Platform Selection

For this specific project, we’ll be giving you a choice to work on either: KiCad or Altium Designer.

KiCad is free and open-source software (FOSS), but as you’re a Waterloo Engineering student, Altium Designer is free to use as well, with a student license. We have a few comparison points between the two EDA softwares below.

You are welcome to complete the onboarding project in KiCad, but for the purposes of this tutorial, the majority of examples will be given in Altium Designer.

Now, to download Altium Designer, start by getting your student license.

https://www.altium.com/education/students

Select the ‘Enroll for Free’ button, or find a similar way to redeem your Altium Student License.

Once you’ve got your license, go ahead and download the software to your computer.

• https://www.altium.com/products/downloads
• https://www.kicad.org/download/

Some things to keep in mind:

• KiCad works on MacOS, Linux, and Windows.
• Altium Designer only works on Windows with a registered license.
• KiCad is generally less resource intensive than Altium Designer, but is less powerful and comprehensive of a software.
• Altium Designer has co-designing plugins for synchronizing physical PCB specifications with software like SOLIDWORKS and Fusion 360. If your project were to require a mechanical component (or you would like to collaborate with a mechanical team member), this would be useful.
• Waterloo Reality Labs’ Altium 365 includes an custom component library, where members have pre-selected symbols and created custom footprints to match a common spec. You will be expected to create symbols to spec as well.
• Using KiCad means you have to use our other component library hosted on our GitHub.

Either way, you will often be finding your own symbols and footprints online and translating them into software (as well as validating their accuracy yourself).

Downloading Altium Designer

Downloading step for Altium Designer.