Case Study: Granite Summit Designs achieves seamless PCB design and part management with Altium

Transforming PCB Design with Altium Designer and Altium 365

Granite Summit Designs, led by founder Matthew Lightsey in Warwick, Rhode Island, needed a more affordable, professional PCB design environment that could replace costly, modular tools. The firm’s work on custom boards for commercial, industrial, aerospace, and defense applications required strong schematic, layout, and parts-management capabilities, which Matthew found difficult to get without paying enterprise-level prices. He turned to Altium Designer and Altium 365 to support his one-person design business.

Altium implemented an all-in-one workflow with Altium Designer, Altium 365, and Concord Pro, giving Granite Summit Designs integrated schematics, layout, 3D modeling, BOM tools, and cloud-based collaboration. The result was a simpler process for managing client-specific libraries and sharing designs, with no need for extra modules. Matthew said Altium cost less than the annual maintenance of his previous software and avoided systems that could run as high as $81,000 per year, while providing all the features he needed in one platform.

Granite Summit Designs

Matthew Lightsey

Founder and Principal Designer