Altium Focusing on Educating Designers of Today and Tomorrow

Estimated reading time: 21 minutes

Peterson: Yes, I totally agree with you, and this is something where because it is so new and it’s been moving very quickly over the last few years, it’s something where, frankly, the CAD companies have to catch up a little bit. Outside of the CAD companies you can talk about it and what can they do with their tool sets in conjunction with the additive process developers and the equipment manufacturers to ensure that if you want to design something in this piece of software, to be 3D printed, let’s say, that you’re going to be able to do that.

Shaughnessy: I’m just wondering: who is generally driving the curriculum choices when you come out with a new course for Altium Live or whatever. Is it the OEMs asking you? 

Callender: I would say for our new courses—especially in the corporate training courses—it’s our customers who are asking for training and we have a series of trainings in and around Altium Designer and our Workspace 365.

Matties: What about the non-tool-specific training? Is that being driven by the OEM or is that coming from the designers or elsewhere?

Peterson: It comes a lot from the designers. Actually, I would say it’s a bit of a hybrid approach because, obviously, designers have a lot of questions. We try to take questions and comments directly from the design community, whether they’re users or could later become users. We definitely pay attention to what they have to say and what they need. But there are also trends that follow what we want to include in an Altium Live presentation, for example. There’s also what some of the corporate partners are doing. We also want to make sure that information gets out to designers. And we have a pretty diverse audience; Altium Live is one vehicle for that. All of our regular content channels are methods for doing that. And the education program is so new for us that this is just another vehicle for us to get all of that great information out there to the people who need it.

Shaughnessy: When you look at not just your classes, but at design classes around the world, are there any design techniques, disciplines, or topics that you think are underserved? About a month ago, a designer at a design bureau said, “I wish there was a class on bidding.” They said they keep getting bids wrong. Are there any business-oriented PCB design classes out there like that, not focusing on the actual design process?

Peterson: Gosh, that’s a great example of something that’s lacking. Absolutely. Unfortunately, bidding, estimation, logistics, and project management are disciplines where you get the best education through direct experience. I think with educational offerings by the EDA or ECAD companies, they at least can give you, the broad background of knowledge that you need to know to help students start thinking about these things, so as they go into their careers, they can make that more of a priority in terms of what they need to learn based on what their future career plans are. But I agree with you; I’d love to see a class on bidding, estimation, the little stuff like that, even if it’s a short course.

Matties: With your focus on DFM, are you all seeing a DWM (design with manufacturing) attitude now?

Peterson: Oh, absolutely. Yes. That was a big theme in Altium Live.  

Matties: What does that mean for people? If you were to define DWM, how is that different than DFM?

Peterson: Well, I would say DFM involves trying to hit targets as specified by your manufacturer or dictated to your manufacturer, “You must do this.” And then we’re surprised when something gets no bid. DWM could be a bit more talking with them, more collaboration, understanding what they can and can’t do, taking a more proactive approach to how you put together the board, what limits you set in the design, and allowing them to essentially work within your specs on the front end.

Matties: Do you see a trend where more and more designers know who the manufacturers are going to be when they start the design? 

Peterson: No.

Matties: Because that’s the barrier to DWM, isn’t it?

Peterson: It is. And what I’ll tell you, at my service bureau, we have a small stack of business cards for manufacturers that we prefer to work with because we’ve gone through them many times, back and forth with them on many different projects, and we know what they expect and they know us. It’s not just putting in the quote form and then turning around three weeks later when my boards arrive. I actually call up a person I know at the manufacturer if I have a question. It’s a simple change, but it’s that change in mindset to, “I need to actually communicate with them.” Do that on the front end, instead of waiting until the design is complete and suddenly getting a no-bid.

Matties: Now, Zach, tell us about your role with Altium. 

Peterson: Sure. I run my own design bureau, Northwest Engineering Solutions (NWES), but I also handle a lot of this technical content and strategy with Altium.

Shaughnessy: I’ll ask both you: what do you see as the biggest challenges ahead for your customers, for designers? Looking out in the next couple of years, what are their biggest challenges and opportunities?

Callender: I think it’s just staying current.

Peterson: One of the things about a lot of these trends is they come up and if you’re not prepared to at least get the 30,000-foot view early, they’ve already become obsolete by the time you have the time to really dive in and learn everything you can. So, the PCB industry moves just as fast as the semiconductor industry in some cases.

Shaughnessy: Yeah. I was going to say, I thought it was very timely that you had three classes at Altium Live that were on supply chain management issues.

Peterson: Yes. Talk about a contemporary talk!

Matties: Well, this has been great you guys, I’ve really enjoyed our conversation.

Callender: Thank you for having us.

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