Circuit Maker

CircuitMaker was originally an electronic design automation software. The company that published this software was bought by Altium in early 2000, and eventually the product was discontinued. Altium recently resurrected the brand for printed circuit board design targeted at the hobby, hacker, and maker community. CircuitMaker is available as freeware, and the hardware designed with it may be used for commercial and non-commercial purposes without limitations. It is currently available publicly as version 1.3 by Altium Limited, with the first non-beta release on January 17, 2016.

Open source hardware and easy-to- use development boards such as the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi have encouraged community interest in electronics, particularly in fablabs,[5] hackerspaces and makerspaces. The leading EDA software vendors traditionally lack free versions, and professional licenses are typically unaffordable for amateurs. This resulted in high piracy rates for professional software packages, or users sticking to outdated software for their circuit board needs. In recent years, several initiatives have attempted to fill this void, leading to Altium's release of a simplified and easy-to- use version of their professional EDA software package, Altium Designer, targeted at less complex circuit board projects.