Altium Designer

Altium Designer was developed by Altium Limited, a company founded by Nick Martin in 1985. It started as a product called Protel, which aimed to make PCB design accessible on personal computers. Over time, it evolved into Altium Designer, incorporating advanced features for integrated electronic design automation. The software became widely used for its comprehensive tools that streamlined the PCB design process.

Strengths of Altium Designer include its comprehensive integration of schematic capture, PCB layout, and design verification tools, which streamline the design process. It offers a user-friendly interface and extensive library support. Weaknesses may involve a steep learning curve for beginners and high licensing costs. Competitors include Cadence Allegro, Mentor Graphics PADS, and Autodesk EAGLE.

An Altium Designer expert must possess skills in schematic capture and PCB layout design, proficiency in using Altium's design rule checks and constraint management, and experience with 3D modeling for component placement. They should be adept at utilizing simulation tools for signal integrity analysis, managing component libraries, and generating manufacturing outputs like Gerber files. Familiarity with version control systems within Altium is also essential.