CircuitMaker is not just a free EDA software tool from Altium, it’s also a community of creative people and design content, working together to invent circuits and electronics products for a better future.
Get inspired
About circuitmaker
For turning great ideas into real products, you need design tools that won’t limit your imagination or hold you back. CircuitMaker has all the power you need to design high quality schematics and Printed Circuit Boards, with no artificial limits on layer counts or board area. Best of all it’s free.
Read Morefind & rate great design content
The CircuitMaker community is where you will find great reference designs, and be able to promote and rate other projects in the community.
You can even set up teams for collaborative design efforts.
WHAT MEMBERS ARE SAYING
Eli Hughes
Wavenumber LLC.
CircuitMaker is the 1st free PCB tool I have encountered that has features of a professional design tool. A tool that is backed by people who know EDA means that we can finally have something for those of us who want to get things done without being obstructed by complicated installation, a horrible user interface or a mess of a library system. Couple this with that fact that making is also about collaborating and sharing. The folks at CircuitMaker have unique vision about creating a platform, not just a barebones tool for those who aspire to be “mad engineers”.
Roberto Lo Giacco
Professional Engineer
Finally some fresh air in the EDA market: a modern interface with some really pro capabilities and no serious limitation. This is the tool any electronics maker was waiting for and it is community focused.
Nicholas Rabault
The Poppy Project
Poppy is an open-source platform for the creation, use and sharing of interactive 3D printed robots. We love CircuitMaker because it offers the possibility of our community to contribute easily. We can promote our board model by sharing a simple link to a release. Users can produce themselves our design directly or by forking it to adapt it to their needs. Mechanical integration is a really important factor in robotics so the 3D modeling in CircuitMaker enables that.
Design the next
great electronic product
POWERFUL ECAD FOR OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE
We think you deserve better design tools, made specifically for you, to turn great ideas into reality. That’s why we’ve created CircuitMaker. Besides being a collaborative community for electronic design content, CircuitMaker is Schematic & PCB design software, built upon Altium Designer technology. With a streamlined interface and powerful engine to boot, you’ll never have to worry about your software holding you back. This is a free design tool unlike anything you’ve seen before.
UNLIMITED & FREE
Typically, free EDA software is poorly developed, or has restrictions on design size that render it useless for any real project. Not CircuitMaker - you get the full power of 16 signal + 16 plane layers, and no restrictions to the PCB dimensions. You can even make money with your designs, because there’s no “non-commercial” clause!
MASSIVE, RICH COMPONENT LIBRARY
CirucitMaker is built on a community library with hundreds of thousands of components - all backed by the awesome Octopart database. Placing components in CircuitMaker designs is as easy as searching by manufacturer part number or by design parameters. You can also add your own custom parts and mechanical components too.
SHARE & COLLABORATE
You can create projects with teams in the CircuitMaker Community, and allow other community members to work with you on the design. Harness the power of teams to get projects done faster! Released designs can be forked and then modified so you can build new designs with different features without having to start from scratch every time.
NATIVE 3D™
Altium Native 3D™ technology means that when you’re in the PCB editor, just hit the 3 key and you can immediately see the PCB layout in full 3D. It will also show any component clearance violations and you’ll even know what the overlap distances are, so you can get your designs right - and to fit the box - the first time.
ONE-CLICK MANUFACTURING
Once you have finished your design, you can release the project to the community. From there you can download the gerbers and send them off to any PCB manufacturer. But even easier than that, we’ve partnered with select manufacturers to provide a one-click manufacture button that can directly send your board for quoting - either bare board prototype or full PCB fabrication and assembly, at the best possible price. It’s up to you!
PUSH-N-SHOVE ROUTING
For a tool we’re giving away for free, we did not hold back on the push and shove routing capabilities! The interactive routing modes include obstacle avoidance, hug, hug-n-push, and obstacle ignore. The push modes will push other trace and vias, as well as hop-over. You can even route differential pairs and interactively add accordions to nets that need that extra length for signal delays.
MULTI-SHEET SCHEMATIC EDITOR
CircuitMaker uses the same easy-to-use and great looking schematic editor Altium is known for. You can even do complex multi-sheet designs, and use hierarchical design blocks, and generate SmartPDF™ outputs from your project.
TOPOLOGICAL AUTOROUTER
The Situs™ topological autorouter works in concert with your design rules to help you get the board done fast. With BGA and SMT fanout, parallel memory, hug, and via optimization, it’s easy to use Situs to get working results really fast. You can also interactively route multi-nets or single nets, or use manual routing with auto-complete.
DRC/DFM VALIDATED OUTPUTS
When you’re ready to turn your design into a real board, CircuitMaker will generate industry standard CAM outputs. You can choose Gerber and NC Drill, or ODB++, or both. IPC test point reports and all other necessary outputs for professional manufacturing can be generated as well, and all this through a succinct release process that ensures your board passes design rules checks for DFM and assembly.
IMPORT DESIGNS FROM OTHER TOOLS
CircuitMaker comes with a huge set of importers, including OrCAD™, PCAD®, PADS®, EAGLE™, Protel and more - so starting your project from a manufacturer reference design is easy. The importers support both PCB and Schematic documents.
I've been getting my feet wet again; perhaps Altium has fixed the UX which drove me away originally but they don't seem (until now?) to have had any entry-level appropriate pricing.
And whilst I could pick up Eagle 7 recently and get productive again real quick, the fact that I still had to draw my own PCB footprints which are intrinsically inseparable from the overall component definition is so disappointing.
A separate PCB footprint library, separate in the sense that component packages should be normalized and trivially re-usable across devices without error-prone copy-pasta madness seemed painfully obvious 10 years ago and it's still painfully obvious now. Drawing a new schematic symbol and wiring that up to physical pins in a PCB footprint is no big deal, but I just hate having to draw a new PCB footprint from a datasheet. Even on the off-chance that you can copy-paste from some other device with similar enough package, you still end up with inconsistent silkscreen/gate naming conventions etc. because each part library author does things differently.
Article Technical Rating: 7 out of 10
There are numerous software packages available for designing printed circuit boards (PCBs), too many in fact. That being said, there are three PCB design packages that are the most popular: Altium, Eagle, and OrCad.
However, I prefer a less well-known PCB design packaged called DipTrace.
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I always strive to be honest and upfront. This article is not intended to be an unbiased review of every PCB/schematic software package available. There are many, many packages not discussed in this article because I’ve never personally used them.
Instead, I wrote this article to share my own experiences. No doubt about it, I’m a biased fan of DipTrace. Although as you’ll learn it’s not the best option for everyone.
For a struggling hardware entrepreneur developing a new electronic product or even for a freelance engineer just getting started, all three of these packages are probably prohibitively expensive. Launching a new product is already rather expensive without also spending thousands of dollars on just design software.
NOTE: This is a long article so here's a free PDF version of it for easy reading.
Altium Designer is considered the Ferrari of PCB design packages and starts at over $7,000! No that is not a typo. It’s good software, but that’s pretty crazy.
Altium is the most popular PCB design package among those with a company’s budget behind them. Because of that it’s also the package that many new freelance engineers are most familiar. A good amount of freelancers splurge on Altium because it’s what they already know.
Most people developing PCBs independently, like entrepreneurs, hackers, and freelance designers, usually can’t afford to shell out that kind of cash on software.
Although significantly cheaper than Altium, neither Eagle or OrCad can really be considered affordable. OrCad has a price tag of $2,300. Eagle recently changed their payment structure to a recurring fee of $65 per month ($780 annually), or you can save a bit by paying annually at $500/year. Nonetheless most will find the requirement to pay a recurring fee indefinitely to be a big negative for Eagle.
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They are all also difficult to use. Plan on spending at least several days, but more likely weeks, learning how to use any of them (especially Eagle!).
A powerful, but cheaper and easier to use PCB design package is called DipTrace, which is what I personally recommend, especially for new designers. Although Diptrace is a fantastic option for new designers, it’s also powerful enough to handle the most complicated designs.
One of my favorite things about DipTrace, other than its low price, is that it offers several upgrade levels starting from only $75. The top package is $995 and allows designs of unlimited size.
However, most projects won’t require the top package, and you can get by with one of the lower level packages costing only $495 to $695. You can start with the $75 Starter version and work your way up as needed. You only pay the difference between each level.
What about the various free PCB design tools available? Normally, I don’t recommend any of them because they force you to use their PCB production services. That may be okay for a hobby project but not if you plan to ever mass produce your product. These free tools usually lack the ability to output the PCB layout as Gerber files which is necessary if you want the flexibility to manufacture your boards via any vendor.
One exception is EasyEDA which is an online PCB design tool that not only includes schematic and PCB layout design, but also circuit simulation capabilities. EasyEDA is very intuitive to use, features Gerber file output, and best of all is totally free.
PCB Design Software Pricing Comparison
DipTrace Full | No limits | $995 |
Eagle | No limits | $65/month, $500/year |
Cadence OrCad PCB Designer | No limits | $2,300 |
Altium Designer | No limits | $7,245 |
DipTrace Lite | 500 pins, 2 signal layers | $145 |
DipTrace Starter | 300 pins, 2 signal layers | $75 |
DipTrace Standard | 1,000 pins, 4 signal layers | $395 |
DipTrace Extended | 2,000 pins, 6 signal layers | $695 |
EasyEDA | No limits | Free |
So Who Exactly Needs PCB Design Software?
Let’s look at the types of people most likely to need a PCB design tool. I’ll discuss four groups of people likely to use circuit design software, although I’m sure there are several more:
GROUP #1 – Corporate engineers – Most established companies can easily afford to spend thousands of dollars on software. Altium is probably the right choice for you.
GROUP #2 – Independent freelance engineers – If you already know how to use Altium from a previous corporate job, and you can afford it, then Altium may be your best choice. If not, then then DipTrace is probably your best choice, unless you need to collaborate with other engineers. If you collaborating with other engineers is critical then you’ll probably be better off with one of the more popular packages.
GROUP #3 – Engineer entrepreneurs – If you have prior experience designing electronics (or wish to learn how) then you may be better off designing your product yourself. Or at least as much as possible. DipTrace is definitely the way to go for you!
GROUP #4 – Electronic hobbyists and hackers – Whether you’re developing a circuit for fun or for profit, DipTrace is easily the best design package for you.
The Most Important Criteria for PCB Design Software
For me, as well as most entrepreneurs and a majority of freelance engineers, there are five primary criteria that matter most when selecting a circuit design software package:
CRITERIA #1 – Must be intuitive to use – DipTrace is the clear winner when it comes to being intuitive to use. Using DipTrace you’ll be able to begin designing your circuit almost immediately with a very minimal learning curve. No need to waste hours reading a boring manual with DipTrace.
Circuit Maker Update Pcb
Eagle is the clear loser in regards to being intuitive to use. It has the worst user interface of just about any design package I’ve ever used. Eagle is utterly frustrating to learn and you’ll waste days or weeks trying to learn it. In fact, it will probably be many weeks before you are actually comfortable with it, if ever.
CRITERIA #2 – Must be reasonably priced – DipTrace is easily the most affordable PCB design package. It is only half the price of Eagle, or only an eighth the price of Altium. DipTrace also has a low barrier to entry because you can begin with their low-cost Starter version and upgrade your way up as needed.
CRITERIA #3 – Needs to have all of the features you’ll ever need, but not every feature you could ever imagine – There is no clear winner here, and it really depends on your needs. That being said, DipTrace has had every feature I’ve ever needed.
CRITERIA #4 – Ideally it should be a “standard” and in widespread use. Altium is the clear winner for this criteria, with Eagle in second, OrCad in third place, and DipTrace coming in last.
CRITERIA #5 – Large libraries of components available. All four packages come with huge libraries of components. Large libraries are critical because creating new components can introduce errors that won’t be captured by any of the verification tools. That being said, regardless of the package, you’ll eventually need to create some custom components yourself.
Because they are so popular, Altium and Eagle are probably the winners for this criteria because component manufacturers are more likely to provide a component library for one of these two packages. This has never really been an issue for me and I’ve found DipTrace’s libraries to be quite extensive.
The Ultimate Cost of Complicated Software
While designing microchips for Texas Instruments (TI) we used a package from Cadence (makers of OrCad) which cost TI probably millions in licensing fees.
Honestly, it was horrible software that was very confusing and difficult to use. So it also cost an incredible amount in lost design time from engineers. In general, it took new designers several months to get really efficient in its use.
Not so with DipTrace. If you’ve ever done any circuit design or PCB layout you can sit down with DipTrace and be producing quality designs within a few hours. At the other extreme is Eagle which will cost you weeks of lost design time. Can you tell I really don’t like Eagle?
Some Details About DipTrace
DipTrace consists of four separate modules. One for schematic entry, one for PCB layout, one for creating new components, and one for creating new PCB landing patterns.
DipTrace Opening Menu
The DipTrace schematic capture module is an advanced circuit design tool that supports multi-sheet and multi-level hierarchical schematics. Circuits can be easily converted to PCB and back annotated. Verification and Spice export for simulation allow for full project analysis.
DipTrace’s Schematic capture module
Circuit Maker Pcb Size
The DipTrace PCB layout module offers smart manual routing, shape-based autorouting, advanced verification, and 3D previewing.
Design rules can be defined by net classes, class-to-class rules, and detailed settings by object types for each class or layer. DipTrace features a design process with real-time DRC, which reports errors on the fly before actually making them.
The board can be previewed in 3D and exported for mechanical CAD modeling. Design Rule Check (DRC) with in-depth detailing, net connectivity verification, and comparing to source schematic ensure maximum quality of the final design.
DipTrace’s PCB layout module
The DipTrace component editor is for creating schematic symbols for any components not included in DipTrace’s library of components.
The DipTrace pattern editor is for the creating PCB landing patterns for these new components.
The main negative I’ve found with Diptrace is that’s not as standard as Altium, Eagle, or OrCAD which can be an issue if you ever want to work with other engineers on a project.
For example, you may want to design the schematic circuit, but have someone else do the PCB layout for you. This becomes challenging with DipTrace. Most PCB layout engineers use Altium, Eagle, or OrCad and it’s very problematic to switch between software packages on a project.
You can design the schematic in DipTrace, but if you wish to outsource the PCB layout the schematic will probably need to be exported to a PDF file, then manually redrawn in the new software package by the PCB layout engineer. Of course, there are plenty of engineers that do use DipTrace (like myself), so this isn’t always necessary.
DipTrace can import schematics and PCB layouts from Eagle and OrCad (but not Altium); however, it can’t export to these formats. Each PCB software package tries to make it difficult for you to export to another package because they don’t want to lose you as a customer.
What About Free PCB Design Software?
Free PCB design packages do exist but I don’t generally recommend them. Some PCB suppliers offer their own proprietary PCB design tools. These tools are free but they usually only work with that specific PCB supplier.
So if you start a design using one of these free supplier-specific tools then you are usually “stuck” using that supplier. Limiting your supplier options to a single company is not generally a good idea. By using these free tools you are boxing yourself in a corner that may be hard to break from later.
That being said, DipTrace, Eagle, and OrCad all offer free versions of their software. The free versions are severely limited in how complex of a design you can create, but they allow you to test them out before forking over the cash for their paid versions. Altium offers a limited-time free trial of its software.
So if you have any doubts which package is right for you, then I highly recommend that you download and test their free versions first. Most likely you won’t be able to create your entire design, unless it is unusually simple, but it will let you decide which package is best for you.
Conclusion
I think you will find that DipTrace is the only software that is intuitive enough to allow you to create your design immediately without spending hours reading the manual. Most likely, unless you read the manuals, you will get very frustrated trying to use Eagle, OrCad, or Altium. Although I’ve found Eagle to be the most frustrating to use.
So to summarize, if you’re looking for something easy to use and affordable then go with DipTrace. If you need to work with other engineers on the same project then Altium is probably the best choice.
See here for more information about DipTrace.
See here for more information about Altium Designer.
For another review of various PCB software packages see the comparison by San Francisco Circuits. If you would like to learn all of the details to developing a new electronic product be sure to check out my Ultimate Guide – How to Develop a New Electronic Product.
Do you need affordablecoaching, training, and support to bring your new electronic hardware product to market? If so, join the waiting list for the Hardware Academy and get early access with discounted pricing.
Developer(s) | Altium |
---|---|
Initial release | January 2015 |
Stable release | |
Written in | Delphi, C++, C# |
Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
Size | ca. 600 MB |
Available in | English |
Type | Electronic design automation |
License | Proprietary |
Website | www.circuitmaker.com |
CircuitMaker is electronic design automation software for printed circuit board designs targeted at the hobby, hacker, and maker community.[1][2] CircuitMaker is available as freeware, and the hardware designed with it may be used for commercial and non-commercial purposes without limitations.[3] It is currently available publicly as version 1.3 by Altium Limited, with the first non-beta release on January 17, 2016.[4]
- 1History
History[edit]
MicroCode CircuitMaker[edit]
CircuitMaker, TraxMaker and SimCode were originally developed by the Orem-based MicroCode Engineering, Inc. since 1988. CircuitMaker 5 for Windows 3.1, 9x and NT became available in 1997,[5] CircuitMaker 6, CircuitMaker PRO, TraxMaker 3 and TraxMaker PRO in 1998.[6][7][8]
Protel CircuitMaker[edit]
Electronic design automation software (EDA) developer Protel marketed CircuitMaker 2000 as a schematic capture tool, together with TraxMaker as its PCB layout counterpart, as a powerful yet affordable solution for circuit board needs.[9] Its ease of use and comparatively low cost quickly gained it popularity among students, and the software suite was commonly used to teach circuit board design to engineering students in universities.[10] The wide availability of plug-ins and component libraries have accelerated adoption, and quickly amassed a worldwide community. When Protel was renamed Altium Limited in the early 2000s, engineering efforts were redirected towards the development of DXP 2004,[11] and CircuitMaker 2000 was eventually discontinued. Due to its new status as abandonware, CircuitMaker 2000 remained popular among hobby users and students.[12] This popularity has been observed by Altium, and the most successful features of CircuitMaker 2000 have since been integrated in DXP 2004 and later were incorporated into Altium Designer.
Altium CircuitMaker[edit]
Open source hardware and easy-to-use development boards such as the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi have increased community interest in electronics, particularly in fablabs,[13]hackerspaces and makerspaces. The leading EDA software vendors traditionally lack free versions, and professional licenses are unaffordable for amateurs. This resulted in high piracy rates for professional software packages, or users sticking to outdated software, including CircuitMaker 2000. Several initiatives such as EAGLE have attempted to fill this void, releasing restricted versions of semi-professional EDA tools. The rise of KiCAD further fragmented the market. This pressure eventually provided the incentive for Altium to release a simplified and more user friendly version of their professional EDA software package and flagship product, Altium Designer, targeted at less complex circuit board projects. This culminated into the rebirth of CircuitMaker as schematic capture and PCB design software.
Despite the resemblance in naming, the current CircuitMaker differs entirely from CircuitMaker 2000 regarding features and graphical user interface: the SPICE simulation module has been removed; the library system has been overhauled; and the controls changed from classic menus to a more modern and visually appealing ribbon interface.
Merge with Upverter[edit]
On 14 May 2018, Altium announced plans to merge CircuitMaker and Upverter into a single, free to use design platform. The company justifies this move by citing common requests among Upverter users for an offline desktop editor, and common requests among CircuitMaker users for a true cross-platform hardware design environment. Hence CircuitMaker will become the 'Upverter Desktop Client'.[14][15]
Features[edit]
CircuitMaker implements schematic capture and PCB design using the same engine as Altium Designer, providing an almost identical user experience. The schematic editor includes basic component placement and circuit design as well as advanced multi-channel design and hierarchical schematics. All schematics are uploaded to the Altium server and can be viewed by anyone with a CircuitMaker account, stimulating design re-use.[16] CircuitMaker supports integration with the Octopart search engine[17] and allows drag and drop placement of components from the Octopart search results if schematic models are attached to them. Users can build missing schematic symbols and commit them to the server, called the Community Vault, making them available for other users. [18] The continuously growing part database eliminates the need for a custom schematic symbol or footprint design for common parts, increasing user-friendliness for beginners.
Concurrency editing was added in version 1.3[19], allowing multiple users to collaborate on a schematic or PCB document simultaneously and exchange thoughts through an integrated comment and annotation system.
Transfer of schematics to a PCB is a straightforward process in CircuitMaker since PCB footprints are automatically attached to any component on the schematic that was picked from the Octopart library. PCB footprints may have simple 3D models or complex STEP models attached to them, enabling real time 3D rendering of the PCB during development.[20] CircuitMaker supports design rule configuration and real time design rule checking. Some advanced features, including differential pair routing, interactive length tuning [21], and polygon pour management, are also available.[22] Production files can be exported directly, although an external Gerber viewer must be used to check the exports. The entire PCB can also be exported as a 3D STEP model for further use in mechanical 3D CAD software.
Open source hardware[edit]
CircuitMaker requires a free account to represent its users in the community.[23] An active internet connection is required to start and use the software.[24] Users are allowed to have 2 private projects, the so-called sandbox mode for practicing. By default, all schematics and PCBs are uploaded to the server and can be viewed by other users as soon as they are committed through the internal svn engine. While this renders CircuitMaker undesirable for closed source projects, it encourages collaboration in the community. Users are allowed to fork existing projects, or request permission to collaborate in existing projects. Importing schematic documents and PCBs from other EDA packages (OrCAD, PADS, P-CAD, EAGLE) is supported. Users are allowed to own unlimited projects, and there is no hard limit on board complexity.[25] However, Altium warns that users may experience a performance drop for large projects.[26]
All documents are under version control by default, allowing users to revert changes made in their projects, and build new versions of existing schematic symbols or footprints in the Community Vault. Users can comment on each other's projects and parts, rate them, and propose improvements.
CircuitMaker supports direct generation of production files in industry standard formats such as Gerber and NC Drill, as well as printing of stencils for DIYcircuit board etching.[27]
Online community[edit]
As of April 2017, there are over 110,000 registered users within the CircuitMaker Community,[28] together authoring over 12 000 PCB projects.[29] The ease of use has led to rapid adoption of CircuitMaker by schools and universities to teach PCB design.[30][31][32]
Criticism[edit]
As a result of its reliance on the Altium Designer schematic capture and PCB design engine, CircuitMaker is only available for the Windows operating system. This requires users to have access to a Windows license to use CircuitMaker. Dependence on Windows has been cited as a weakness of the CircuitMaker project, and Altium had reported to current users that a cross-platform solution is in development.[33][34] As of 2019, CircuitMaker can be run in Wine on Ubuntu, with limitations,[35][36] but the installation procedure is cumbersome, and many users reported it does not work on their Linux distribution.[37] This currently forces most users to fall back to a complete virtual machine. Unofficial support for Linux and BSD users is provided by Altium staff and volunteers on the CircuitMaker forum.[38] The effort to develop a cross platform desktop client seems to have been abandoned since the acquisition of Upverter. CircuitMaker currently does not install or run on ReactOS due to a .NET Framework related error.[39]
A second concern is the lock-in resulting from CircuitMaker's cloud centric approach. While users can import resources from competing EDA software packages,[40] CircuitMaker does not support exporting design resources itself. Reviewers consider this in conflict with the open source ideology. However, a workaround for this issue is provided by Altium Designer 15 and 16 which do support the import of CircuitMaker files.[41] A trial version of Altium Designer can be requested free of charge from Altium for this purpose. The community has developed pathways to share schematic symbols and footprints between CircuitMaker, Altium Designer, and CircuitStudio [42][43] despite the lack of official Altium support.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Graves, George (20 June 2015). 'Altium Gives Away The Farm With New CircuitMaker Software'. Hackaday. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
- ^Fabio, Adam (24 September 2015). 'CircuitMaker From Altium'. Hackaday. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
- ^'CircuitMaker FAQs'. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
No, there is no licensing to worry about, and no subscription to maintain. The original version of CircuitMaker (latest edition was CircuitMaker200) always came with a free version targeted towards the educational market. The current version of CircuitMaker is totally free, giving you all the tools to think big and make cool stuff, with features and functionality to facilitate creation of diverse and challenging designs.
- ^'CircuitMaker'. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
- ^'Microcode Engineering's Circuit Design Software Now Features Mixed Analog/Digital Simulation'. EE Times. 3 November 1997.
- ^'Microcode Announces New Product Lineup for EDA Software Industry'. EE Times. 27 August 1998.
- ^Arnold, Russell (9 January 1998), Low-cost circuit design tools offer advanced features, Electronic Products
- ^CircuitMaker for Windows: Integrated Schematic Capture and Circuit Simulation, User Manual(PDF), MicroCode Engineering Inc., 1998
- ^Protel International Limited (2000). CircuitMaker 2000: the virtual electronics lab(PDF). Star Printery Pty Ltd. pp. 1–2. Archived(PDF) from the original on 2018-04-15. Retrieved 2018-04-15.
- ^Vickery, Christopher (2009). 'Getting Started with CircuitMaker'. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
- ^Yan, Ni (2007). Practical Exercises of Protel DXP2004. PRC: Science Press. ISBN703019845X.
- ^Onwubolu, Godfrey (2005). Mechatronics: Principles and Applications. Elsevier Ltd. pp. 637–640. ISBN978-0-7506-6379-3.
- ^Verbelen, Yannick; Van Belle, Davy; Tiete, Jelmer (2013). 'Experimental Analysis of Small Scale PCB Manufacturing Techniques for Fablabs'(PDF). International Journal of Engineering Innovation & Research. IJEIR. 2 (2): 134–143. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
- ^Jordan, Benjamin. 'Upverter and CircuitMaker - Have your cake and eat it too!'. Altium LLC. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
- ^Zak Homuth (2018-05-15). 'And away we go.. Merge!'. Upverter.
- ^Jordan, Ben (12 November 2015). 'The original Design Re-Use - Components'. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
- ^Maxfield, Clive (28 October 2014). 'Free CircuitMaker PCB Tool From Altium'. EETimes. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
- ^Verbelen, Yannick (4 January 2018). 'Component Revision Management'. CircuitMaker Blog. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^Fijolek, Rafal (5 August 2016). 'Collaboration in CircuitMaker extends to real time concurrency editing!'. Circuitmaker. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
- ^Maxfield, Clive (28 October 2014). 'Free CircuitMaker PCB Tool From Altium'. EETimes. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
- ^Jordan, Ben (9 October 2016). 'High speed layout/routing'. CircuitMaker Forum. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^Jones, Dave (16 June 2015). 'EEVblog 754 Altium CircuitMaker first impressions'. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
- ^'Getting CircuitMaker Installed and Running'. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
To use CircuitMaker requires an account to be setup. This is achieved by registering to become part of the CircuitMaker Community - through the CircuitMaker website.
- ^Jones, Dave (26 September 2013). 'EEVblog 527: Altium entry level PCB tool rant'. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
It requires an internet connection to make the thing work. You cannot start the thing or otherwise work on your projects without an internet connection.
- ^'It's All Free'. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
CircuitMaker is completely free, with zero limitations to hold back your design potential.
- ^'CircuitMaker FAQs'. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
While there are no 'hard limits' per se, the software has been engineered to make it impractical for use with large designs. To this end, the PCB Editor will start to exibit [sic] performance degradation when editing designs containing 5000 pads, becoming virtually unusable with designs containing 50,000 pads. Degradation itself takes the form of progressive slow-down in PCB editing functions (such as routing, placing components, polygon pours, etc).
- ^Verbelen, Yannick (7 April 2018). 'Rapid Prototying PCBs: etching your own boards with CircuitMaker'. CircuitMaker Blog. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^Jordan, Ben (11 October 2016). 'How do we love CircuitMaker? Let us count the USERS'. CircuitMaker Blog. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
(..) CircuitMaker has now surpassed the 100,000 registered users mark (..)
- ^'Projects'. CircuitMaker. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
- ^'Computer Aided Design'. Rapptor Education (in Dutch). Retrieved 16 April 2017.
- ^Verbelen, Yannick (2016). Design & Prototyping(PDF) (in Dutch). Vrije Universiteit Brussel. pp. 37–52.
- ^Verbelen, Yannick (16 December 2017). 'CircuitMaker Advanced Seminar @ Fablab Brussels'. CircuitMaker Blog. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
- ^Jones, Dave (26 September 2013). 'EEVblog 527: Altium entry level PCB tool rant'. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
- ^'Is there a Linux edition of CircuitMaker?'. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
While we appreciate the passion of Linux users, Altium products are currently only Windows-based. We will investigate support for Linux in the future, but do not make any promises of implementation, or time line. In the meantime, you can run CircuitMaker by running Windows in a Virtual Machine on Linux.
- ^Jordan, Ben (29 June 2016). '3 Steps for Installing CircuitMaker on Linux'. CircuitMaker Blog. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
- ^Fred, Jim (5 March 2017). 'CircuitMaker on Ubuntu 16.04'. WineHQ. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
- ^Anderson, James (23 August 2016). 'CircuitMaker on Linux'. CircuitMaker Forum. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
- ^Carlson, Jay (13 June 2015). 'Mac / Linux Version'. CircuitMaker Forum. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
- ^Verbelen, Yannick (2 March 2017). 'CircuitMaker on ReactOS'. CircuitMaker Forum. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
In VMware 12, using the latest version of the ReactOS alpha, CircuitMaker downloads and installs without the 'orange box' issue seen in WINE, but hangs forever when trying to install .NET Framework 4.0.
- ^'My EAGLE design is not importing - why?'. CircuitMaker FAQ. 10 March 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
CircuitMaker's EAGLE Importer is able to import EAGLE design files saved with EAGLE version 6.4.0 (or later).
- ^Loughhead, Phil (25 November 2015). 'Moving CircuitMaker files to Altium Designer'. CircuitMaker Forum. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
Importing into AD15 or AD16 is the only method of transferring a CircuitMaker PCB file to Altium Designer.
- ^Verbelen, Yannick (12 December 2017). 'Transferring Footprints between CircuitMaker and Altium Designer'. CircuitMaker Blog. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^LaMothe, Andre (5 January 2019). 'Importing Circuitmaker project into Circuitstudio'. CircuitMaker Forum. Retrieved 18 January 2019.