Do you support plans for National tests of PCB layout program use-ability?

[Flyback]

BTW i dont work there any more....but when i put my CV on the web, one of the senior managers was furious with me for wanting to leave..i didnt tell him about my "burned throat"..after all, i couldnt proove it.....and even if i had the coffee phorensically tested, then i guess they would have said it was accidental "spillage" of dishwasher crystals into it....(i am of course presuming that it was dishwasher crystals that they put in it).
..and in any case, can you imagine walking to the police station with a cup of coffee that you thinks got acid in it...they'd just say i switched it on the way. Whatever was in that coffee, burned the heck out of my throat, to the point that i was unable to sleep for the next three nights....and that was from a tiny sip of it.
I still remember the sight of that coffee before i sipped it, -it did have , with hindsight, a kind of "glassy" meniscus to it.

 

[Flyback]

Just watching some Altium tutorial videos and noticing that youtube now has a MASSIVELY greater number of good Altium tutorial videos on youtube than existed back in 2012 when i last looked!...massive improvement.....the following even by a regular poster here....

...videos like this are a massive improvement on the measly offerings of 4 years ago.
Anybody know if theres some way of extending the 14 day free trial?.

I can see that Altium must be great once you know it, but in truth, i reckon many contractors would prefer Eagle, because Altium is so detailed that if you dont use it for 6 months or so then come back to it, its probably a little tricky to get back in to (an Altium consultant actually told me that aswell)...whereas Eagle, well you just open it and crack on regardless.....no re-learn, no re-familiarisation needed.

 

[DerStrom8]

Just watching some Altium tutorial videos and noticing that youtube now has a MASSIVELY greater number of good Altium tutorial videos on youtube than existed back in 2012 when i last looked!...massive improvement.....the following even by a regular poster here....

...videos like this are a massive improvement on the measly offerings of 4 years ago.

Oh hey, that looks familiar.... I'm glad you like it. I plan to do more of these at some point, but it's been difficult for me to find time lately. Just a note, though, when I say to use an asterisk after the first letter of the designator, I made a mistake (I need to go back in and add an annotation mentioning this in the video). You need a question mark instead (i.e. U? instead of U*).

Anybody know if theres some way of extending the 14 day free trial?.

Not legally, unfortunately. They definitely should extend it, in my opinion, to at least 30 days. I guess their worry is that someone would use those 30 days to design a batch of boards and never use the software again (thus causing Altium to lose money). I suppose your best bet would be to use the 15 days to focus on learning the controls and features, rather than designing full boards. Yes, I realize this may not help you learn the software in-depth (I learn best by doing the actual thing) but it will help, at least.

I can see that Altium must be great once you know it, but in truth, i reckon many contractors would prefer Eagle, because Altium is so detailed that if you dont use it for 6 months or so then come back to it, its probably a little tricky to get back in to (an Altium consultant actually told me that aswell)...whereas Eagle, well you just open it and crack on regardless.....no re-learn, no re-familiarisation needed.

That's a fair point, though having used Altium for a while I can tell you it's not necessarily true. Controlling Altium becomes muscle-memory, so you pop it open and you instantly remember a lot of the controls. It's much like learning to ride a bike -- Your body (fingers, in this case) remember what keys to hit to open certain features. If you forget any shortcuts, it's very easy to re-learn them (the list of shortcuts, etc is on the Altium website). It's easier to pick back up than you might think.

Regards,
Matt

 

[Mikebits]

You did that Matt? Nice job. You demonstrated the classic case where Dual monitors would be nice. I encounter this all the time where I say man I wish I had split screen monitors.

 

[DerStrom8]

You did that Matt? Nice job. You demonstrated the classic case where Dual monitors would be nice. I encounter this all the time where I say man I wish I had split screen monitors.

Yep, usually I work with at least two monitors, most often three. I used to use four at my old job, and they were always packed. That tutorial was done just on my laptop, so it was a bit tricky to get everything on-screen while still keeping it visible. I would have used two monitors except that 1) The ones I currently have set up are different resolutions, and 2) if I had two screens showing in the video, the text would be too small for the viewers to see.