AltiumLive just got even better

AltiumLive just got even better!

We are introducing a few new features including: your personal Wall, Dashboard - providing your administrator with a view of your organization - and the Content Store, which is a section dedicated to the growing list of content and Altium Designer updates that are available.

The Forums, BugCrunch and the Blogs that you have grown to enjoy, are still available and complimented by these new features. Here’s some insights, from my perspective, on what’s new and now on offer.

Content Store

The Content Store is something you will think is great. It is dedicated to content and consists primarily of five store fronts, along with providing easy access to various documentation-based resources. There is a good chance that when you browse through each of the stores you’ll find content and resources that you didn’t know you had access to!

You can freely browse the Content Store and provided you have Altium Subscription install any plugin you like.

Rating allows you to see what others think of a particular item - this will help you to quickly identify the usefulness and popularity of a store item, saving you valuable time. So tell us what you think, help us to refine the content we provide and help others who might be considering use of the same content.

Check out the AltiumLive Content Store.

Organizational Presence

Your organization can now have a presence within AltiumLive, through the use of detailed public profile pages. If you are the group administrator for your organization then you can go to the Dashboard and update company details, description - even upload a logo.

You’ll see your points balance - this is the total number of AltiumLive Points that your Organization has accrued, and that are available for you to use. As points are earned by you and your organization they will be added to this corporate-level points ‘pool’. There is more on points below.

You also have an individual profile page - this will list all AltiumLive interactions such as Blog posts, Forum threads, BugCrunch reports and Comments that you have made. Your profile will also link you to your organization.

The Wall

I really like the ability to follow items of interest to me using this new Wall feature of AltiumLive. With a single click I can follow forum threads, BugCrunch items, other users and content. The Wall has become like my personal ‘notice board’ and by regularly checking back I am able to keep up with what’s happening in the AltiumLive community - without having to go looking around the site.

The AltiumLive world according to you can now be created by clicking ‘follow’ links within the AltiumLive website. This option is located in the Forums, BugCrunch, Blog and Profile Pages. The information about events from these items of interest will be aggregated onto your personal Wall, where a single click on a link will navigate to the source of the event.

Navigate to your Wall and check it out.

AltiumLive Dashboard

I find the AltiumLive Dashboard makes managing licenses, users and groups much easier. It’s located in a secure site and is the place you also manage your public profile.

Again, if you are the Group Administrator in your company then you can use the Dashboard to manage your users, licenses and other assets associated to your account, and you can keep your company profile fresh and up-to-date. If your company owns Satellite Vaults then a listing will be displayed in your dashboard so that they can be managed. You can select to ‘unregister’ a Vault if it needs to come offline.

To read about using the dashboard visit our help section.

AltiumLive Points

Points can be earned, redeemed, traded, or saved and are referred to as AltiumLive Points. My comment above about points being an asset of the organization you belong too may have confused you - so let me explain this concept in more detail.

From this point forward, AltiumLive Points are an ‘asset’ of the Organization. Think of this in the same way as points on a company credit card - you hold a card, you spend and accrue points but these are the asset of your company (even if they let you spend them on goodies!!)...

Initially, everyone inside your Organization will be able to access a common ‘pool’ of points but over time, functionality will be added to allow your group administrator to configure and control who has access to points, and more importantly how many points they are allowed to spend.

Visibility/reporting on which users in your Organization have earned or spent points will also be added - particularly useful for adjusting the ‘spending allowances’ of users who potentially earn no points but spend a great many!!

Today many people rely on the points as a kind of status recognition for the contribution they have made in AltiumLive, by helping others and just generally engaging. We don’t want this change to dampen your enthusiasm, and are working through a good way to recognize personal status. So don’t stop helping others  - whatever we implement will take history into account!