The continued research focused on triangulating the total number of electronic schematics designers in the world, based on the total number of users of design software, including OrCAD Capture, kiCAD, Altium Designer, Mentor's Xpedition/Valydate, Zuken's CADSTAR, and Novarm's DipTrace. The information on the total number of users of OrCAD Capture, Mentor's Xpedition and Valydate, and Zuken's CADSTAR could not be found or triangulated.
TOTAL NUMBER OF USERS OF DESIGN SOFTWARES
- According to Zuken, there are "many thousands of satisfied users" of CADSTAR in the world.
- While kiCAD does not specifically state the number of software users, it has a user-only group that has a total of 5,111 members. Assuming that all the members of the group are users of the software, it can be concluded that kiCAD has around 5,111 users.
- Similarly, the member forum of DipTrace has a total of 21,771 users. Therefore, it can be estimated that DipTrace has around 21,771 users.
- While OrCAD also has a forum dedicated to the PCB designers, the information on the total number of users is not available.
- According to the 2018 annual report of Altium, there are over 37,900 subscribers of Altium Designer. Thus, the software has at least 37,900 users.
- Even after extensive research across the official annual reports, websites, and other third-party resources, the total number of users of OrCAD Capture, Mentor's Xpedition and Valydate, and Zuken's CADSTAR could not be found or triangulated.
ESTIMATED NUMBER OF ELECTRONIC SCHEMATICS DESIGNERS IN THE WORLD
- Based on the total number of users of kiCAD, DipTrace, and Altium Designer, there are at least 64,782 (5111+21771+37900) electronic schematics designers in the world.
OTHER HELPFUL FINDINGS
- In May 2018, there were 330,000 people employed as an electrical and electronics engineer in the US.
- A total of 32,288 electrical and electronics engineering degrees were handed out in the US in 2016. The number grew by 9.79% when compared to the number in 2015.