Fritzing electronics drawings, CAD, GOOD!!

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
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Forgive me... I usually test something more before extolling it... but this is just too cool...

So this post is a reckless recommendation but also an enquiry: Have you used Fritzing? Does it really survive "real" use?

I've now played with it for all of about 10 minutes... and already created a picture of a breadboard layout, a schematic, and a pcb design.

IT ISN'T MEANT TO BE SO EASY!!!

Thank you, thank you! Someone recently mentioned "Fritzing" in a post.

At http://fritzing.org/

...you can download a free Windows / Linux / Mac program for...

drawing pictures of "things" set up on a breadboard
drawing schematics
doing pcb design

You CAN use it as just a superior, dedicated "Paintbrush" package... I used something similar that way for years... but it can do so much more....

If you, say, add a resistor to the schematic... IT WILL ALSO BE ADDED to the picture and the pbc design. (You may wonder how does this can work. When I say "added", if Fritzing works like my pcb CAD package works, the next time you go to the pcb design page, or the "picture", the component will be there, and you then drag it to the position you want it in.

This "connection" between picture/ schematic and pcb works in all possible directions... edit something on any of the views, and the edit carries forward to the other two....

I hope! As I said... I haven't used it for long, yet, but it seems EXCELLENT. (I believe that some of the better layout graphics we've seen here at the forum for a while have come from Fritzing.

You don't want to know how much my old faithful "proper" pcb CAD package cost me! :slight_smile:

Suggestion: Anyone posting a Fritzing generated graphic... give the package a credit... Just a simple "graphic by free Fritzing.org" would do!

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Thank you Richard for those warnings, and word of the recommended alternative.

I like Eagle for the fact that it has been around for a long time. (Haven't tried it, though)

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I went back, and looked at Fritzing again in light of your comments. Of course, the Fritzing you are thinking of may have been an earlier incarnation.

And whether it will "stand up" to "real" work, I don't know....

But as for "proper" schematics?

The components of my trial design were all nicely labeled, e.g. "R1" for the first resistor. No... on the schematic, I can't see what value it is... but I can print out a BOM (list of parts), and the resistor value is given there. The picture of the breadboard changes when I change the value of the resistor... the color bands are "right". not "generic". How cool is that? (If slightly over the top!?)

Also, rather endearingly, the BOM calls for a "Generic bajillion hold breadboard" :slight_smile:

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It's lacking hundreds of necessary features for real PCB design, and I never saw the point of a breadboard designer...a breadboard IS a breadboard...you just...use it. The exact motions used to draw the breadboard layout could be used to build the actual circuit. And if you're using to teach, I think it numbs the skill of a beginner to doggedly copy a breadboard layout instead of looking at a schematic and working out their own breadboard.