Fritzing is an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

initiative to develop amateur or hobby

CAD software Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...

for the design of electronics hardware, intended to allow designers and artists to build more permanent circuits from prototypes. It was developed at the

University of Applied Sciences Potsdam The ''Fachhochschule Potsdam'' is a University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, the capital of the German federal state of Brandenburg. It was founded in 1991 and teaching began in the 1991/92 winter semester. History After the state of Branden ...

. Fritzing is

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

under the GPL 3.0 or later license, with the source code available on GitHub and the binaries at a monetary cost, which is allowed by the GPL.

Goals

The software was created with inspiration from the

Processing Processing is a free graphical library and integrated development environment (IDE) built for the electronic arts, new media art, and visual design communities with the purpose of teaching non-programmers the fundamentals of computer programming ...

programming language and the

Arduino Arduino () is an open-source hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardware products are licensed unde ...

microcontroller and allows a designer, artist, researcher, or hobbyist to document their Arduino-based prototype and create a

PCB PCB may refer to: Science and technology * Polychlorinated biphenyl, an organic chlorine compound, now recognized as an environmental toxin and classified as a persistent organic pollutant * Printed circuit board, a board used in electronics * ...

layout for manufacturing. The associated website helps users share and discuss drafts and experiences as well as to reduce manufacturing costs. Fritzing can be seen as an

electronic design automation Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing Electronics, electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools wo ...

(EDA) tool for non-engineers: the input metaphor is inspired by the environment of designers (the

breadboard A breadboard, solderless breadboard, or protoboard is a construction base used to build semi-permanent prototypes of electronic circuits. Unlike a perfboard or stripboard, breadboards do not require soldering or destruction of tracks and are ...

-based prototype), while the output is focused on accessible means of production. As of December 2, 2014 Fritzing has made a code view option, where one can modify code and upload it directly to an Arduino device. Component images are distributed under CC BY-SA 3.0, which will also be the license for any generated breadboard views.

Maker

Fritzing allows for creation of

printed circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in Electrical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a L ...

s. Fritzing provides access to a commercial service known as ‘FritzingFab’ to order PCBs created with designs made on the Fritzing software.

Simulator

Since version 0.9.10, Fritzing incorporates a basic simulator, which is still in beta. The main aim of the simulator is to teach electronics to beginners, and Fritzing version 0.9.10 only supports analysis of DC circuits. The simulator works on the breadboard and schematic views. In addition, it checks that the parts are working within their specifications (otherwise, a smoke symbol appears). The simulator provides multimeters to read voltages and currents and it attempts to recreate a realistic laboratory session.

References

External links

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User Forum

FabService
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Fritzing overview
Free electronic design automation software Physical computing Electronic design automation software for Linux Engineering software that uses Qt {{free-software-stub

Goals

Maker

Simulator

See also

References

External links