The software uses cloud based storage for your project files, and is community based. So by now you’re thinking to yourself “OK, what’s the catch?” Well there are a few gotchas – but only a few. Altium was going have board size and layer limits, with the ability to “upgrade” at a cost. This is a major departure from the pre-beta we covered back in September. And if that isn’t enough, the “engine” seems to be the exact same back-end that is used in the full $10,000 Altium Designer as well(with a bit easier to use user interface on top). They’ve thrown in almost everything under the sun a 3D viewer, team project collaboration, EagleCAD and DFX import, integrated Octopart supplier and pricing information, no commercial usage limits, and project sharing. And this isn’t some stripped-down, bare-bones software here. Unlimited board size, and unlimited layers – all free. This week, Altium launched the open public beta for its new Circuit Maker software, and it’s a major change from what we looked at previously. Things are about to get interesting in the world of PCB design software for the open source hardware community.

Altium circuit maker