TABLE OF CONTENTS
Key takeaways
- Duro will continue to operate as a standalone PLM platform.
- Duro will remain CAD-agnostic and continue supporting integrations across the hardware technology ecosystem.
- Altium supports this strategy and has never directed Duro to limit an integration with any vendor—including a competitor.
- Customers will continue to have the freedom to build the hardware technology stack that works best for them.
When Duro was acquired by Altium, we heard excitement from customers and across the hardware industry. We also heard an understandable question:
Will Duro become a closed PLM built primarily—or exclusively—for Altium users?
The answer is no.
Duro will remain a standalone, CAD-agnostic PLM platform. We will continue to integrate with the tools hardware teams choose, whether those tools come from Altium or another vendor. Our commitment is to our customers’ entire product development process, not to a single CAD ecosystem.
That is not simply a statement about our current roadmap. It is fundamental to what PLM is supposed to do, and what Duro believes in.
PLM is the watering hole for the entire hardware stack
A modern hardware product is rarely created in one application. Electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, firmware developers, supply chain teams, quality teams, and manufacturers all rely on different systems to do their jobs.
The resulting technology stack might include multiple ECAD and MCAD platforms, alongside requirements management, ERP, MES, QMS, procurement, project management, and communication tools. The right combination varies by company, product, team, and stage of growth.
PLM sits at the center of that environment. Its role is to connect product data and workflows across disciplines so that every team can work from accurate, current information. If the PLM only works well with one vendor’s design tools, it cannot fully serve that role.
This is why Duro was built to help companies create a best-of-breed hardware technology stack. Today, Duro supports connections across mechanical CAD, electrical CAD, ERP, MES, requirements management, QMS, project management, procurement, and other categories. Our API-first foundation also gives customers and partners the flexibility to build connections for specialized or proprietary systems.
That open architecture will continue.
Altium supports Duro’s agnostic approach
We understand why an acquisition by a CAD company could raise concerns. Customers want to know whether future investment will favor the acquiring company’s ecosystem at the expense of other tools.
So we want to be direct: Altium supports and encourages Duro’s continued independence as a product. Since the acquisition, Altium has never instructed us to reject, restrict, or de-prioritize an integration because another vendor could be considered a competitor.
In fact, the strategic value of Duro depends on its ability to connect the broader hardware development ecosystem.
Altium and Duro had been strategic partners for years before the acquisition. As Tech-Clarity observed in its analysis of the acquisition, Altium gives Duro access to greater market reach, resources, and a larger customer base, while gaining a modern PLM platform and an experienced development team. They also highlighted Duro’s existing out-of-the-box integrations with Altium 365, SolidWorks, Onshape, and NX, as well as its connections to manufacturing and business systems.
The acquisition gives Duro more capacity to pursue its mission. It does not narrow that mission. Further, Duro gives Altum access to customers it couldn’t access before, outside of electrical engineering teams. This is a classic 1+1=3 scenario.
Better with Altium does not mean closed to everyone else
Altium customers should expect the connection between Altium and Duro to become even better. Deeper integrations can reduce manual work, keep components and BOMs synchronized, and create a more continuous flow of product data from electrical design through release and manufacturing.
But improving that experience does come at the expense of another.
Duro will continue to support teams whose workflows include other ECAD and MCAD platforms. We will continue to evaluate new integrations based on customer needs and the value they create across the product lifecycle. And we will continue investing in APIs and extensibility so customers are not limited to a fixed list of vendor-approved connections.
We firmly believe that hardware companies should be able to choose the best tools for their products and their teams. They should also be able to change those tools as their needs evolve without rebuilding their product data infrastructure from the ground up.
What customers can expect from Duro
The practical commitments behind our CAD-agnostic strategy are straightforward:
A standalone PLM experience
Duro will continue to be available as its own PLM platform. Customers will not need to standardize their entire design environment on Altium to benefit from Duro.
Continued support for a multi-CAD world
Real hardware organizations are multidisciplinary and frequently multi-CAD. Duro will continue building for that reality, connecting product data across electrical and mechanical design environments rather than assuming every team uses the same vendor.
An open integration strategy
We will continue to support integrations across the product development stack, including CAD, ERP, MES, QMS, requirements management, project management, sourcing, and communication systems.
Customer-driven priorities
Our integration roadmap will continue to be informed by the workflows, tools, and challenges of hardware teams. We want customers to tell us where disconnected data or manual handoffs are slowing them down.
API-first extensibility
No standard catalog of integrations can cover every hardware company’s stack. Duro’s APIs will remain central to the platform so that customers, partners, and developers can connect specialized systems and build workflows around their own requirements.
Still the PLM for the people
Duro was founded on the belief that PLM should be accessible to more hardware teams and not just large enterprises with the budget, time, and consultants required to implement a traditional system.
“PLM for the people” means more than making the user interface easier. It means giving teams control: over how they work, how they configure their processes, and which tools they connect.
Joining Altium gives Duro more resources to advance that vision. It gives us an opportunity to build faster, reach more hardware companies, and create a stronger connection between design and the rest of the product lifecycle. It does not change our belief that customers should choose the technology stack that serves them best.
We were open by design before the acquisition. We will remain open by design after it.