Is Fritzing Dead Already?

I am using 0.9.3b. Version is from June/16. no update since?
still in beta? Full of bugs that no one seems to be fixing?
I needed a tool that I could use to re4verse engineer some pcbs by drawing them in PCB tab and switch to Schematic view after all is done.
But like many other features in this program, its buggy and doesn’t behave as it should.
Now all is good for, is to create illustrations and documentation.

There is only 1 update a year, but who knows in the future.

Fritzing can work backward if you know what you are doing, but you are quite welcome to try KiCad the non recommended backwards way, and we’ll see how you go.

Actually, besides you thinking this is some hot potatoes software, without easier options, I’ve been doing this for a long time using Orcad, Eagle and Altium DXP. None of these free bullshit software like KiCad, Scad,… are worth the time to learn. They are very limited and full of bugs. At the whims of the developers.
With abrasive people like yourself as the back end. No thanks.

While I agree development appears to have died or slowed, my reaction to that is different than yours. I see Fritzing as being useful to me and worth devoting time to both learning and improving. I have used a commercial product (that altium bought and discontinued :slight_smile: ) for years. With Fritzing as open source that isn’t a problem and once I learn enough about how Fritzing works the code is available to me to fix and improve it (which I intend to do, and you could if you wanted to do something more than just use it to do what you want …)

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The guy that made the initial abrasive comment is complaining when someone is abrasive to them, weird.

If you are an Orcad, Eagle and Altium DXP expert, are you saying that they can’t do it, because why look for other software when you are comfortable with them and Altium is free, weird.

You’re getting something for free, and you expect full support from people that are not getting paid, weird.

If you ask a nice question you get a nice response.

I play with lots of software. Its what I do. Don’t waste my time replying.

Oh, I’d figured you for a lost cause :slight_smile: but there are other people reading this that could use an alternate view …

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If you play with everything why not play with KiCad, because you can never judge a package until you know it intimately. I didn’t like Fritzing at first, but after I used it a lot I quite like it.

I have no bias on packages so I learnt KiCad, Eagle, Altium and FZ by spending 5 or more days on each, and I came to the conclusion I like FZ the best.

If you don’t want bugs pay for software, where you have every right to complain, but when it free, it is what it is. $10K of Altium is free online if you want less bugs.

If you asked “Is anyone still supporting Fritzing” instead of demanding it to be fixed, you would have got a better reply. You don’t go into a Hells Angels club and tell them them they are dumb.

Well there was a github commit in the last week so looks like something is still going on.

The software is not dead. It’s just some folks think they should get more for less… As if free wasn’t good enough. Most everyone involved in an open-source project of whatever caliber donate their time. I personally find your lil rant rude!
@PicoPi Why not try to contribute? Projects like these depend on community involvement. No one has kept you from cloning the git-hub repo and having a go… Maybe trying to help is the best option. Thank you for your concerns though! There are plenty of options for getting your project done. All roads lead to roam. Even though this software is still BETA. It has remarkable potential! In-fact this software works just fine and does an exceptional job for me.



87 new photos · Album by Retri bution (RetributionLSR)

I wish there could be some kind of kickstarter thing where depending on the funding level certian features would get added. Then whoever the developers are (at this time its hard to tell) could get paid to do some serious work on making this even better. After hackaday trashed this software it’s imperative that Fritzing push back on such bad press. Read the comments below that article. While I don’t agree with the premiss of the article the author does make some valid points on creating new parts which is cumbersome for the novice and intermediate user. Maybe one of the funding levels could be a way to make parts in fritzing instead of using third party software? Another could be having shortcut keys similar to other eda’s? Also make laying tracks function more like other eda’s? How about another level for making the custom pcb shapes?

This Hackday article in reference above is total rubbish! You can see deliberate attempts all OVER Brian’s article to defame fritzing. In-fact I’ll go as far as calling Brian, the author out! What an ignorant, uneducated, moron. I mean just look at his sorry ass attempt at making a schematic. Pathetic, 2 minutes worth of effort to talk trash, that’s apparent, no questions asked… I’m sure his parent’s would be proud of the filth they raised. If you can’t see threw that sort of crap, you’re not trying hard enough… Especially, if it’s posted on hackday. I’ll just say this… meet me @ my shop Brain (ANYDAY), I’ll run circles in all department(s) around you… Might actually teach you a thing or two… A proper presentation, and a bit of professionalism go a long way in my book. That article is total garbage, It’s unprofessional to say the least… I’ll call a spade a spade.

Honestly, this is all community! Any advancements are slow building blocks for better software. It’s BETA, it’s FREE, that’s that, get over it, or move on…There are other options to chose from. No need to talk trash because this software didn’t meet your needs. I can say maybe download the fritzing code from git-hub? I’d be willing to bet that the trash talkers have no concept of modifying this code, let alone compiling their own modified version for testing… Get real, try to play big boy ball, and contribute. Oh yea, that’s a whole other ballgame. No more arm-chairing in that arena.

@duff good suggestions though! Who knows. BUT, I do know a lot of my issues right now are living life… So I can only assume the Dev’s are wrapped up in that same heavy situation. Again everything is community and these people donate their time. But, some paid development could go along way. :wink:

Out of all the bad news - I had kind-of given up -, at least there is good news that someone is still working on FZ.

I find it kind of funny that those guys claim to be so smart, yet they can’t work out how to make a part in FZ. I knew absolutely nothing about electronics in Oct 2015, so I had to learn everything from scratch, and I mean everything. Eventually after 3 months of YouTube/Google crash electronics, and looking at FZ parts and trying stuff, I made a crude part. If you look at Altium with it’s 3D parts you have to draw the whole thing in 2D, same as FZ BB view, and then add a 3rd dimension, making it just as hard as FZ. You have to remember that FZ can do BB view, which is something that not even a $80K program can do, and if you added that to them it would take the same work to make parts.

I had an idea recently, if FZ changed from svg to CAD drawings, it could automatically have 3D view.

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After months of no activity there has been a burst of commits in December on github so it looks like something is cooking (yeah! :slight_smile: ). I for one would like some indication of what is planned if possible. As I struggle to learn parts creation, I see (and am working on) that helper scripts that “adjust” the xml output from Inkscape to be better Fritzing friendly would be useful, however if a parts editor rewrite is in the works then perhaps that’s not useful although I’ll proceed until something changes I expect :slight_smile:

Same here - only change Oct 2015 to Mar 2016 :slight_smile:
Fritzing was a tool of the first choice (because Adafruit and Sparkfun use it for documentation :slight_smile: )
Later, when I moved from BB to PCB and actually producing panelized PCBs, I tried Eagle and several other tools. But never found enough time/energy/will to understand them. FZ is easy and straightforward.
Yes, there are bugs, but with the June update most of crashing was solved.
And yes, creating a part is “a bit complicated” process, but you can get used to it, once you understand it and get familiar with SVGs

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This demonstrates how OpenSource can fail! Don’t get me wrong - I like OS but if you can’t make money with it forget it. OS-Software has to have a business model. I donated ~20$ and thats it. I like Fritzing to document my breadboard samples so there is no need for me to create a PCB. I hope a company picks up the software/parts format an makes a well running package out of it.

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Sounds like Fritzing (and open source in general) isn’t for you, and you would be happier elsewhere. I read the hackaday post and I agree with the comments, “if it isn’t eagle trash it” making the entire post useless so I did the sensible thing and ignored it. Fritzing does something that I want and thus I’m working to wards making it better (which I can because it isn’t closed source). Nothing to stop you from doing the same or moving on. No call that I can see to trash the folks that have gotten it this far (far better than I could have done) as far as I can see. I expect the change from a funded research project (which it apparantly started out as) to open source where it gets attention as time is available (which may not be much) basis is most of the cause of the slowdown

Peter.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - when you have written something better, then you can complain. Some of us actually have developed software for a living for most of our lives and know how hard it really is - anything this complex that has got this far deserves respect.

Is someone holding a gun to your head that you have to use it.

If you don’t like it don’t use it, and yet you are so dumb you can’t work that out.

If you get that worked up about a small program, you have bigger problems than the program, like you are a total idiot.

Stop acting like a whining spoilt brat, and grow up.

The way you do free stuff is try a bunch of them. and use the one you like. Young, dumb, lazy, cry-babies act like a little bitch when life doesn’t work out like they think, which it never does, so get off your ass and switch to one you like.

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