the most popular battery choices for embedded systems are lithium-ion batteries (Li-Ion) and lithium iron phosphate batteries (Li-phosphate or LiFePO 4). These two types of batteries have very different charging and discharging characteristics, although they have similar chemistry and use some of the same materials. In some systems, you could use either type of battery, but each has its advantages in different applications, which can Read Article

4 Layer PCB Stackup

Two 4 Layer PCB Stackups With 50 Ohms Impedance Need a 4-layer PCB stackup that can support high speed components on both sides of the board? Consider these alternatives to the typical 4-layer stackup. Read Article

4-layer stackup 50 Ohms

Designing a 4 Layer Stackup With 50 Ohm Impedance PCB Traces Your 4-layer PCB stackup with 50 Ohm impedance will constrain your trace width to sit within a specific range of values. Read Article

Hyperloop Shows How Crowdsourcing Integrates Community into PCB Design & Prototyping

Hyperloop Shows How Crowdsourcing Integrates Community into PCB Engineering Design & Prototyping Earlier this year, student design teams gathered to participate in Hyperloop’s largest design competition yet. Their goal? To create a prototype high-speed vehicle for next-generation transportation. Through this unique strategy, Hyperloop brings a compelling example of crowdsourcing at work. Crowdsourcing also stands to impact the PCB design space, providing new routes to project development and prototyping. Through combined efforts, cost Read Article

PCB Design Techniques to Help you Keep up with Increasing Complexity

PCB Design Basics to Help You Get Ahead PCB Design Basics in a Growing World Between the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable electronics, PCB design requirements are becoming more and more advanced. You need to keep your eye on the design techniques that can make PCBs smaller, faster, and more flexible in order to keep up with the times. In addition to keeping abreast of design trends, you will likely need training in how to implement the techniques they require. Do you Read Article

Beginner’s PCB Design for Manufacturing Guidelines

Beginner’s PCB Design for Manufacturing Guidelines We’ve compiled some of the most important design for manufacturing guidelines for beginner engineers. Read Article

USB 2-layer PCB

Routing Requirements for a USB Interface on a 2-Layer PCB In an earlier blog, I discussed some of the basic points in preparing routing rules for 2-layer PCBs to support routing and layout with digital signals. In particular, we looked at some of the basic stackup and routing rules needed to support a digital interface like I2C or SPI on a 2-layer PCB. When working with these interfaces, a few simple guidelines can help ensure signal integrity in your board and cut down on EMI. What about an impedance Read Article

buck converter regulator STM32

Buck Converter Regulator vs LDO for DC, AC, and RF: Which is Best? For small, low-current loads, LDO is usually the best option. What about a buck converter? Learn more about choosing between a buck converter vs. LDO in this guide. Read Article

Intel Will Showcase Future Technology in Electronics and Communication at the Olympics

2018 Olympics: Intel Will Showcase Future PCB Technology in Electronics and Communication Editorial credit: lazyllama / Shutterstock.com I love watching the Olympics. It’s exciting to see the best athletes from each country test their skills against one another. The Olympics are also a forum for host countries to showcase everything that they’re capable of. In the 2018 Olympics countries aren’t the only ones who will be showing off. Intel recently announced a partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that will let Read Article

Back to Home

Take advantage of the world's
most trusted PCB design system.

One interface. One data
model. Endless possibilities.

Effortlessly collaborate with
mechanical designers.

The world's most trusted
PCB design platform

Best in class interactive
routing

View License Options