40% Off Altium Designer - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 19, 2017, 12:12:08 am
content: http://www.altium.com/eagle-switch/altium-designer/There might be flood of people signing up to Eagle just to get the discount to switch

author: anishkgt
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2017, 12:15:15 am
content: Still way to costly for a hobbyist like me. Hmmm these are meant for the designers. I will just have to stick to eagle v7.7Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 19, 2017, 12:16:19 am
content: Quote from: anishkgt on February 19, 2017, 12:15:15 amOf course, they are not targeting those people.

author: anishkgt
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2017, 12:18:45 am
content: Gonna miss eagle 🦅 forever. Now would be a good time for Altium to bring out a standard version to replace Eagle.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

author: imidis
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2017, 12:43:09 am
content: Smart move on the part of Altium.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 19, 2017, 01:24:06 am
content: Quotewondering what limitations.Does being a user of the free version count?

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2017, 07:49:31 am
content: Try KicadIt's better than eagle

author: MarkS
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 19, 2017, 07:51:39 am
content: Quote from: ebclr on February 19, 2017, 07:49:31 amOnce their library editor is as integrated as Eagle's I'll agree. At least that will be a step in the right direction.

author: nowlan
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2017, 08:20:55 am
content: $5495 Eeeek!

author: julianhigginson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2017, 10:36:10 am
content: yep.. that sounds like 60% of the current AD license price...Funny that they're not doing a 60% off circuit studio.I thought that product was altium's attempt at competing with eagle?

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 19, 2017, 10:38:42 am
content: Quote from: julianhigginson on February 19, 2017, 10:36:10 amI advised them to do that, but it seems that the powers that be thought it wasn't a good idea. Or it's still to come?

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2017, 02:01:24 am
content: 40% off is about the price that altium will give you, if you beat them up anyway.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 20, 2017, 02:20:07 am
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on February 20, 2017, 02:01:24 amLOL, yep.

author: 0xPIT
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2017, 04:17:10 pm
content: if they only had a macOS version...

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2017, 08:08:32 pm
content: If everyone was to to gang together and say Altium the price we will pay for this product is $4000/seat or $3000/seat and nobody bought it other than those prices they would have a massive problem.

author: julianhigginson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2017, 12:07:58 am
content: The issue is, Altium isn't a consumer luxury. it's a critical business tool for businesses who are in the business of developing electronic hardware.Nobody buys an AD license for a laugh, or just in case they need one someday. They buy one because they have real work they need done with it. And they see value in having Altium with its general compatibility with other altium users projects, and its range of extra tools that make life easy for designing stuff for mass production.If you only have $3k budget for an electronics cad package, you have a bunch of other options in that price range that will even give you change to also buy an OK set of test equipment or do a couple of prototype runs of your first designs - circuit studio, circuit maker, diptrace, eagle, kicad, all the "bundled supplier" offerings from RS + mouser + digikey, and plenty of others.What would everyone who needs an Altium license to do their work do1) during the buyers strike?2) when Altium folds from a sudden cashflow stop, or slowly disintegrates from starvation and attending loss of good employees if they do the price cut?Also, I'm not sure what the global pricing flexibility is these days. Only Australians (and kiwis?) buy directly from Altium these days. everyone else has distributors with their own margins, rules, etc.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 21, 2017, 12:16:17 am
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on February 20, 2017, 08:08:32 pmThat's how the free market economy works.Nothing new at that price level. Altium slashed their price by 75% once, overnight, from like $12K to $3k.Lots of pissed off customers and lots of happy customers, depending upon when you bought it. Altium survived. Although the CEO at the time didn't think it was a good idea and "left".

author: BMF
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2017, 03:49:35 pm
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on February 20, 2017, 02:01:24 amOther EDA tools have steep discounts too. They over nice discounts if you are switching from Altium with an active subscription. Altium's new challenge is convincing people to buy into AD if new packages are on the horizon. They are fracturing their user base so every time a user considers an upgrade they may also consider switching to a competitive product and their upgrade paths.

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2017, 04:54:26 pm
content: The cost of changing EDA packages is huge. Its a massive effort. So a few thousand bucks discount is not actually going to do the job.

author: Agent86
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2017, 06:42:16 pm
content: Quote from: julianhigginson on February 19, 2017, 10:36:10 amWell, 50% off isn't too bad. Makes it less than the cost of a year's subscription for EAGLE...http://www.altium.com/eagle-switch/circuitstudio/

author: technotronix
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2017, 10:16:13 am
content: I am thinking to grab this offer.

author: mairo
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 27, 2017, 06:08:07 am
content: Will this discount work with a monthly Eagle subscription? What are these "Limitations apply", there is nothing that tells you what these limitations are?

author: MrRedHat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 07, 2017, 03:44:11 am
content: Am I missing something here? If you don't have a current Eagle license and want this offer, you could just get the Eagle Standard for $15 and then after one month cancel? Or is there some other catch I'm not seeing. Even say 30-day money back guarantee, so I suppose you could cancel and get that money back under the first 30 days too.

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2017, 03:52:35 am
content: Theres no catch. It easy to get a 40% discount on Altium at any time. ITs not really a special deal.

author: Michael Lloyd
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2017, 10:06:28 am
content: Nothing for Mac OS?How hard is it to transition from Eagle to Altium?

author: batteksystem
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2017, 01:28:10 pm
content: Still too expensive for low volume designer

author: GlowingGhoul
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2017, 04:16:49 pm
content: Quote from: batteksystem on March 07, 2017, 01:28:10 pmThere's always CricuitStudio for $495.

author: Bassman59
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2017, 04:54:02 pm
content: Quote from: Michael Lloyd on March 07, 2017, 10:06:28 amYou can run Altium in a virtual machine, but that's not the same as native Mac OS.QuoteThe hardest part is porting or recreating your libraries.

author: MrRedHat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 07, 2017, 06:51:19 pm
content: After having to go through the whole dog and pony show to get pricing from an Altium Sales rep. Here’s the info I got just in case anyone else is looking (I’m in the US).The full license is $7,495 and then with the Eagle discount, it brings it down to $4,497. You then have to purchase the first-year subscription for $1,850 which brings the total price to $6,347+tax.I guess the juicy tidbit is that the sales guy said the only reason why they’re running this promotion is because Altium is in a pissing contest with Autodesk Eagle. I guess apparently, Autodesk stole an Altium employee and now they’re going after them by trying to steal Eagle users.I’m really not sure how many Eagle users they’re going to steal. The sales rep told me that they don’t even consider Autodesk Eagle a competitor and couldn’t care less about Eagle. My thinking on price alone, if you’re a happy Eagle user it’s about eight times cheaper over three years to stay with Eagle assuming you’re paying for the premium version. In my opinion, if you’re a happy Eagle user, you might as well stay, unless there’s something specific you need.

author: Michael Lloyd
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2017, 06:57:26 pm
content: I'm just a hobbyist that doesn't make more than 20 or so boards a year, if that. I'll just stick with what I have I guess. I'm not going to "upgrade" any further than where I am (first pay level whatever that was). CircuitStudio seemed like a nice way to get started with Altium (except the price)

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2017, 07:03:12 pm
content: Quote from: MrRedHat on March 07, 2017, 06:51:19 pmIts about time and speed.I'm in teh business of designing electronics.. The costs associated with Altium over Eagle are justified in that i can get more work done in the same time with Altium that i can with eagle. ( i was an eagle user and migrated to Altium )... Thats not to say that Altium is perfect. Far from it.I have a hobby which is CNC maching.. I have a low cost milling machine that i've tinkered with and put motors on etc and got running.. I can actually turn out some pretty amazing work with but it takes me a lot longer than the pro shop down the road.. If i tryed pushing my machien to run at the speed they do it would just produce rubbish. I dont' have all the amazing measurement gear or the complex work holding.. But i can acheive accuracy and i can hold my work down, but the process's just take minutes rather than seconds.. Its exactly like your EDA package.If time is important then you need tools that help you get a job done quicker.

author: MrRedHat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 07, 2017, 07:17:11 pm
content: Quote from: Michael Lloyd on March 07, 2017, 06:57:26 pmYes exactly. Your reasoning is why I think the guy seemed annoyed with the whole promotion. He went through a whole 30 minute phone sales pitch and I was thinking to myself, “yeah, still too high in price”, especially when you don’t even consider Eagle a competitor. The sales guy is probably taking a ton of sales calls from Eagle users and once they find out the price they’re still going, “No way”. I suppose it’s his own fault, he could have e-mailed me the price and saved both of us 30 minutes worth of time. He insisted on talking to me on the phone.

author: MrRedHat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 07, 2017, 07:35:36 pm
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on March 07, 2017, 07:03:12 pmI agree with you completely and that’s why I was considering it. My situation is slightly different though, I don’t make money from it, but I hope to do so in the future. I’m currently just an Engineering student and my reasoning was if the discount was enough I would buy it at a discount and then keep the maintenance on it. I was hoping for $2,000 less expensive on the initial license and about $600/year less in the maintenance costs. If such a time arises in the future that I can really make full use of the product, I will buy the license at the full cost.I do understand why he seemed annoyed with the promotion though. I’m sure he’s probably spending lots of time taking calls from hobbyists who don’t end up buying it all because management is pissed off Autodesk offered one of Altium’s employees a better deal.

author: Michael Lloyd
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2017, 07:47:21 pm
content: I have the first level of Eagle that you have to pay for. I've had it or a long time. Counting upgrades that required payment I've probably got about the same in it as the ControlStudio cost. I'm not opposed to switching to improve... and I'm not a fan of the Autodesk takeover. Idk... it's not like changing which word processor I use...

author: MrRedHat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 07, 2017, 07:59:11 pm
content: I would be interested in knowing who Autodesk “stole” from Altium. I wonder if it’s some top programmer or some management guy? If it’s a top-notch programmer, it could mean a lot of improvements in Eagle coming down the line. Perhaps Autodesk positioning itself to compete with Altium in the future? Competition is always good for us, so it could work out in the end.

author: GlowingGhoul
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2017, 10:15:55 pm
content: Quote from: MrRedHat on March 07, 2017, 07:17:11 pmIt seems to me CircuitStudio @ $495 offers a better package than Eagle, with a perpetual license. Optional $150/yr maintenance. Of course comparing Eagle to Altium Designer pricing looks bad, even with the discount, they're not in the same league.CircuitStudio is about 90% Altium Designer in terms of features.

author: julianhigginson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2017, 12:20:37 am
content: but why do people from eevblog need to bother the altium sales rep if $6k is absolutely too steep? It's mentioned in the thread already how much it'll cost... And even if it hadn't been, altium is known to be a ~$10k piece of software normally, so... a 40% discount on that is never going to get you under $2k.I agree that circuit studio is a more sensible Eagle competitor. I don't know anyone doing professional electronic development using Eagle... Eagle is for people who like OSHW and have decided that they might try mucking about with their own boards for something to do rather than just shop for arduino shields at adafruit. This is not the kind of area where $10k for an EDA tool is a sensible expense.Sometimes altium just runs promotions for no particular reason (for the last few years since the big price bump, about 1 - 2 times a year I see offers for altium designer at least 30%) so I don't really see the specialness of this deal anyway.. it's a bit bigger and needs an eagle license, but really it's nothing that unusual.

author: blackfin76
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 22, 2017, 02:35:08 pm
content: Quote from: batteksystem on March 07, 2017, 01:28:10 pmI totally agree and I don't get the whole circuit studio thing. They should make it AD without the simulator and FPGA stuff. Nobody I know uses it and CC is downgraded beyond useful. A company that makes such products is not really listening to what the market needs.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2017, 04:19:38 pm
content: Quote from: MrRedHat on March 07, 2017, 07:59:11 pmI think it is an urban legend. But if true, you are kidding yourself. Be prepared to things becoming broken in new releases and all sort of weird bugs you could not even imagine. So if that "top notch" programmer left Altium, i say good riddance.

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2017, 09:55:27 pm
content: It's easy to begin, hard to be proficient since Altium goes far away than Eagle