As a new graduate however, I won't be able to afford an Altium license. I'm interested in it because I learned a bit of Altium on a Student License while at university, but my license will expire at the end of June (I'm finally graduating!) and I want to continue working with this software. I've read that the Circuit Maker program runs almost the same way as Altium Designer but with some weird changes (changing the shortcuts/hotkeys was a big issue that I've seen).

Long Version: I was wondering if anyone has an opinion Altium 'Circuit Maker' 2.0? A lot of the information and comparisons that I've seen are a year or more old, so maybe a revisit would be good? I also understand they just came out with version 2. Also, if you get it go out and find available projects in Altium so you can see how a 'real' design looks in Altium.Short version / TL DR : My Altium Designer Student license is expiring soon, and I want to know if Altium Circuit Maker 2.0 is worth using? Has anyone reviewed the 2.0 version? That's better value than a lot of the classes you'll take in college/university. If I assume 3 years at $120/yr, that is a very cheap price to pay for some valuable experience(assuming you practice and use it). You don't want to have to learn the basics on the job with someone looking over your shoulder. If you learn the basics of Altium, you'll be glad you did when your employer asks about it during an interview, or you're required to use it on the job. You are much more likely to find Altium in you job later on, and since you are a student, I assume you will be going on to finding a engineering job. If you want to have a chance of importing to another package in the future you'll likely need the ASCII version, but Altium natively supports the binary. When you create a project in Altium, be sure you save the binary and ASCII versions of the board. I think it's worth it to have experience with multiple platforms.

Altium designer student