The unification of the electronic product development processes – design capture, PCB layout, FPGA and embedded software development – is critical for maintaining innovation and competitive differentiation in today's electronic product market. Moving from an integrated point-tool suite of programs to unified design system will shorten your overall time-to-market, lower product development costs and ultimately deliver a superior long-term ROI.
Migrating from P-CAD to Altium Designer represents the most effective and logical path to the future of electronic product development by providing all the technologies and capabilities required in a single, unified application. What’s more, Altium Designer future-proofs your organization by supporting the latest design technology through frequent upgrades and an innovative software development program.
In a world where design processes are converging and new low-cost reprogrammable devices – such as FPGAs – are having a major impact on the future of PCB design systems, Altium Designer transcends the barriers imposed by point-tool solutions while helping your company remain competitive now and into the future.
Read more about the advantages of moving to Altium Designer from P-CAD plus further information about the future of P-CAD and Altium’s migration options.
The smooth move
At Altium we acknowledge that making the transition to a new software system can be challenging because of the need to balance the time invested in the change against business priorities and production schedules. Altium has therefore invested substantial development effort into creating systems and features within Altium Designer that make the task of successfully transitioning from P-CAD as easy as possible, with a minimum of disruption to productivity.
P-CAD is an Altium product so we know it intimately at both a code and functional level, which allows us to create the best possible native-level migration solutions. This fundamental relationship with P-CAD also extends to our customer support services, which means you will have access to highly-qualified professional backup throughout the transition process.
The cornerstone of this transition process is Altium Designer’s highly-developed ‘intelligent’ design translators. Presented as an easy-to-use command within Altium Designer, the import Wizard walks you through the import process for Schematic and PCB parts of the project as well as managing the relationship between them. The automatic but highly configurable importer also handles your P-CAD library files (including footprint patterns), provides board layer mapping, accurately recreates the project structure, plus much more.
To see the Altium Designer Import Wizard in action, see the P-CAD Import Wizard video and the Import Wizard overview video.
Accurately importing your design files is only the first step in returning to a productive electronic design environment. Once the project is successfully recreated in the new design system the emphasis quickly shifts to becoming productive as soon as possible. The barriers to this process can be substantial, with a new user interface, design flow and terminology to manage while dealing with both new and legacy designs.
Altium Designer’s intuitive user interface, logical design flow and comprehensive help system combined with features such as context-sensitive shortcut panel to make the move to Altium Designer productive in the shortest possible timeframe. This plus Altium’s substantial free resources help to make the transition from P-CAD to Altium Designer not only the best move, but ultimately the one that provides the least disruption in your organization.
Resources on tap
As part of Altium’s commitment to making electronics design easier, our website provides a wide range of solutions and other community-based information to help you become – and remain – productive with Altium Designer. This extends to resources that directly assist you to make the smoothest transition from P-CAD to Altium Designer. Some good places to start follow:
The Altium resources can be accessed free of charge and include:
- Knowledge Base items giving you instant access to an ever expanding database of articles about current technical issues, tips and other up-to-date information
- Forums linking you directly to other Altium customers, developers and engineers who are able to monitor and respond to your requests
- Learning Guides giving you step-by-step explanations on how to get the most out of your design environment
- DEMOcenter hosts a wide selection of short Altium Designer demonstration videos that walk you though its extensive capabilities.
Significant P-CAD transition Learning Guides (PDF format) include:
- AP0130 Moving to Altium Designer from P-CAD This application note highlights the key differences you need to be aware of when moving from P-CAD to Altium Designer. It will help you ramp up your productivity and quickly take advantage of this powerful and flexible electronic product development environment
- GU0121 P-CAD to Altium Designer Terminology Guide This is a high-level roadmap to guide you in understanding how P-CAD terminology translates and can be found in Altium Designer. High-level points of interest or difference are noted where appropriate.
Other notable transition resources:
- Read Tool transition – making the move for a comprehensive but practical look at making the transition to Altium Designer,
- See Moving to Altium Designer from P-CAD for a collection of videos that provide an in-depth look at Altium Designer and its main design capabilities from a P-CAD perspective.
- A substantial range of practical tutorials and help documentation is included with each Altium Designer installation.
As well as the information listed above, we also help you become productive in the shortest possible time by providing a wide range of flexible customer support options that deliver on our commitment to provide the backup you need. Altium’s renowned Global Customer Care Network and cost-effective training options (including our free downloadable training manuals) are ready to underpin your success.
Altium Designer is the best path forward for P-CAD users and represents the future of electronic product design. In short, it helps you create better designs faster now and into the future using a complete, seamless environment that covers the entire electronic product development process from concept to completion. Altium is committed to ensuring that your transition to Altium Designer is as smooth as possible and has a dedicated team plus an array of resources to help you.