Altium have decided to release their PCB design tool CircuitMaker as open beta. It will be available worldwide to all interested electronics designers, electronic makers and the hobbyist community as a free software offering. Anyone interested in participating in the open beta can register now at the CircuitMaker website.

The open beta testing program allows anyone to download and begin using CircuitMaker today and become part of a growing electronics design community where designs can be shared and collaborated on. The company anticipates that this open beta process will also provide feedback and input to help refine CircuitMaker and make it a useful design tool for designers in the maker community.

CircuitMaker includes features such as:
• Comprehensive PCB design technology. Built from the foundation of existing Altium technology, all of the typical features needed for modern PCB design are built in to CircuitMaker. This includes schematic-PCB integration, interactive routing, and output generation tools.
• Advanced community collaboration. With CircuitMaker, designers have the opportunity to collaborate in a community-driven design environment, with unlimited access to contributed design and component data. This collaborative design process is made possible by combining an advanced, cloud-based platform and an industry-standard user experience in a native application-based design environment.
• Streamlined interface. CircuitMaker is a native application, and provides a streamlined interface, allowing new and casual designers to create designs quickly. This removes the traditional, time-intensive learning curve usually required for new PCB design tools.