Altium Develop is a platform that unifies multidisciplinary teams across engineering, sourcing, and manufacturing to support seamless co-creation. It provides real-time visibility into designs, requirements, and supply chain data, enabling contributors to work together concurrently rather than in silos.
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Autodesk Tinkercad
Score 6.6 out of 10
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Autodesk offers Tinkercad, a 3D modeling and design tool available free for educational purposes. Shapes are the building blocks of Tinkercad. Users can add pre-existing shapes, or import them. To adjust objects, users can rotate the workplane to adjust shapes or change views and input exact dimensions with the ruler. Custom shapes can also be created by combining elements.
Altium 365 is fantastic for students learning about PCB design and for large team-based PCB projects. Because this product is relatively easier to use than other ECAD software and it enables collaboration, students and professional engineers would greatly benefit from having this software in their skill set. In other words, Altium 365 is great for academic and industry purposes.
Tinkercad is such a great program and I would recommend the program to anyone who wants an introduction to a simple CAD program. I have another colleague that is now using it in her classroom due to my recommendation. I have had students start with me in Tinkercad and eventually work their way up in skill and purchase other Autodesk products because of the enjoyment and opportunity that Tinkercad provided.
The Tinkercad provided projects were upgraded in some aspects but the text for the projects has not and can cause confusion.
Tinkedcad works best in Google Chrome on a windows machine but most of my students have Macs and even when using Chrome they run into issues that Windows users don’t
Tinkedcad is browser-based but, to have a program that would be tablet compatible would be invaluable. So far it has only really worked on a Surface Pro 3.
ALTIUM DESIGNER is the reference tool in the electronic circuit design sector, its use is widespread worldwide. Although there are other alternatives, some of them free do not rival ALTIUM DESIGNER in terms of features and reliability. It is also very practical to request quotes with ALTIUM DESIGNER BOM reports since all suppliers are accustomed to using the tool.
Like any complicated program, it will always need some room for improvement. For example, it would be nicer to have other shortcuts than just the numpad Asterisk as the layer shift shortcut, or easy to shift layers via other ways. Some programs use a space bar instead, or similar. It would also be nice to manipulate or make 3D items better
I use the educational Program. And so far is the best technical support. Every time that I need one or I have a question. They respond so far and with excellent advice.
OrCAD was used at our company for years before we switched over to Altium Designer. Usually, moving all projects from one software can be a pain and time-consuming. Altium Designer made it very streamline to move all projects over, including all component libraries. In addition, on the Mechanical Engineering side of things, Altium Designer has wonderful integration with SOLIDWORKS, so all parts can be 3D modeled and brought over.
Autodesk Tinkercad is by far the most user-friendly 3D modeling program I have used, especially for basic 3D modeling tasks. MeshLab and MeshMixer have similar functions but are far more complicated to navigate and difficult to use. These programs also tend to crash frequently, which has never been a problem with Tinkercad. The fact that you can use Tinkercad without downloading any software also makes it far more accessible, as you can log into your account and edit your models from any computer. I use 3ds Max for more complex 3D modeling, but for small tasks I always choose Tinkercad.
Autodesk Tinkercad has enabled us to engage our customers further by offering enrichment programs for their children which will help to inspire them into STEM careers
