Finally, here's a fresh release of fritzing, coming with a nice set of new features. Head on over to fritzing.org/download to grab it.
Here's what's new:
Continuously updated parts library
The fritzing parts library is now stored online at github and is automatically checked
for updates on every launch. This means you will now get new parts (or fixes) in the moment when they are created. No need to wait for the next Fritzing release to get new parts anymore!
And we are actually using git itself inside of fritzing to do these updates, so this opens up many other use cases in the future, like for example direct user contributions.
Fritzing now looks properly on High-DPI (aka Retina) displays on all platforms. It's not really high-res but scaling nicely according to the higher screen resolution. No more eye squinting with your fancy 4K screen!
Easier handling of self-created parts
Custom / self-made parts and bins used to be stored in a hidden location on your hard
drive, which made it really annoying to edit them with an external tool such as Illustrator
or a text editor.
They are now conveniently located in your ~/Documents/Fritzing folder for easy access!
Load/Save uncompressed fritzing files (.fz)
You can now alternatively save your fritzing sketches as an uncompressed set of files (.fz
plus additional custom parts etc). This allows for proper versioning with systems like git or svn. For regular use, we still recommend using the standard .fzz format, which by the way is just a zip bundle of these files.
Thanks to Sergio Oller (zeehio) for this contribution!
File type associations & icons
fzz, fzb, fzp, etc. now also have shiny file icons on Mac OS X (thanks to scribblemaniac)
and Ubuntu Linux (thanks to el-j). To get them to actually show up, you will need to wait a little on Mac for them to override the cache, and on Linux you have to run the install-fritzing.sh script.
New Parts
Loads of new parts, many of them contributed, and all revised by Fabian Althaus (el-j):
Lots of new SparkFun parts, thanks to support from SparkFun:
OMRON G5LE and NVF4-2 relays, thanks to tomaskovacik
MPX2010 pressure sensor, thanks to Knutse
MPX4250AP pressure sensor, thanks to Old Grey
174917 DENSO ECU-socket, thanks to Old Grey
Rotary Switch 12 position 1 pole, thanks to Old Grey
4060 counter/divider, thanks to neutmute
LM124-324 Quad Opamp, thanks to Knutse
Hi-Link HLK-PM01 power module, thanks to inahas
LTC3105 step-up DC/DC converter
Refined ruler design, thanks to duff2013
New/updated Translations
Czech, thanks to Vasekdvor
German, thanks to Atalanttore and aknoerig
Italian, thanks to Gianpaolo Macario
Polish, thanks to jacekjaros
Portuguese, thanks to Bruno Ramalhete
Spanish, thanks to bazza
Turkish, thanks to Kaan Özdinçer
Vietnamese, thanks to Duyệt Đinh Xuân
..and various smaller improvements and fixes, including contributions from Duane Johnson, Luke Benstead, Nicolas Raynaud, scribblemaniac and duff2013. Thanks!
There are a zillion books that make use of Fritzing to illustrate circuits, but this one is the first on fritzing itself. We're honored that the one and only Simon Monk, author of many a maker book, took it up and created the ultimate guide for using fritzing to "take your electronics project from prototype to product." We provided technical review for the book, so you can be sure it's using all the tricks.
It does a really great job at giving a quickstart introduction. Then it walks you through each of Breadboard/Schematic/PCB view in detail, and also gives you background tips on approaching electronics projects in general, reading datasheets, etc. The second half of the book focuses on PCB design and production all the way to testing and distribution. It's all very thorough and keeps a great balance between bird's eye and detail discussion.
So it's not just a software reference, but a really practical handbook on creating prototypes and using Fritzing as the central tool for that. All in all, "Fritzing for Inventors" might be a great holiday read.
Here's the full table of contents (the one on the publisher's website seems to be from a draft version):
It's the time of the year again and we are happy to announce a new release featuring a brand new "Code View" that allows you to program and upload to your microcontroller straight from Fritzing.
To celebrate this, we give you a nice discount on the perfect christmas gift, the Fritzing Creator Kit. Use the discount code FRITZMAS14 to get the kit for 89€ (instead of 95€) and make someone (or yourself) really happy this year. :)
Read more on the release below. This is the new "Code View"! It lets you write your code directly inside Fritzing, and even upload it from there to your microcontroller. It even has a serial monitor. :)
We love this, because it makes it even easier for beginners to get started with interactive electronics. And for more advanced people it's great because you can now keep your code together with the matching circuit--no more confusion!
You can also link to files somewhere else on your hard drive, for example in your local Arduino folder. When the link gets broken, or you just send someone your Fritzing file, don't worry, because there's always a backup stored in the Fritzing fzz file. Right now the upload functionality supports Arduino and PICAXE, but more can be added as long as the platform's IDE has a command line upload option.
The new release also brings with it many new parts, many kindly sponsored by their respective makers. Now you can easily document your circuits and fabricate shields/caps/hats etc. for:
Last but not least, the new release fixes a couple of annoying bugs and generally makes it easier for you to contribute to the code. Setting up your build environment is now just a few easy steps. See the full release notes here.
Download Fritzing 0.9.1b from here, and think about a Fritzmas donation on the way to it.
Happy Fritzmas to everyone!
When we started hacking on Fritzing back in 2007, Google Code was all the hype, and SVN had just replaced CVS as a versioning system. All this has changed for good, and today git (and github) have become the reference for collaborative, open-source development.
We were hesitant until now mostly because of our issue tracker: The one at Google Code has served us wonderfully, and the one at github lacks many of the features that we have come to love (like file attachments and powerful tagging/prioritizing). Also, with the move, original issue reporters will not be notified of changes. Ouch. Luckily, all issues have a backlink to their original Google Code issue, so at least the full history is preserved.
We have also taken the opportunity to move our developer docs over to the github wiki. This way it’s all in one place and you can directly edit it if you have enhancements.
So, we welcome all developers to take a look, watch us, star us, fork us, and most importantly, send us pull requests!
We just noticed that the Linux release did not contain the latest patches, most notably it is missing the Linino boards, an issue with number boxes in languages using comma as decimal separator, and a schematic issue.
The downloads have now been refreshed, so we recommend all Linux users who have already downloaded 0.9 to update. Sorry for this extra step!
