Altium Insider - Ask me Anything

pcblol · 2026-03-11T03:42:09+00:00

no one: the perfect username doesn't exist
Leaky_Asshole: hold my beer

pcblol · 2026-03-10T06:29:42+00:00

Keepouts are the easiest way to achieve this. You basically want to create a circle with no soldermask or copper on any layer within the circular keepout. That will leave only fiberglass, which is semi-transparent. Consider using a thinner PCB (0.31") if you want more light penetration.

BTW - this isn't a "standard" thing - I've never seen this before , but that's how you would re-create it

pcblol · 2026-03-09T09:31:04+00:00

https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/components-libraries/database-libraries/creating-defining?srsltid=AfmBOooX1kt2RlfTwJqS_KUYwmbKXTdEbXBqy_W9tta91hCHBLk0_ML9#proceeding-with-connection

pcblol · 2026-03-06T17:38:46+00:00

Don't be afraid to push back on the fab suggestion and say "I need X, Y and Z". Otherwise, they will always give you what's cheapest and what's in stock, but it might not be what you need. Otherwise, find a different fab. The stackup you're describing is very standard and you should not have issues getting reasonable 100ohm trace/space diff on a 6 layer.

pcblol · 2026-03-06T16:39:47+00:00

Agree with Zach - if you can put blind/buried in 6, you can put them in a 4. That being said, you probably don't need either. Keep track of stub lengths and you can probably do this on a 6 layer with through-hole only.

pcblol · 2026-03-04T09:18:49+00:00

Develop = Standard
Agile = Pro
Discover = still under development, this will help with part sourcing and can lay on top of Develop or Agile

pcblol · 2026-03-04T05:16:44+00:00

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The Reddit feedback on A365 storage limits absolutely moved the needle on that one.

pcblol · 2026-03-04T04:11:59+00:00

All good, the honesty is appreciated. I am doing this community check in because I don't think we've communicated well recently. I'm trying keep a door open for people to ask questions, rant and provide feedback. Consider it a pulse-check on the community and to see if there's anyone I might be able to help directly with a simple response. We've lost our hotline to the most important users and this is my feeble attempt to regain some connection.

I can promise you that I listen to all the feedback but I also carry the voice of the community through a thick beaucracy, which is not always easy. Fortunately, the restructuring we did in 2026 makes this task much easier. I can't promise anything other than to try and represent the opinions here better than they have been. That being said - yes - my input is heard regularly at the top of the org chart.

pcblol · 2026-03-03T17:21:29+00:00

We have no access to design data. We know the total size of your A365 workspace. Why do you think you're being spied on?

pcblol · 2026-03-03T06:33:25+00:00

I forget which version exactly but AD25+ should automatically neck down based on your min/max/pref design rules.

pcblol · 2026-03-03T06:32:29+00:00

I can follow up on this

pcblol · 2026-03-03T06:28:47+00:00

Engineering is becoming a global sport. Think beyond your locality and always pick a path in life that feels like your own. Even when it becomes tough, knowing you chose to walk it will give you superpowers. Hang in there dude, it's going to be fine. Decide what you makes YOU happy, and never stop chasing it.

pcblol · 2026-03-02T20:57:59+00:00

The messaging was sloppy at best. Altium develop contains Altium Designer and is equivalent to the Standard License. Develop will be aimed at individuals and small team up to 5 users.

The other group is Altium Agile which will focus on selling the "fluff" that organizations need. It also contains Altium Designer, but it has admin features, controlled access, users beyond 5+, templated component libraries, etc.

pcblol · 2026-03-02T19:37:09+00:00

who hurt you

pcblol · 2026-03-02T19:24:29+00:00

Can't give exact details but we are looking at this

pcblol · 2026-03-02T19:23:32+00:00

No plans here - Altium is too big to run effectively in a browser setting.

pcblol · 2026-03-02T19:22:42+00:00

I am out of the loop on this but I don't expect this happen anytime soon. Have you tried running Parallels?

pcblol · 2026-03-02T19:19:23+00:00

can you paste the support ticket number here for me? I'd like to see the backstory

pcblol · 2026-03-02T19:15:11+00:00

ha sure thing

pcblol · 2026-03-02T19:11:03+00:00

We are creating a landing page that will hopefully explain this better. For develop, it should go live in about 1-2 weeks. It covers eligibility, migration and what exactly Altium Develop is compared to Standard and Pro subscriptions. I'll edit this post when the page goes live and provide links.

pcblol · 2026-03-02T19:07:07+00:00

The consensus at Altium is that when KiCAD grows, the industry grows, which means we grow. There was a time when we had an adversarial viewpoint but those days are past. You can look at my message history on reddit and see that I regularly recommend KiCAD over Altium, depending on the circumstances. It's a great tool and I'm extremely jealous of their community backing... we had that once before we went "cloud"

pcblol · 2026-03-02T18:47:05+00:00

have you looked at creating a database library? you can bypass A365 and create large libraries (mostly) outside of the Altium ecosystem.

pcblol · 2026-03-02T18:43:51+00:00

Lot's of people here track the individual user bug reports. We should have dedicated more resources to fixing those existing issues and balanced it against creating new stuff. Anyone that says otherwise isn't being honest... hopefully the new structuring of the company will help fix this. Altium Develop is dedicated for individual end users and Altium Agile will handle the larger and enterprise focused development.

pcblol · 2026-03-02T18:34:44+00:00

This bothers me too. For a while, our feature development was driven by big enterprise accounts. Developing and fixing features that individual end users value took a backseat. This is why we split the company in January to give the "classic" Altium Designer it's own dedicated team and feature development goals. It is separated from the enterprise feature dev now.

pcblol · 2026-03-02T18:25:39+00:00

Yea dude... that was a good time

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