As he elaborates, “Most of the work I do involves highly irregular PCB shapes that fit into tight housings with a lot of height restrictions that vary across the boards. Unique parts and schematics are Matt’s forte. Matt creates unique designs with parts libraries for his different clients, so having a unified design environment of Altium Designer with an integrated library system of Concord Pro is vital for streamlining his own processes. Seamless Design and Part Management with a Single Tool and MoreĪs a design consultant, Granite Summit Designs focuses on designing schematics that are then laid out in- house or sent to different companies for layout. After struggling with a high-end PCB software tool that required purchasing multiple modules, infusing his workflow with needless complexity and high costs, Matt made the switch to Altium Designer. When the time came for Matt to start his own design firm, he did not want to have to settle for less professional tools just because he was about to become a one-man design house.
Cheaper solutions were inadequate for professional design use, geared more towards hobbyists than PCB design companies. When Matt began to research using similar tools, he discovered that the more comprehensive the solution, the higher the price tag. In his lengthy career as an electrical engineer working for major corporations, Matt had access to all of the big PCB design tools, but his frustrations were limited to using the software itself. The designs are used in commercial, industrial, aerospace and defense industries. His firm specializes in designing custom PCBs, used in everything from data acquisition systems, high-resolution printers to mobile TV and broadband satellite receiver/ transmitters. Matthew Lightsey, founder and principal designer of Granite Summit Designs, based in Warwick, Rhode Island, is no stranger to this challenge.
Many available tools are often incomplete, requiring additional modules that increase complexity and costs exponentially. One of the biggest challenges facing small PCB design firms is the limitation of affordable software tools.Įlectrical engineers often don’t have access to comprehensive systems that allow them to design, co-design, and source parts or share projects during each stage in the development cycle.
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