FEATURE AND SPECIFICATION COMPARISON

CircuitStudio by Altium vs. Altium Designer

Function Feature Feature Description Altium CircuitStudio Altium Designer

Schematic Entry
Wiring Auto junction
Wire segment editing
Project Structure Multisheet design
Hierarchical design
Device sheets
Multi channel (schematic hierarchy only) Schematic multi-channel hierarchy only, not including
PCB rooms or the copy room formats feature
Design refactoring
Advanced design variants
Legacy design variants
Interactive Editing Smart paste
Design Compiler Blankets
ERC Connection matrix Configurable list of allowed pin and port connections
Configurable rules list List of rules to set to ignore, warn, report
Automatic interactive ERC Provides feedback as user works
Specific No-ERC Directive to limit ERC check on specific items
PCB Layout
Interactive Routing Heuristic based engine Topological routing and look-ahead engine
Shape based engine Simple collision avoidance and circumnavigation
Single trace drag
Bus dragging
Push while dragging
Automatic neckdown
Avoid obstacles while dragging
Automatic Routing Situs autorouter Altium’s topological automatic router
Specctra interface Ability to export SPECCTRA DSN and re-import
Interactive Editing Basic grid configuration
Multiple grid support
Polar grid support
Miniaturization Rigid flex support Layer stack regions, flexible circuit modeling
in 3D, flex movie and MCAD output
Embedded components
Die on board Die attach, flip-chip, and wire-bonding, glue and epoxy dots
Printed passives Screen-printed resistors, thin-film dielectric capacitors
Polygon & Plane Management Polygon manager
Automatic polygon naming
Advanced pour order checks
Pads and Vias Simple via Top to bottom connection
Basic pad stackup
Full pad stackup
Auto unused pad removal
Automatic teardrops
Non circular holes
Live drill table
Blind/buried via
Object Classes Basic object classes Nets, components, layers, pads, polygons
Advanced classes Structure classes
Automatic generation from schematic
Touch Component Support Cypress Capsense
Microchip M Touch
Atmel Q Touch

ALTIUM CERTIFIED TECHNICAL CONSULTANTS

■
US: Altiumsupport@newark.com  ■
  Europe: Altiumsupport@farnell.com  ■
  Asia Pacific: Altiumsupport@element14.com

For more information on Design Tools

element14.com/pcb
FEATURE AND SPECIFICATION COMPARISON
CircuitStudio by Altium vs. Altium Designer
Function Feature Feature Description Altium CircuitStudio Altium Designer

PCB Layout (continued)

Design Rules Batch DRC
Online DRC
Basic routing rules
Basic electrical rules
Basic SMD rules SMD to corner, SMD to plane, SMD neckdown
Basic testpoint rules Fabrication style / usage, assemble style / usage
Basic manufacturing rules Annular ring, acute angle, hole size, layer pairs, hole to
hole clearance, minimum solder mask sliver, silk to solder
mask, silk to silk, net antennae, silk to board region
Basic high speed rules Parallel segment, length, matched length, daisy chain
stub length, via under SMD, max via count
Rooms Room definition, copy room formats, room rule
scoping (WithinRoom, TouchesRoom)
Basic signal integrity rules Stimulus, overshoot, undershoot, impedance, top
value, base value, flight time, slope, supply nets
Custom rule scoping
High Speed Design Features xSignals
Differential pair
Back drilling
Via shielding
Chamfered paths
Interactive length tuning
Design Text True type support
Stroked font support
Barcode support
Multi-line text
System
Platform 32 bit
Crash reporting system
Unified data model
Scripting system
SDK
Standard Editing Formula driven updates in inspector
Find similar
List views
Design Environment Ribbon based UI
Menu based UI
Accelerator keys
Customizable menu and accelerators
Comprehensive environment preferences
Cloud preference storage
Unified search
Version Control SVN client
Managed projects
Design Reuse Snippets Persistent schematic, PCB and text clipboard
items to be reused over and over
Collaboration Concurrent PCB design
Pin management Pin swapping
FPGA pin swapping
Licensing Standalone Uses license file
On demand License can be shared using Altium Live
Private license server License can be shared using PLS on local lan

ALTIUM CERTIFIED TECHNICAL CONSULTANTS

■
US: Altiumsupport@newark.com  ■
  Europe: Altiumsupport@farnell.com  ■
  Asia Pacific: Altiumsupport@element14.com

For more information on Design Tools

element14.com/pcb
FEATURE AND SPECIFICATION COMPARISON
CircuitStudio by Altium vs. Altium Designer
Function Feature Feature Description Altium CircuitStudio Altium Designer

Functional Design Verification

XSPICE SIMULATION SPICE3F5, PSPICE, SIMCODE model support
SIM Integration Simmetrix/SIMPLIS
WEBENCH
Signal Integrity Analyses Basic signal integrity simulation
Wave Editor Basic wave editor functions
Library Management
Library Types Standard
Integrated
DB lib
SVN DB lib
Altium Vault
Consume Vault content
Model Creation IPC compliant footprint wizard
Importers & Exporters
Import Files From Dx Designer
PADS
EAGLE
OrCAD
Allegro
Xpedition
STEP (COMPONENTS)
STEP (FREE MODELS)
IDX
Export Files To STEP
Parasolid
IDX
BOM Management
BOM / Assembly Output Simple pick and place CSV, TXT pick and place file generation
Simple BOM CSV, XLS, TXT output BOM component list
Configurable BOM export
ActiveBOM
Live Supply Chain Information Component part choices (price/availability)
Manufacturing Output
File Generation Gerber
Gerber X2
ODB++
IPC 2581
Assembly print
Final print
3D print (picture of board in 3D perspective)
Smart PDF
Output Management Simple output
Output job
CAM Editor Gerber / ODB++ / IPC2581 viewing
Editing and DFM tools
Design Metric Limits
32 Signal layers
16 Plane layers
Unlimited components
Unlimited nets

ALTIUM CERTIFIED TECHNICAL CONSULTANTS

■
US: Altiumsupport@newark.com  ■
  Europe: Altiumsupport@farnell.com  ■
  Asia Pacific: Altiumsupport@element14.com

For more information on Design Tools

element14.com/pcb