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Ultra Librarian joins Flux to take the hard out of hardware

flux.ai

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Re: Ultra Librarian joins Flux to take the hard out of hardware

#11

Post by peteforde »

swamp40 wrote: post #8
peteforde wrote: post #4

I spent several months working with Flux, and while I actually generally enjoyed the UI and web-based approach, I had to switch back to KiCAD because there were so many dealbreaking bugs in fundamental features. The realtime collaboration was just straight up broken; as in, my collaborator would make changes that would not manifest until I refreshed. This is unacceptable. The PCB tracing was unusable because you coul…

I don't see how it's possible to beat companies like Altium that have been continually improving the sch and pcb design experience for the last 30 years. The AI is a cool idea. Maybe as an add-on? An import? A library? Collaboration? IDK, but details like via tenting properties on layer 3 are best left to the experts.

I think it's a huge mistake for any ecosystem to be impenetrable to new players with fresh ideas.

We see this in the web browser engine space with Chromium.

That's why I find the glee with which prominent EE community types appear to condemn Flux really frustrating. Yes, Flux has big problems and a huge mountain to climb. To me, that's why we should encourage them. There are a million easier things those folks could be attempting, so shitting on them for trying to bring a new perspective is self-defeating.

As for Altium, I haven't used it because it's very expensive and tied up in a larger enterprise ecosystem. It doesn't make a ton of sense for solo or small-team designers to use a tool heavily influenced and full of tooling for use by the world's largest companies.

That's why I found Flux so compelling; my partner and I actually want to use the "Figma for electronics", if such a thing can be provided without critical bugs.

Re: Ultra Librarian joins Flux to take the hard out of hardware

#12

Post by by_Seeing »

peteforde wrote: post #4

I spent several months working with Flux, and while I actually generally enjoyed the UI and web-based approach, I had to switch back to KiCAD because there were so many dealbreaking bugs in fundamental features. The realtime collaboration was just straight up broken; as in, my collaborator would make changes that would not manifest until I refreshed. This is unacceptable. The PCB tracing was unusable because you coul…

This is one of the more measured takes I've read about our tool. I'm a product designer building Flux and I'd love to hear more about your issues. If you're interested in helping us climb that mountain faster, hit me up at brooks at flux.ai

Also, we're working fast to solve some of the issues you describe. Have you tried us recently?

Re: Ultra Librarian joins Flux to take the hard out of hardware

#14

Post by by_Seeing »

bsder wrote: post #7
peteforde wrote: post #4

I spent several months working with Flux, and while I actually generally enjoyed the UI and web-based approach, I had to switch back to KiCAD because there were so many dealbreaking bugs in fundamental features. The realtime collaboration was just straight up broken; as in, my collaborator would make changes that would not manifest until I refreshed. This is unacceptable. The PCB tracing was unusable because you coul…

Partnering with Ultra Librarian is simply going to make me more inclined to shit on Flux, though. And I don't even know anything about Flux. These "library managers" like Ultra Librarian and SnapEDA are a pox upon the ecosystem. The symbols and footprints have non-open source licenses, so you nominally can't share them. They simply want to get in the middle of your design so that they can monetize you.

In Flux, this closed source aspect doesn't exist. Any user can fork and alter any part.

Re: Ultra Librarian joins Flux to take the hard out of hardware

#15

Post by peteforde »

by_Seeing wrote: post #12
peteforde wrote: post #4

I spent several months working with Flux, and while I actually generally enjoyed the UI and web-based approach, I had to switch back to KiCAD because there were so many dealbreaking bugs in fundamental features. The realtime collaboration was just straight up broken; as in, my collaborator would make changes that would not manifest until I refreshed. This is unacceptable. The PCB tracing was unusable because you coul…

This is one of the more measured takes I've read about our tool. I'm a product designer building Flux and I'd love to hear more about your issues. If you're interested in helping us climb that mountain faster, hit me up at brooks at flux.ai Also, we're working fast to solve some of the issues you describe. Have you tried us recently?

Kerry was really amazing to work through issues with. He took my feedback like a champ and was able to get a number of issues addressed. I made it clear to him that I wasn't giving up on Flux, but that I had to do the responsible thing for my project and would check back in.

I transitioned my product to KiCAD in late December. I'll definitely check out how things are going when I start my next product later this year.

Re: Ultra Librarian joins Flux to take the hard out of hardware

#16

Post by by_Seeing »

peteforde wrote: post #15
by_Seeing wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the more measured takes I've read about our tool. I'm a product designer building Flux and I'd love to hear more about your issues. If you're interested in helping us climb that mountain faster, hit me up at brooks at flux.ai Also, we're working fast to solve some of the issues you describe. Have you tried us recently?

Kerry was really amazing to work through issues with. He took my feedback like a champ and was able to get a number of issues addressed. I made it clear to him that I wasn't giving up on Flux, but that I had to do the responsible thing for my project and would check back in. I transitioned my product to KiCAD in late December. I'll definitely check out how things are going when I start my next product later this year…

Kerry is the best. Take us for a spin again and let us know if you're still encountering issues!

Re: Ultra Librarian joins Flux to take the hard out of hardware

#17

Post by Bluebirt »

cyberax wrote: post #6

Now it needs to be integrated with atopile. It'd be nice to be able to describe the circuit as simple code, compile it, and then get it in the mail a couple of days later.

WOW. These two projects must be the most esoteric hardware projects out there. Why should anyone use code for hardware? This flux thing seems only to be useful for simple hobby projects.

Re: Ultra Librarian joins Flux to take the hard out of hardware

#18

Post by cyberax »

Bluebirt wrote: post #17
cyberax wrote: post #6

Now it needs to be integrated with atopile. It'd be nice to be able to describe the circuit as simple code, compile it, and then get it in the mail a couple of days later.

WOW. These two projects must be the most esoteric hardware projects out there. Why should anyone use code for hardware? This flux thing seems only to be useful for simple hobby projects.

Because designing hardware is a mess. Especially if you want to tweak designs a bit.

I'd love to be able to design circuits the way I can do with 3D printing.

Re: Ultra Librarian joins Flux to take the hard out of hardware

#19

Post by polalavik »

engineer_22 wrote: post #2

I have not found Flux to be particularly useful. For schematic design and PCB layout KiCAD is my go-to. Flux was difficult to use and the purported AI assistance was non-existent.

same I’ve tried to use flux multiple times and there’s just not an intuitive thing about it. I could barely draw a schematic.

I should add that I’m somewhat experienced as well. I’ve successfully designed 6 layer boards with blind via, BGAs, Bluetooth trace antennas before trying flux. Still have no clue how to use flux.

Re: Ultra Librarian joins Flux to take the hard out of hardware

#20

Post by swamp40 »

peteforde wrote: post #11
swamp40 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how it's possible to beat companies like Altium that have been continually improving the sch and pcb design experience for the last 30 years. The AI is a cool idea. Maybe as an add-on? An import? A library? Collaboration? IDK, but details like via tenting properties on layer 3 are best left to the experts.

I think it's a huge mistake for any ecosystem to be impenetrable to new players with fresh ideas. We see this in the web browser engine space with Chromium. That's why I find the glee with which prominent EE community types appear to condemn Flux really frustrating. Yes, Flux has big problems and a huge mountain to climb. To me, that's why we should encourage them. There are a million easier things those folks could…

It's funny, Altium was the underdog for years. Only as they continually improved did they slowly gain market share.

The tools need to work consistently, just like the tools of a carpenter. If his hammer head keeps falling off, it's not very helpful even if it was free.

My point was that it is really difficult to make sch and pcb design easy for the end user. There are already companies that have climbed that mountain. AI is a nice differentiator, but in my opinion a startup would be better focused by working with existing tools instead of reinventing them (poorly).

Obviously startups are free to do as they wish.

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