Introducing Altium Discover, Altium Develop, and Altium Agile - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: jc101
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 04, 2025, 09:09:04 pm
content: The Altium website was updated, I think today, showing their new "One Vision". From the website...QuoteUnder the blurb this is this section...QuoteIt is hard to tell, but it really does look like Altium Designer is heading to require A365 to function at some point.Anyone have more details about this?Edit to add this link to the announcementhttps://www.altium.com/company/newsroom/announcement

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 04, 2025, 10:03:43 pm
content: https://www.altium.com/discoverQuoteDon't know what this is, maybe integrating PCBA manufacture options into the software?https://www.altium.com/developQuoteLooks like regular Altium + 365, but updated to include live editing.https://www.altium.com/agileQuoteactiveBOM with jira/etc integration, and some process control paths.

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 16, 2025, 04:20:54 pm
content: I'm sure they will simplify the licensing options and reduce the focus on software-as-a-service so folks like me can get on with their jobsLooking forward to it!

author: SethGPI
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 16, 2025, 06:59:43 pm
content: Someone on theAltium forumsclaims to have reached out and got this response from the Director of Sales since none of the Account Managers had any idea.Quote

author: cunningfellow
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2025, 10:03:36 pm
content: I just shouted out "Bingo" in the middle of a meeting.

author: temperance
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2025, 11:14:23 pm
content: QuoteThey will at some point, as always. Altium, a company you can't trust with anything they do and say.

author: jc101
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2025, 06:36:43 am
content: I wonder if this change will enable them to EOL those with permanent on demand licences out there. They have removed maintenance already, but this could be a means to force a transition to their term based SaaS model.

author: jc101
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2025, 07:04:03 pm
content: And, yes, it does. Anyone with existing maintenance agreements (some have them for another 3 years) will not be getting anything for their money.Altium Designer is dead - expect no updates.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/altium-designer-is-dead/

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2025, 01:22:14 pm
content: There will be some more or less public outrage. The account managers of some large accounts will complain behind close doors. In a few months time there will be wispers about some special version for specific customers behind close doors. And in two years time there will be a managment change, Silicon Valley will be chasing some other Golden Goose or there will be a company project called Vission 3-30 or some such nonsense and everything will change. Again. The catchphrase "improved customer experience" will be used.Rinse & repeat.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2025, 06:30:01 pm
content: Quote from: jc101 on October 04, 2025, 07:04:03 pmAnd you created a whole separate thread for that because…?Seems to me you should have just posted that here.

author: jc101
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2025, 06:33:18 pm
content: Two different things really.This is more that there was some new products, the other is that the current Altium Designer is no more. Even if you had active maintenance, for years to come, you won't be getting any software updates. You are, in effect, forced to migrate to the new offerings if you want bug fixes.The mods can shuffle things around if they want to.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2025, 06:40:14 pm
content: Quote from: jc101 on October 05, 2025, 06:33:18 pmI think that’s a very strange interpretation and characterization of it. I think you’re jumping the gun, especially given the unclarity of the communication so far.

author: jc101
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2025, 06:52:49 pm
content: Not according to the release notes... my emphasis in bold. Despite having a permanent licence, for which I paid for maintenance until Dec 2026 - I will now not get that maintenance. I will not get updates. To get any updates, I have to migrate to the time limited subscription model.Quote

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2025, 08:06:48 pm
content: Quote from: jc101 on October 05, 2025, 06:52:49 pmI’m saying that to say that “Altium Designer is no more” is ridiculous: the very release notes that you quoted refer to them as “these newly-badged variants of Altium Designer”, clearly indicating that a) it’s a renaming, not a change in product per se, and b) that they’re still Altium Designer.That certainly didn’t merit an entire thread separate from this one!!

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2025, 08:12:14 pm
content: What I'm wondering is: how you keep access to your files if you don't pay a yearly subscription?

author: temperance
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2025, 09:54:03 pm
content: Just say buy buy to Altium and move to Kicad.Life without altium. That CAD for loosers with a unified user interface. It's beautiful. And I say it, many people, also people close to me and I say, and many people other people, also in other countries, like never before life is is made great again without altium. The best way to develop PCB's, so beautiful, and I must truly say, and I know you all have been very disappointed but we are getting it back. We are getting it back. Now as I speak, we are getting it back and our productivity is now through the roof since a few months. Yesterday, and my CAD senator told me that too, it was the best decision ever in the USA, I made that happen. In two months, I did the unimaginable. Everyone said we couldn't do it.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2025, 10:16:07 pm
content: Out of interest, what free or near free / one off cost commercial use PCB CAD software has the ability to open Alitum PCB/SCH files (or something altium can export to) and convert to its own format with the least amount of pain?Obviously a lot of altium specific stuff wont import, but just in general, if you want an altium schematic and PCB designs moved to a different tool where you can generate gerbers, which one is the best?Bonus points if it can import pcb/sch library files somehow

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2025, 10:45:10 pm
content: The pricing seems better than the bullshit they tried last year. How much was that, 500 EUR a month? Since that turned out to be a complete trainwreck, I'm guessing they are rebranding now. I wasn't honestly looking forward for reviewing features and possibilities. At this point I don't really trust them to not try to screw me with something.All they had to do is keep releasing new features to the PCB designer, and fix bugs, and the company would pay for it. But no, they had to get greedy and change existing licenses. Dear Altium, you are not Dart Vader. You don't get to alter the deal.

author: Rnj
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 05, 2025, 11:42:38 pm
content: as an active client with Altium under the last 15 years it's really sad to say they change the business model and don't even care about a good way to say how does it come to work... at least some videos showing more details of each new "model of SaaS".The v25.8 was updated in almost 4 months.. and what we have until now is a single post with only subject and macro resume of these 3 models.. There is a lack of respect with all clients and that is clearly reforcing those who say that the company can't be trusted anymore.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 05:26:31 pm
content: Quote from: temperance on October 05, 2025, 09:54:03 pmWearing the "Make Altium Great Again" hat i see...

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 05:28:30 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on October 05, 2025, 08:12:14 pmDownload. There is a mechanism through the "content cart' for the libraries. The projects can be grabbed as zip files containing everything.https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/connected-workspace/extracting-data

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 06:12:28 pm
content: Quote from: free_electron on October 06, 2025, 05:28:30 pmBy access I mean being able to open & modify designs without needing to pay. Having files without being able to open & modify them is not usefull.

author: jc101
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 06:15:26 pm
content: If you don't pay the rental fee for the software, you cannot do anything but read your data - assuming you've downloaded everything, and the Altium Designer viewer (which is free) is maintained. There is no guarantee that will remain.If you let the subscription lapse, I think they keep the cloud data for 6 months then wipe it.

author: temperance
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 06:21:08 pm
content: And that is exactly why I bought a perpetual licence... for the case a project would require a change or something 5 years later.But PADS is even worse. Designs are encrypted when stored. You not pay= you not see anything. You can't even open your own files in a viewer.

author: gamalot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 06:38:07 pm
content: Altium Designer Agile???https://filecr.com/windows/altium-designer/

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 06:40:27 pm
content: Quote from: temperance on October 06, 2025, 06:21:08 pmAgreed. But if you can't get a perpetual license, this won't work. I've got a big re-design coming up for a customer with an old Altium license. The initial PCB design (in Altium) was outsourced and we ended up with files made in a newer Altium version so the customer would need to upgrade. But with this new licensing scheme, it would be better to move the entire project over to Orcad and have the customer purchase a perpetual Orcad license to get access to the files.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 07:29:05 pm
content: What license type do you have ? If you have a perpetual it is frozen in time at the point your last paid subscription ended. You can't get newer versions but you can keep using that version AND ANY VERSION BEFORE !Let's say you paid subscription till end of 2024. You can use any version up to 24.11.xx. The license file will work.You can open newer files with older versions. The structure of the file is such that it will simply remove the stuff that is incompatible. You will get a list of the things that are incompatible. Most of the time those are additional design rule types and some polygon/pad/via types (rounded pads , donut pads, arbitrary shape pads for example. or the ipc via types.).I've opened 2025 files with 23 and even 22, and 22 version files with 17 or 18. Sometimes you will need to open with an intermediate version to be able to regress.Another option is to export to ASCII format and re-import.If the version delta is not too large one of the above methods should work.of course , if you never had a perpetual license this doesn't do you any good.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 11:45:39 pm
content: Quote from: free_electron on October 06, 2025, 07:29:05 pmThe problem is that the customer has version 19 IIRC and that version isn't quite up to dealing with the complexity of the design. I got the files back from the PCB designer (who used a newer version) but somehow all the not-in-bom markers got lost (for starters) on top of the newer features being used in the PCB layout. So the entire design ended up in limbo.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2025, 05:57:56 pm
content: the PCB versions that can;t be backported are diff-pair tuning ? ask them to convert to primitives. then it can be loaded.As for the DNP parts : that is an issue with the variant file. the file may be missing. It is often forgotten to add to the version control system

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2025, 08:35:30 pm
content: Quote from: free_electron on October 07, 2025, 05:57:56 pmVariants are saved in the project file as far as I can see.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2025, 09:08:38 am
content: I thought they were in the . PrjPcbVariants file, but maybe it has changed in newer versions.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2025, 10:42:49 am
content: Well, the design used the not-in-bom marker in the part properties and those got lost. It doesn't use variants for that purpose as the 'not in bom' parts are never supposed to be placed.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2025, 09:15:41 pm
content: If you have someone you trust with new Altium version that sees the part property, they can do a find by "Component Type" = Standard No BOM. Give that list to you via SCH List. Then you generate a variant based on that.Shouldn't be too much work. Unless "got lost" was someone messing with the files and the data is gone.

author: ali_asadzadeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2025, 08:13:23 am
content: Unpopular Take: if the software can not be cracked, it would be dead soon.

author: jusaca
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 09:13:33 am
content: Last week we wanted to buy two new perpetual licences in addition to the one we already have. Well, with this new SaaS model this is not possible any more...We now instead started to test KiCad for new projects and just keep the one perpetual for work with the old exisiting projects. I'm quite excited to see how far KiCad will take us and how responsive the KiPro Service is, if we wan't to have a specific feature added for us. Right now starting to work with KiCad seems really lovely, I'm just dreading the awful lot of library work to create all our parts in our own new library... Hopefully it is worth it to get away from all that annoying licencing trouble with Altium.

author: ajawamnet
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2025, 12:11:17 am
content: Quote from: jusaca on October 13, 2025, 09:13:33 amYou can import the Altium libraries into Kicad - and binary too. In fact - Kicad will use the Altium binaries as is. Pretty cool...https://www.nextpcb.com/blog/how-to-import-altium-libraries-into-kicad

author: ajawamnet
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2025, 12:16:26 am
content: https://www.nextpcb.com/blog/how-to-convert-altium-to-kicad-vice-versa

author: ajawamnet
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2025, 12:19:47 am
content: But I will say Kicad is still a bit toy like. For instance loop removal sucks compared to Altium.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2025 06:54:59 pm
content: Quotes from Altium employee on reddit:QuoteQuoteQuoteShort video, nothing interesting:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3-6S2flKjo

author: gamalot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: «Reply #39 on:Todayat 07:27:08 am »
content: It might affect corporate users, but for a "free" hobbyist like me, the standalone license for Altium Agile still works great.