Today we released a new Fritzing version, 0.8.0. Download it here. In previous releases of Fritzing, you could only look at the board from above, in the new release you can also look at the board from below. Furthermore, you can now place any part–THT or SMD–on either side of a double-sided PCB.
To control the point-of-view, we added a new button to the toolbar. Just click to toggle the viewpoint from above to below, and back again.
Here is an example sketch, first viewed from above:
Now, after toggling the button, viewed from below:
You use the current point-of-view to determine on which side of a board a new part or trace will be placed--if you are currently viewing from below, then dragging in a THT part from the Parts Bin means you are pushing the part in from underneath.
You can also use the Both/Top/Bottom activation toggle to control the side on which a new part or trace is placed. So even if you are viewing from below, if only the top side is active, new parts will be placed on the top.
But don't worry if you get it wrong or change your mind--the Inspector now has a "layer" widget to let you change whether a part is placed on the top or bottom side.
And that leads us to another feature of this release. The Inspector now has a 'placement' section that contains a number of controls. You can use these controls to set a part's location, rotation, lock state, and top-or-bottom state. (In addition to the location control, we have added some basic alignment functions--top, left, right, bottom, center--to the Part menu.)
Inspector styling has been improved so that it's clearer when a control is disabled, and when a combo-box will accept text entry (as opposed to being a pure drop-down).
You will find that it's generally easier to select parts that are underneath other parts, in both PCB and Schematic views (and in PCB view, switching the point-of-view gives you another way to reach hard-to-click items).
Thanks to sponsorship from Analog Devices Inc., rotation and flip are now enabled for all parts in Schematic view. Additionally, part text elements in Schematic view will preserve their orientation under these transforms. Stay tuned for some other ADI-sponsored features in upcoming releases.
You can find a more complete list of changes here.
We hope you will enjoy version 0.8.0.
-- Your Fritzing Team
PS. Inevitably with all the changes, there are going to be new bugs. Since the Forum is currently in a transitional state, please use our issue tracker to report problems. Take a quick look to see whether your issue has already been reported (and add a comment if you have something new to relate). If you don't see a relevant existing issue, then click the "new issue" button to make a new report.