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CAD · head to head

Altium 365 vs MicroSurvey CAD

Altium 365 logo

Altium 365

CAD

Cloud workspace for Altium Designer PCB projects, now inside Renesas

From
$1990/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
MicroSurvey CAD logo

MicroSurvey CAD

CAD

Survey drafting and COGO on an IntelliCAD engine, sold outright rather than by subscription

From
$2945/one-time
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Altium 365 the 1,990 US dollar Altium Develop entry price is capped at five authors in total, so a growing team hits a forced migration to Agile Teams with unpublished pricing exactly when headcount is rising.; MicroSurvey CAD dWG compatibility is file-level, not feature-level, so Civil 3D corridors, pipe networks and other object-enabled entities do not arrive intact and collaboration with engineering consultants remains awkward
  • They diverge on capability: Altium 365 covers Shared workspace, MicroSurvey CAD covers Coordinate geometry.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Altium 365 and MicroSurvey CAD actually diverge.

Attributes where Altium 365 and MicroSurvey CAD differ
AttributeAltium 365MicroSurvey CAD
Starting price$1990/year$2945/one-time
Pricing modelPer user per yearOne-time purchase
PlatformsWeb, Windows, Cloud, On-premiseWindows

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (CAD).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Altium 365

  • Shared workspace
  • Managed components
  • Browser review
  • Unlimited workspace users
  • MCAD CoDesigner
  • Manufacturing portal
  • Requirements Portal
  • BOM Portal

Only in MicroSurvey CAD

  • Coordinate geometry
  • Traverse adjustment
  • Field data reduction
  • IntelliCAD drafting
  • Legal descriptions
  • Surface and contours
  • Point cloud viewing

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Altium 365

  • A hardware startup where two engineers draw boards but eight people need to review them, avoiding eight CAD seatsnot MicroSurvey CAD
  • A team handing fabrication and assembly data to a contract manufacturer as a versioned release rather than a zip of Gerbersnot MicroSurvey CAD
  • A company running board and enclosure design in parallel and needing bidirectional geometry exchange with mechanical CADnot MicroSurvey CAD
  • A buyer checking component lifecycle and availability against the live BOM before a design is frozennot MicroSurvey CAD

MicroSurvey CAD

  • A boundary surveying practice that wants to reduce field data, adjust the traverse and write the legal description in one packagenot Altium 365
  • A firm that refuses to pay an AutoCAD subscription but must deliver DWG files clients can opennot Altium 365
  • A survey office standardised on Leica total stations that wants instrument data flowing in without a translation stepnot Altium 365
  • A two-person practice with irregular workload that wants to own its software outright rather than lose access if it stops payingnot Altium 365

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Altium 365

  • The 1,990 US dollar Altium Develop entry price is capped at five authors in total, so a growing team hits a forced migration to Agile Teams with unpublished pricing exactly when headcount is rising.
  • Add-on portals are expensive per seat; BOM Portal has been quoted at around 1,999 US dollars per user per year and MCAD CoDesigner at around 499, so the real cost of a working configuration is well above the headline.
  • It is tied to Altium Designer; there is no meaningful use of the platform for teams designing in KiCad, OrCAD or Allegro, which makes it a lock-in decision rather than a tooling one.
  • Renesas acquired Altium in 2024, and a semiconductor manufacturer owning the design tool used to select competing semiconductors is a conflict some buyers will want addressed in writing before uploading a library.
  • Repeated repackaging, from Altium 365 Standard and Pro tiers to Altium Develop and Agile Teams, has made renewal comparisons difficult and customers have found their previous tier no longer maps to anything on the price list.

MicroSurvey CAD

  • DWG compatibility is file-level, not feature-level, so Civil 3D corridors, pipe networks and other object-enabled entities do not arrive intact and collaboration with engineering consultants remains awkward
  • Only one price is listed publicly, for the floating network licence, and the differences between the Standard, Premium and Ultimate editions are resolved through a reseller conversation rather than a published comparison
  • It is Windows only and the installed base is concentrated in North America, so support, training material and experienced staff are much harder to find elsewhere
  • IntelliCAD lags AutoCAD on newer drawing format features and on third party plug-in availability, so a firm depending on a specific AutoCAD add-in will not find an equivalent
  • MicroSurvey now sits inside Hexagon alongside Leica Geosystems, which means the product competes for investment with a much larger portfolio, and buyers of a perpetual licence should ask about the release cadence commitment before assuming years of updates

Pricing, plan by plan

Altium 365

$1990/year
  • Altium Develop$1990/year
    • One Altium Designer author licence
    • One workspace for shared projects and libraries
    • Unlimited workspace users for review, comment, tasks and BOM access
  • Altium Agile Teams$undefined/year
    • For teams beyond five ECAD authors
    • Extended workspace governance and administration
    • Quoted, no published price
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • On-premise or private cloud workspace server
    • Formal ECO and lifecycle governance
    • Quoted, no published price

MicroSurvey CAD

$2945/one-time
  • MicroSurvey CAD, floating network licence$2945/one-time
    • Perpetual licence, shared use with no USB dongle
    • Includes one year of maintenance and support
    • Standard, Premium and Ultimate editions differ in included modules
  • Edition upgrades and add-ons$undefined/one-time
    • Premium and Ultimate edition pricing quoted by MicroSurvey or a reseller
    • Point cloud and scanning modules priced separately
    • Reseller pricing varies by region

Which should you pick?

Choose Altium 365 if

  • You need shared workspace.
  • You work on Web, Windows, Cloud, On-premise.
  • You also want managed components.
Altium 365 review

Choose MicroSurvey CAD if

  • You need coordinate geometry.
  • You work on Windows.
  • You also want traverse adjustment.
MicroSurvey CAD review

Questions people ask

Is Altium 365 or MicroSurvey CAD better?
Neither clearly leads. Altium 365 starts at $1990/year and MicroSurvey CAD at $2945/one-time, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Altium 365 or MicroSurvey CAD?
Altium 365 starts at $1990/year and MicroSurvey CAD at $2945/one-time.
Does Altium 365 or MicroSurvey CAD run on more platforms?
Altium 365 runs on Web, Windows, Cloud, On-premise. MicroSurvey CAD runs on Windows.
What is Altium 365 best used for?
Altium 365 is most often used for a hardware startup where two engineers draw boards but eight people need to review them, avoiding eight cad seats, a team handing fabrication and assembly data to a contract manufacturer as a versioned release rather than a zip of gerbers, a company running board and enclosure design in parallel and needing bidirectional geometry exchange with mechanical cad, a buyer checking component lifecycle and availability against the live bom before a design is frozen. Of those, a hardware startup where two engineers draw boards but eight people need to review them, avoiding eight cad seats and a team handing fabrication and assembly data to a contract manufacturer as a versioned release rather than a zip of gerbers are not what MicroSurvey CAD is typically brought in for.
What can Altium 365 do that MicroSurvey CAD cannot?
Altium 365 covers Shared workspace, Managed components, Browser review, Unlimited workspace users. MicroSurvey CAD covers Coordinate geometry, Traverse adjustment, Field data reduction, IntelliCAD drafting.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Altium 365: Is Altium 365 free with Altium Designer?

A workspace is included with a current subscription, but the higher tiers, extra authors and the add-on portals are chargeable. The unlimited non-author users are genuinely included.

MicroSurvey CAD: Do I need AutoCAD to run it?

No. It is built on the IntelliCAD engine and reads and writes DWG natively without an Autodesk licence.

Altium 365: What does it cost?

Altium Develop starts at about 1,990 US dollars a year for one author plus a workspace, with extra authors at 995 US dollars each up to four more. Larger teams are quoted.

MicroSurvey CAD: Is it a perpetual licence or a subscription?

Perpetual. The listed 2,945 US dollar licence includes one year of maintenance and support, after which maintenance is optional.

Altium 365: Who owns Altium now?

Renesas Electronics completed its acquisition of Altium in 2024. Altium 365 is therefore a Renesas-owned platform.

MicroSurvey CAD: Who owns MicroSurvey?

Hexagon, the same group that owns Leica Geosystems.

Altium 365: Can I keep design data on my own servers?

Yes, through the Enterprise on-premise workspace server, but that is a quoted product and most of the newer portal features assume the hosted platform.

MicroSurvey CAD: Will Civil 3D drawings open correctly?

The geometry will. Civil 3D object data such as corridors and pipe networks will not come through as editable objects.

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