Unleash Your Creativity — With Training

Learn how to use neck-downs in Altium Designer to simplify your BGA routing process by shrinking and expanding tracks as they enter specific areas on your PCB.

When you train decreases your errors range and expand your creative capacity. And this get better when you do the right choice selecting able people to training. Beyond that, the personal satisfaction of creating better, more reliable products is just plain fun! After all, didn’t you become an engineer to let your creativity flow?

Imagine this: You are at home, showing a friend something on your computer. You take a few keystrokes when your friend says “You know, you could have done all that with a right-click?” At first, you’re a bit stunned; you’ve been using this software for several years...how could you not know that. Then, you realize that you have wasted quite a bit of time over the years with all the unnecessary keystrokes. That scenario has probably happened to everyone who uses a computer.  Software can be so complex that literally no one knows how to use all the features  or even that some of them exist. Now, consider the software with which you make your living...are there features and capabilities hidden to you up to this point? The answer is almost certainly YES! And when it comes to your make-a-living software, in this case Printed Circuit Board design software, that time wasted because you’re unaware of a feature could make your life easier. It is also likely that it would save you time, which you could use to make your design more clever, more efficient, and generally, more cool!

Learning Some New

“I JUST DON’T HAVE TIME TO TAKE TRAINING”

Without a doubt, that is the most common reason given for not taking additional training. Of course, there is a lot of truth in that statement. Most people don’t have the time. It’s very tough in most people’s schedule to carve out three or four consecutive days, putting all projects on hold. However, the smart ones realize that making time for training will be repaid in multiples in terms of time. What if you went to a training session and learned just one new thing...a significant new thing? That hardly seem like it’s worth several days away from your normal work schedule. But is it? Consider that one new thing learned saves just 15 minutes per week. Each year that training session saves you 13 hours.  With 13 hours, consider what new techniques you could use, what clever routing you would have time for, or you could write more design rules to help ensure that next project requires no respins. Plus, it’s highly likely that you will not just learn one new thing...students typically report learning dozens of new tips, tricks and techniques. How much is that training worth now?

LEARN NEW FEATURES AND WAYS OF DESIGNING

Literally every student comments on the features they either were not aware of, or were not fully aware of all the capabilities of those features. Often, jaws drop when they learn a feature that quite obviously will save them significant amounts of time.

Comment from a Surveys Completed by Customers Upon  Completion Of A Training Class

This doesn’t just occur with basic classes, but across the board from basic to expert.

Comment from a Surveys Completed by Customers Upon Completion Of A Training Class

There is one more very important factor that greater efficiency and the resulting time savings can do for you: cut down on errors. When you’re saving time every time you use your software, you can incorporate more error checking...double check those connections. And, eliminating errors without finding them in the prototype saves huge amounts of time.

Importance of Employee Training: 6 Reasons Why It Saves You Money

TRAIN WITH THE EXPERTS

When pilots train on a new airliner, they train with the aircraft manufacturer. Why train with a third party when the experts… the people who created the product, offer comprehensive, quality training directly to their customers? Only with Altium training are designers officially certified.

This is especially true for a software product. In the case of Altium Designer, you can train with the people who not only educate people every day, but people who designed the software and people who use the software. Often, Altium trainers are presented with real problems that customers experience. When a new problem needs a new solution, those trainers relay the details to Altium R&D engineers. Frequently, customer issues are incorporated to a later release of Altium Designer, and everyone benefits.

Altium Instructor

INVEST, LEARN, AND HAVE FUN

Training can be thought of as an expense or an asset. When looking at the long term benefits, it is clearly an asset. Training generally leads to more efficient workflows with fewer errors. For you, the designer, that means that you have a bit more time to be more creative, double check for errors, and learn new printed circuit board manufacturing process methodologies. 

In the Long Terms Benefits Creativity is an Asset

REFERENCES

• These comments are from surveys completed by customers upon completion of a training class. Many of our customers indicate on their surveys that they do not authorize disclosure of their name or company. We always respect those wishes.
• Importance of Employee Training: 6 Reasons Why It Saves You Money, Redshift, Autodesk, 9/3/14. https://redshift.autodesk.com/importance-of-employee-training/
• The Strategic Value of Workplace Training and Development, eLeaP Software, accessed November 2016.