This document gives an overview of the many features of PCB Tracer. It is much more than a drawing program and is very data-rich. The software creates, reads and writes a number of different files. These include netlists, schematics, pdf datasheets, project files, project history, BOM, and PCB photos. https://pcbtracer.com/PCB_Tracer.html
During a session, PCB Tracer reads and writes over a dozen different file types — including images, schematics, datasheets, netlists, and revision history. It also has an AutoSave feature to prevent losing your work. Every file is saved to your project directory during a session. Doing all of this without constant requests for use permission requires the File System Access API, which is not yet available in all browsers. The Firefox developers has explicitly stated that this API will not be supported.
PCB Tracer reads and writes over a dozen different file types — including images, schematics, datasheets, netlists, and revision history. It also provides an AutoSave feature, to prevent losing your work. Every file is saved to your project directory during a session. Doing all of this without constant interruptions to get user permissions requires the File System Access API, which is not yet available in all browsers. The Firefox developers have explicitly stated that this API will not be supported.
The File System Access API has security precautions built-in. For example, it requires users to explicitly grant permission to access a specific directory (once) per session. Also, the API never allows access to root or to system-related directories.
PCB Tracer has a growing set of happy users. I think you will discover why, once you give it a try. The software has hundreds of convenient features and its active development continues. I've been building PCB Tracer mainly for fun and learning. It's certainly been a fun project! Hope you give it a try soon, find it useful and enjoy using it. -Phil
I don't regret getting downvoted to talk about how excited I am for PCB Tracer one bit. It's awesome - I've spent the past day pretty much doing nothing but tracing a fairly complex (for me) board.
I do have some feedback, and I've found some bugs. I gave up on your photo manipulation tools and just did manual keystone perspective tweaks in my photo editor. I would happily use your app to do it if it worked, but the keystone thing was super broken for me; the sanest way to make this work would be to have the user drop 4 points on each side and just do it; all of the fussy nudge/scale stuff is really just a half step towards point-based keystones.
Early on I had some pretty serious bugs that emerged when I was jumping between magnification levels. At one point all of my objects were unceremoniously moved off where I'd placed them to whitespace outside of the photo. That sucked. Now I save frequently and only change magnification when I'm in select mode.
I also find that the "fit canvas to window area" is a bit broken when moving between full and partial sized browser windows in Brave on Windows.
However, the biggest bug or behaviour I can't quite figure out is that when I switch to the back view it doesn't seem to reverse the position of the dots and objects placed. I am probably doing it wrong, but still: my strongest feedback currently is that switching sides is awkward at best and slightly broken at worst.
All of that said... I love it! I am thrilled with it. You've made something totally amazing in a short time.
Pete: Note that PCB Tracer has an AutoSave feature (under the File menu) that is turned on by default (every 5 minutes). These past project files are saved automatically in the history/ subdirectory. The File menu has a 'Restore from History' feature that allows you to restore your work from these past files, should anything go wrong.
Thank you, Pete. Please contact me via the Help menu and we can work together to fix these bugs. I am also happy to work with users to add features and have done this many times over the past 2 months.
PCB Tracer relies heavily on the File System Access API for reading and writing project files, images, netlists, schematics, datasheets, and more — including an AutoSave feature. Unfortunately, Firefox hasn't implemented this API. I hear you, and I'm exploring a desktop version that would remove the browser dependency entirely. — Phil Giacalone
