I always wanted to get more into electronics but I knew tools were crap so I was putting it aside but last year I finally started tinkering with electronics and so naturally I tried all the electronics simulators and design tools in Ubuntu repository. I've tried maybe 20 different apps. They all equally garbage. This was supposed to be a relaxing hobby, and instead I was just getting angry with ridiculous design decisions and obnoxious bugs. Let me tell you something, if software has autosave feature you can be almost certain it it steaming pile of shit.
After several keyboard bashing episodes, for my own sanity, I decided either I make my own schematic design tool and simulator or I'll give up on this hobby. In a day I had proof of concept, in 2 weeks I had working prototype, in a month I had decent tool I could actually use for real stuff.
For comparison, the easiest and most stable for me was Caneda. But to change resistor value and see change in output you need 7 clicks ffs! It would take ages to design anything, my tool simply uses mouse wheel over component to change its value by 1% or 10% (shift). What takes me 30s would take me hours in other tools. And my tool doesn't even have autosave. It doesn't need it, it never crashes, ever! There are 3 unbound loops in my schematic editor, I know where they are and I added code that prevents it from freezing. It is literally impossible to crash it. Even during the development it rarely broke, I guess the "pro" tools are built differently. Then few weeks later as I was making more and more complex circuits I designed perfboard design tool and now I have everything I need. I've been really happy with it, no bugs, no crappy UI. I should have done it years ago. Designing circuits is now my happy place.
I think the authors of other design tools try to hide their bad core design by adding million features and thousands of components, but if the core products is crap, it will be crap even if you add 20'000 to92 transistors, it will just take you longer find component you need.
I was considering releasing it but it would take too much time to get it to the state others can use it and I don't have that kind of time (it runs in browser but needs locally running ngspice running in the background via php server). But if you are like me and you find all other tools garbage, make your own, seriously, is not that hard and it is very rewarding, my first POC was literally screenshot of scheme with wheel changing netlist values, running ngspice, showing transient analysis in chart.
Schematic design tool and simulator: https://de.catbox.moe/hcoapj.png
Perfboard tool: https://de.catbox.moe/uq8si4.png
After several keyboard bashing episodes, for my own sanity, I decided either I make my own schematic design tool and simulator or I'll give up on this hobby. In a day I had proof of concept, in 2 weeks I had working prototype, in a month I had decent tool I could actually use for real stuff.
For comparison, the easiest and most stable for me was Caneda. But to change resistor value and see change in output you need 7 clicks ffs! It would take ages to design anything, my tool simply uses mouse wheel over component to change its value by 1% or 10% (shift). What takes me 30s would take me hours in other tools. And my tool doesn't even have autosave. It doesn't need it, it never crashes, ever! There are 3 unbound loops in my schematic editor, I know where they are and I added code that prevents it from freezing. It is literally impossible to crash it. Even during the development it rarely broke, I guess the "pro" tools are built differently. Then few weeks later as I was making more and more complex circuits I designed perfboard design tool and now I have everything I need. I've been really happy with it, no bugs, no crappy UI. I should have done it years ago. Designing circuits is now my happy place.
I think the authors of other design tools try to hide their bad core design by adding million features and thousands of components, but if the core products is crap, it will be crap even if you add 20'000 to92 transistors, it will just take you longer find component you need.
I was considering releasing it but it would take too much time to get it to the state others can use it and I don't have that kind of time (it runs in browser but needs locally running ngspice running in the background via php server). But if you are like me and you find all other tools garbage, make your own, seriously, is not that hard and it is very rewarding, my first POC was literally screenshot of scheme with wheel changing netlist values, running ngspice, showing transient analysis in chart.
Schematic design tool and simulator: https://de.catbox.moe/hcoapj.png
Perfboard tool: https://de.catbox.moe/uq8si4.png