Altium Designer

Guided tour Free trial Buy from US$49/month

Toss out the design rule book and rethink what’s possible.

We asked our own engineers how they would describe Altium Designer. OK, they’re biased, but one phrase that cut through was “electronics design software, but not as you know it”. We thought that was a good starting point.

There’s plenty that stands out about Altium Designer. It looks and feels different when viewed for the first time, and there’s a reason. Its unified structure brings together every element of the design process into one application. So look out for Schematic Capture, Mixed-Signal Simulation, Rules-Driven PCB Layout and Routing that we think goes beyond “advanced”, 3D Mechanical Integration and Constraint Checking, Intuitive FPGA Design (no HDL or specialist skills required), Embedded Software Design, 100,000+ components, IP Libraries that you can actually use, tons of Reference Designs, and Enterprise Library Management.

These capabilities aren’t spread across multiple applications struggling to stay linked together like dinghies in a squall. They are all in Altium Designer.

Altium Designer also solves design and release integrity challenges, never addressed before without killing innovation and creativity. It gives electronics designers and engineers mastery of all trades, bringing together all the necessary electronics design data needed for a project. This breaks down the barriers between each step of the design process - synchronizing design domains (SCH, PCB, FPGA, embedded) and providing collaboration capabilities that outclass any alternative.

Oh, and we make Altium Designer as affordable as possible.

A collection of published articles from Altium that provide insight, provoke debate and set out our view of the future. For executives, engineers and managers.

What’s next for
electronics devices?
Next generation electronics products will be key enablers of "ecosystems" that connect companies to their customers.
Unleash your design mojo
Five reasons to catch the new wave in electronics design.
Real-time 3D PCB visualization
View and navigate your boards in stunning 3D, at any time, in real time.


Take the pain out of pin swapping
Harness the benefits of FPGAs without the complexity of PCB to FPGA synchronization issues.
   

A collection of published articles from Altium that provide insight, provoke debate and set out our view of the future. For executives, engineers and managers.

What’s next for
electronics devices?
Next generation electronics products will be key enablers of "ecosystems" that connect companies to their customers.
More innovation, fewer limitations!
Five reasons to embrace a next-generation design solution.
The future of electronics design
Delivering designs that offer a distinct and recognizable advantage in the marketplace.
Why partner with Altium
We help designers focus on creating new functionality and product differentiation, to build the next generation of electronic products.

Way forward

A collection of published articles from Altium that provide insight, provoke debate and set out our view of the future. For executives, engineers and managers.

What’s next for
electronics devices?
Next generation electronics products will be key enablers of "ecosystems" that connect companies to their customers.
Make products with a future
Five reasons why your designers need to do things differently.
Altium Innovation Station
The ultimate development environment for electronics design.
MCAD-ECAD design – removing 25 years of pain
The electronic and mechanical aspects of today's design are intimately connected and interdependent.

Way forward

A collection of published articles from Altium that provide insight, provoke debate and set out our view of the future. For executives, engineers and managers.

What’s next for
electronics devices?
Next generation electronics products will be key enablers of "ecosystems" that connect companies to their customers.
Set your engineers Free
Five reasons to move your design team to a next-generation design solution.
Design to Manufacture
It's all about getting the right sets of data to the right people.
MCAD-ECAD design – removing 25 years of pain
The electronic and mechanical aspects of today's design are intimately connected and interdependent.

Way forward

A collection of published articles from Altium that provide insight, provoke debate and set out our view of the future. For executives, engineers and managers.

What’s next for
electronics devices?
Next generation electronics products will be key enablers of "ecosystems" that connect companies to their customers.
Be part of the future, not the past
Five reasons to start your career with a next generation design solution.
3D PCB visualization technology
Instantly view and navigate your board in stunning 3D, at any time, in real time.
The future of electronics design
Delivering designs that offer a distinct and recognizable advantage in the marketplace.

Guided tour

This detailed video demonstrates some of the core features and methodologies of Altium’s unique next generation electronics design solution.

The entire product development process with a single unified design solution

  • A single solution to develop hardware, programmable hardware and software
  • Take designs from concept to manufacture within a single unified environment
  • A single model of the design data, and a single design data storage system

Freely explore design concepts ‘on-the-fly’

  • Explore devices from different vendors with minimal design reengineering
  • Easily explore design concepts and options before committing to final hardware
  • Use IP from any source, without being restricted to vendor-specific ‘sticky IP’

Rapidly prototype using a live, interactive hardware development system

  • Develop, explore and debug designs on real hardware, in real-time with ‘LiveDesign'
  • Harness the full potential of reprogrammable devices with soft-centric design
  • Change software and hardware with equal ease and on-the-fly

Smooth the path from design to board layout and manufacture

  • Single centralized data source simplifies version control and component management
  • Visualize and interact with board designs in real-time 3D, within the PCB editor
  • Seamless collaboration with MCAD designers and other engineering teams

Easily connect to wider company systems

  • Single access point for all design data simplifies links for data management systems
  • Plug-in capability and built-in interfaces for external data management
  • All involved in product development process access one design environment

Be equipped for the future with the latest design technologies

  • Expand existing skill sets while harnessing the latest devices and techniques
  • Make soft design and the creation of device intelligence the focus of design
  • Immediately access new technology through consistent and frequent updates

Be productive right ‘out-of-the-box’

  • All tools and technologies in the box, including parts libraries and royalty-fee IP
  • No need to purchase costly add-ons to make a complete solution
  • Continually updated with latest devices and technologies

Upgrading your solution to Altium Designer

  
Altium Designer
license options		 Functionality Time-Based License
Price
(USD)**		 Perpetual License
Price
(USD)**
Viewer
  • Quick, easy and secure read-only exploration of design projects and documents that have been created using Altium Designer.
  • More information
 Free N/A
Custom Board Front-End Design
  • Complete front-end schematic design for both board-level and programmable logic design.
  • Feature set summary

$49* / month

Minimum purchase of 12-months

$995
Custom Board Implementation
  • Full custom board design and manufacturing capabilities.
  • Complete front-end engineering design system for both board-level and programmable logic design
  • Full 3D PCB design and editing capabilities.
  • Feature set summary

$325* / month

Minimum purchase of 12-months

$4,995

* These are per month equivalents and apply when purchased as 12-month blocks. Alternative pricing exists for 2-year, 3-year and 4-year timed licenses. Contact your local Altium Sales & Support Center or Reseller for more options. Time-based license options may not be available in your region – please check.

**Note that all prices are quoted in USD, exclude taxes and freight, and are only applicable when purchased for use in the US. Pricing in other regions may vary. Please contact your local Altium Sales & Support Center or Reseller to check. The Altium Subscription membership is not included in these prices. Click here for more information.

Prices effective from 1st March 2010 and subject to change. Always contact your local Altium Sales & Support Center or Reseller for more information and a formal quotation. Errors and omissions excluded.

Altium Subscription

If you are considering an Altium Designer perpetual license, you also have the option of purchasing Altium Subscription. Full details of membership benefits can be found here.

Students and Academics

Altium is committed to training tomorrow's electronic designers. Contact us to find out about our university sponsorship programs and our student timed licenses.

Time-based vs. Perpetual

An Altium Designer time-based license provides you with flexible, timed access to the full features of the license option that you select. A perpetual license gives you full time-unlimited access to the license option you select at the version that is available at time of your purchase.

Upgrading?

For pricing on upgrades to existing Altium Designer licenses, contact your local Altium Sales & Support Center or Reseller.

Guided tour

This detailed video demonstrates some of the core features and methodologies of Altium’s unique next generation electronics design solution.

Download a free trial

Download an unstricted 30-day trial of Altium Designer

Watch some quick demonstrations

The DEMOcenter extensive array of short product demo videos compiled by our applications engineers that give you an overview of the major benefits and capabilities of Altium Designer. Here are just a few:

Participate in a live web demonstration

Book to join a free live web conference with an experienced Altium application engineer and interact with other participants in real time.

Start training

The TRAININGcenter has over 100 videos designed specifically to get you up and running quickly and efficiently. Here are some examples:

Evaluating, learning and using Altium Designer

  • What’s the difference between tools that are integrated compared to Altium Designer’s unified system?
    Altium Designer remains the world’s first and only unified design system. Built from the ground up on Altium’s DXP platform, it brings together all of the design disciplines into a single application and uses a single model of the design data. And it enables you to take a holistic approach to electronics design, starting with the end-users' needs and the experiences you want them to have using your design.

    It revolutionizes the way electronics design can be done and provides huge advantages for both designers and organizations.

    An integrated design system, in comparison, is a collection of job-specific ‘point tools’ that exchange design data via custom processes, as the design moves down the product development chain. At best, this approach can only streamline processes within the boundaries of each individual point tool. Each tool has different design data and operating environment, so the design data must be ‘passed over the wall’ to the next process as the design progresses.

    Integrated systems are easy to spot because they use multiple applications and sets of design data, and include interconnection paths or frameworks for passing design data between those applications. The golden rule of thumb is this: if you need more than one tool or application to do your design, you don't have a unified electronics design environment.
  • Who is Altium Designer for?
    Altium Designer is for all engineers, designers and developers of electronic products. This includes design engineers, PCB designers, systems designers and their organizations. In particular, it is for those who want to create innovative designs and take their capabilities into the next generation of electronic product development.

    Altium Designer is ideal for:

    • Organizations that need to rapidly prototype designs
    • Designers who want to harness the latest technology and techniques
    • Company ‘Skunkworks’ and R&D organizations
    • PCB layout specialists creating high-speed, functionally-intelligent designs
    • Design teams that collaborate internally and with other teams
    • Teams that complete multiple different design projects per year
    • Board and software experts that want to create embedded ‘soft’ hardware

    Along with revolutionizing how you can design today, Altium Designer equips designers for next generation electronics design.
  • Who is using Altium Designer today?
    Altium Designer is used by innovative electronics designers around the world, working as individuals, in small consultancies, as contract or freelance designers, in universities and research teams, and at large organizations. These designers use Altium's unified electronics design solution in the aerospace, automotive, defense, education, medicine, telecommunications, and consumer sectors. They range from smaller sized firms with fresh ideas to many of the world's largest organizations who are leaders in their field: organizations such as NASA, Bang & Olufsen, Cochlear, Pelco, Sony and Robert Bosch. Altium's solutions have been used to create electronic systems that roam on Mars, hurtle round race tracks, and help people to hear for the first time. They are used to design systems that help create green energy from the wind and the sun. They have been used on designs that have gone into space and to the depths of our oceans.

    Find out more about innovation in electronics design using Altium Designer in our Successes section.
  • Is Altium Designer easy to learn and use?
    Yes! One of Altium Designer’s most compelling benefits is that it enables engineers and electronics companies to exploit the potential of today’s reprogrammable device technologies without having to radically alter their existing skill-sets and design processes, or source additional expensive expertise.

    It is also simpler and easier to use throughout the design process because everyone involved can plug into a single, coherent design environment and data store. Taking a design to manufacture becomes easier, version control is simpler and project management works with a central and coherent structure.

    Altium Designer is delivered with an extensive set of array of user manuals and learning guides on the DVD. Altium also has one of the most extensive community and online support resources for learning in the industry. This includes free online training resources, extensive product documentation, forums, e-mail support and much more to completely support design teams through every part of the electronic design process.
  • What can I do with Altium Designer?
    Altium Designer is a unified electronics design solution. So you can capture and design the physical PCB platform, create the programmable system hardware, develop the embedded software, and manage all the projects that that make up an electronic product, all within a single unified design environment. You can link dynamically with your MCAD peers designing the cases for your products to check whether the electronics will in fact fit, in real time, from within Altium Designer, in 3D. You can change, change, and change your designs again, and update your data with a single click - and everyone on the project will know what's just happened. You can link dynamically to external component suppliers via the internet as you design, so you know what's available to you at what price. You can manage your design and design data for manufacture in a variety of formats. All with one application. Out of the box.
  • Can I develop production PCBs with Altium Designer?
    Yes! Altium Designer has extremely powerful PCB level design, edit and manufacture capabilities, and continues Altium’s long heritage of innovation in the development of software technology for board-level design. Altium has extended these capabilities to incorporate the use of programmable devices as a system platform, and has fully integrated the development of the embedded intelligence. Furthermore, because everyone in the design process plugs into a single design environment, making changes, controlling versions and going to manufacture is easier and more ordered than ever.
  • Is Altium Designer easy to keep up to date?
    Unlike some software development models where users wait 18 months or more for new technology, Altium’s software development and deployment model is designed to quickly respond to rapid changes in electronics design technologies and devices, and the needs of our customers. Altium’s twice-yearly product release program delivers a continuous flow of releases so that users receive new technologies and features faster, and they are of higher quality and cost less to update. And, we can securely deliver these updates directly to your engineers’ desktops via the internet without the need for time-consuming administration or expensive IT support. Altium's time-based license model plugs designers into this continuous stream. For more information, visit the Altium Designer latest release and our license options
  • How do I evaluate Altium Designer?
    To discover the competitive advantages of Altium Designer, simply follow our easy three-step evaluation process

Licensing, pricing and availability

  • What’s the latest version of Altium Designer?
    The Summer 09 release of Altium Designer is the latest release. However, Altium also releases service packs in between major releases. Users on the current version can gain free and easy access to these updates.
  • What licensing options are available for Altium Designer?
    Altium Designer's flexible set of licensing options include Custom Board Front-End Design for complete front-end schematic design and Custom Board Implementation for full custom board design and manufacturing. A Viewer option is also available at no cost to provide read-only exploration of design projects and documents.

    Altium offers the option to license Altium Designer on a timed (annual) basis or purchase a perpetual license. Altium Subscription is included with a timed license or can be purchased as an option to a perpetual license, and delivers two major product releases per year, along with continuous updates. This means Altium Designer can easily and effectively be deployed throughout an organization regardless of the size and mix of functions within design teams. Companies can make significant cost savings with licensing terms that match their use of the product.
  • What language support is available for Altium Designer?
    In addition to universal English, Altium Designer is available with support for French, German, Russian, Japanese, Traditional and simplified Chinese and Korean languages. Furthermore, there is no need to buy anything extra to work on design projects in these different languages. For all these languages, Altium Designer offers a graphical user interface (GUI) that includes translated toolbars, menu items and dialog boxes as well as support which allows foreign characters and symbols to be placed directly on schematic and PCB worksheets.
  • Can I purchase additional features and functionality for Altium Designer?
    Altium Designer is a complete off-the-shelf solution with everything ‘in the box’. This means that the entire design process is covered through to manufacturing with a single solution. Altium does not force customers into purchasing numerous add-ons at extra cost in order to increase functionality or make a complete solution. This is because we believe that when a customer buys a design tool, everything that they need to do the job should be included as standard.
  • What about network versions?
    In addition to standalone licenses, Altium Designer offers two licensing types that provide a floating license capability. Private Server License allows the simultaneous use of Altium Designer on individual computers within the LAN, up to the number of users that the LAN license has been purchased to allow. Use of the software is controlled by a central licensing server. On-Demand License allows the simultaneous use of Altium Designer on individual computers and is administered by an Altium managed server.
  • Do you sell educational licenses?
    Yes! Altium Designer delivers a state-of-the-art unified electronics design learning platform that will transform every student’s desktop into a ‘live’ electronics development laboratory. To ensure that educational institutions and students have access to the latest software available, we offer flexible and attractive pricing on subscriptions to Altium Designer for educational institutions. For more information on educational licensing options please contact your local Altium sales and support center or Reseller
  • Do I need additional software in order to design with programmable devices?
    Implementing a programmable design in a device with Altium Designer requires the installation of third-party software in order to do certain low-level device specific functions such as place and route and mapping. FPGA vendors offer these tools, which can be freely downloaded from the vendor web sites. However, Altium Designer makes use of these tools transparently and you don’t need to be an expert in using them to design with programmable devices. 

Platform and system requirements

Training and support

  • Are training courses available for Altium Designer?
    Yes! Altium offers a wealth of training resources to ensure you keep your skills up to date and make the most of your design software. You can choose to view our training videos at your own leisure, participate in an online training session, join us in person for face-to-face training or download our training manuals. For information on Altium Designer training go to the TRAININGcenter
  • What user documentation is provided with Altium Designer?
    Altium provides an extensive range of on-line training material. Full online documentation is included in the Altium Wiki, which is searchable from within Altium Designer's Knowledge Center. Extensive on-demand training videos and demonstration videos are also available online at no charge.
  • Does an Altium Designer license include any technical support?
    All Altium Designer users are entitled at no cost to high-quality free support to help stay productive and be successful.

    This includes:

    • The Altium Wiki that covers all things related to next generation electronics design
    • SUPPORTcenter where you can log and track support cases and search an extensive knowledge base of commonly asked support questions
    • Active peer-to-peer discussion forums with participation from Altium software developers and application engineers
    • A range of downloads for software updates, output generators and more
    • An extensive suite of freely-downloaded libraries for Altium Designer that are developed by the Altium Library Development Center (ALDC) under an ISO 9001 certified quality assured system.

Additional resources:

  • The Resource Center provides a useful hub to help you discover the way forward to the next generation of electronics design
  • The DEMOcenter offers an extensive array of product demo videos compiled by our applications engineers that give you an overview of the major benefits and capabilities of Altium Designer.
  • The Altium Wiki will take you to the next level with an easy-to-search repository of articles and tutorials related to next generation electronics design.