Thursday 13 November 2008

Fritzing and "Virtual Prototyping"


Image of Fritzing from: www.pixelsumo.com
"Fritzing is an open-source initiative to support designers and artists to take the step from physical prototyping to actual product." - www.fritzing.org
Specifically, Fritzing is being designed (is still in alpha stages) to prototype for Arduino-based PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards), and they compare it as a software metaphor to the electronic breadboard, which is designed to be a speedy prototyping base to 'mess' about with.

This kind of Electronic Design Automation software is designed for the Arduino, and is also Open Source much like Processing or the Arduino software. However, this kind of prototyping software is not a new thing...


Image of Eagle from: cadsoft.de

The immediate picture above shows screen-shots of Cadsoft's PCB prototyping software: "Eagle". This software is not primarily targeted at artists in the same way Fritzing is, and is also not focused on the Arduino (but any custom PCB), but still has a freeware version available.

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