Horizon EDA Version 1.0!

[Lukas]

Hi,
how is the center of rotation defined if I want to rotate a group of components?
It seems that it is not rotating about the "move anchor" point.

It's rotating about the average of all centers. In the latest version, there's rotate/mirror around cursor.

There are of course some changes and less "eye candy" (no toolbars) but not as disruptive as I thought.
You're probably right on this, why reinvent the wheel when you can reuse and improve on existing software and already established concept.

There are only so many ways to build a 2D editor in a way that people will be able to use. I tried to keep it simple and straightforward.

On the other hand, I found the same usability "tricks" that bugs me. I'll give only one example : when you've selected multiple items, put your mouse on the other side of the screen and press M, your selection follow the mouse with this big distance between them.

I guess that's a matter of taste. Would you expect the selected items to snap to the cursor?

[Frddy]

Hey dude. I was looking for a new EDA for another project of mine.. I don't draw a lot so I start by looking around for EDAs.. Last time I used KiCad but it has some peculiarities that make it unusable for me. Then I found LibrePCB which has some really nice features, but isn't quite ready for use yet imo.. Development doesn't seem as good as the next one I found; Horizon EDA. So I thought I would share my thoughts about it, do with it what you want of course. These are just the things I found in the first half hour of fiddling around.

First of all, UI is quite nice and clean.. Does take a bit getting used to as a windows user, kinda missing a FILE menu on the topleft.. Instead, its options are is buried inside the hamburger menu on the right, feels weird. I'm guessing the look and feel comes from the GNOME background of the UI lib. It feels fast and snappy; doesn't seem to take up a huge amount of memory either. (KiCAD takes like 1 GB of memory and re-loads the entire footprint/symbol library every time you open up one of those menus, terrible UX).

Let's start in the schematic editor:
Starting to place a few parts and stuff, few things stand out.. Where are all the toolbars ? Ok there is a place part button, so I placed some parts. Then I want a net, do I do that by placing a part ? No - a lookup of the documentation shows that I have to declare some nets and can then place the symbols.. Ok that's a bit different, but quite alright.

Still in the schematic editor: Selection, moving parts is all pretty intuitive. (KiCAD devs seem to think the right thing is to open up a menu every time you LEFT CLICK the mouse, disgusting.. Ok enough about KiCAD). I see you do have that implemented when what to select isnt clear; a net close to a part opens up a small menu, thats okish. Took me a bit to figure out where the grid settings are.. Ok you only allow a square grid ? That's interesting. I would like to say that sometimes a non-square grid can be helpful when placing parts though. Drawing wires by click-dragging is very pleasant.

Moving on to first impressions of the board editor:
Inserting parts one by one is nice and what you do is kinda similar to LibrePCB; it has a permanent UI thing that shows the to-be-inserted parts close to other errors, like a TODO kind of UI area. When placing a part, I like how the next part automatically comes under the cursor for placement. (KiCad just throwns everything in a grid at once when updating the netlist, in some weird order) Placing my parts, they are not annotated (numbered), I don't understand exactly why but whatever.

The context menu on the right is also nice to use (both in schematic and board editor), and the fact that it works for a selection of multiple parts is super nice. The 'All' button is usefull but does feel a bit large in the UI, ah well.

Generally, I would expect a right click context menu to open up when I have something selected; but in this UI it only opens if you right click directly on a part or part of the selection. Would be nice to add that.

On selections; it seems many EDAs are missing the double-click-to-select-entire-wire thing (or I'm an idiot).. I see you do have that.. Dude thats such a pleasant feature.

The "all"-tool is nice, but personally it can also be really handy to have some more distributive controls. KiCAD for example has:
Align-top, Align-bottom, align-left, align-right, align-middle, align-center and super handy; distribute horizontal, distribute vertical.
Especially the latter can be a time saver, I'll just explain what it does: in a selection it distributes the selected parts evenly between the leftmost and rightmost part.


Overall it looks very promising. I haven't really played with routing or truly tried to design a board. There is one thing though.. The lack of toolbars, why ? It makes everything especially unfriendly for new users. A toolbar with a hover menu containing the tool-name + keybinding is generally how I learn to use new programs.. I think it should be added. Looking more widely at that, I think there should be some more customizability in the UI, such as hiding the left sidebar (or dragging it to the right side).

Who knows maybe I'll look at the code one day.. But I tried modifying something in KiCAD a bit ago and I had no chance there 

[Lukas]

I see you do have that implemented when what to select isnt clear; a net close to a part opens up a small menu, thats okish

Don't know if you discovered it yet, but there are two selection modes:

 1. Hover select: Selection follows mouse cursor, no need to click. automatically selects the smallest object under the cursor if there's more than one. You can get to it by pressing escape. Want to delete something? Hover over it and press delete.
 2. Click select: Activated by clicking on something. Brings up the menu for clarifying the selection and allows selecting more than one object.

I would like to say that sometimes a non-square grid can be helpful when placing parts though

Why would anyone want this in the schematic? I'm not aware of any other schematic entry tools supporting a non-square grid.

Generally, I would expect a right click context menu to open up when I have something selected; but in this UI it only opens if you right click directly on a part or part of the selection. Would be nice to add that.

Other applications such as inkscape handle this exactly that way, so I assume it's a matter of preference.

The lack of toolbars, why ? It makes everything especially unfriendly for new users. A toolbar with a hover menu containing the tool-name + keybinding is generally how I learn to use new programs.. I think it should be added. Looking more widely at that, I think there should be some more customizability in the UI, such as hiding the left sidebar (or dragging it to the right side).

Frankly, I quite dislike toolbars for many reasons: See

for an example how toolbars usually end up looking after a few iterations of added features.
 - Apart from a few universally recognized icons, most icons are abstract blobs of color and could be replaced by hieroglyphics without much loss of usefulness.
 - Creating high-quality icons recognizable at small sizes is quite some art
 - The GNOME HIG eschews colored icons in favor of monochrome ones for use in applications: https://developer.gnome.org/hig/stable/icons-and-artwork.html.en With only one color it's next-to-impossible to make distinctive 16×16px icons.

Rather than a toolbar, the primary way of invoking tools is the spacebar menu (activated by pressing space) that provides a searchable list of all actions that apply globally and to the current selection. Rather than having to remember funny toolbar icons, just search for the desired action.

I agree that the discoverability of that menu is rather low, perhaps showing a tip if the spacebar menu hasn't been opened within 15 seconds after opening the editor could improve things...

Who knows maybe I'll look at the code one day.. But I tried modifying something in KiCAD a bit ago and I had no chance there 

Support for unplaced components has been added with not all that much involvement from my side, so it can't be that bad: https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Amerged

[Warhawk]

Lukas, I can't wait for the end of the month. Will we see 1.1.0? 

[Frddy]

Why would anyone want this in the schematic? I'm not aware of any other schematic entry tools supporting a non-square grid.

Sorry, this was referring to the board editor.

Frankly, I quite dislike toolbars for many reasons: See

for an example how toolbars usually end up looking after a few iterations of added features.
 - Apart from a few universally recognized icons, most icons are abstract blobs of color and could be replaced by hieroglyphics without much loss of usefulness.
 - Creating high-quality icons recognizable at small sizes is quite some art
 - The GNOME HIG eschews colored icons in favor of monochrome ones for use in applications: https://developer.gnome.org/hig/stable/icons-and-artwork.html.en With only one color it's next-to-impossible to make distinctive 16×16px icons.

Rather than a toolbar, the primary way of invoking tools is the spacebar menu (activated by pressing space) that provides a searchable list of all actions that apply globally and to the current selection. Rather than having to remember funny toolbar icons, just search for the desired action.

I agree that the discoverability of that menu is rather low, perhaps showing a tip if the spacebar menu hasn't been opened within 15 seconds after opening the editor could improve things...

Yeah I thought you might not like them, otherwise it would probably have been one of the first things you would do. Anyway, for me the spacebar menu (at least at first glance) seems like a very unpleasant way to work. There are many options and I don't wanna move my right hand off of my mouse, to type what I want. Also, should the user really have to double-click to activate the action ?
Personally, I think the lack of toolbar(s) will be one of the main hurdles for new users, and an obstacle for wider adoption.

I also understand that you wanna keep it clean, so that's why I think it should be included with the option to disable/hide it (and other UI elements).
I definitely agree that that screenshot is not what anyone wants. As such, there should not be a toolbar thing for every possible action.. Zooming, really ? Who uses a zoom-in button nowaways..

I would say the tools for the most basic things should be there, like, drawing a net, line, bus, label, inserting a power symbol etc.. And some other way for more advanced options, like a dropdown.

Actually, have you seen how the latest version of Fusion 360 does it ? Pretty clean too imo, and large (I'm guessing 64x64) icons. They're tabbed; each tab has a bunch of categories with the most common tools directly clickable, and other options in a drop-down menu with text. That could work.

Support for unplaced components has been added with not all that much involvement from my side, so it can't be that bad: https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Amerged

Well I wasn't referring to that specifically; the first think I would hack in myself is a simple toolbar for the most common tasks like I mentioned.

Ah, I just noticed that you don't support OSX.. Thats a bummer.. I understand its because of the underlying GUI lib, hope it gets fixed over time.

_{Trying to fix the broken image into a link... aw, does this forum really try to draw imgs in url tags when it recognizes an image extension ? Lame.}

[Lukas]

Lukas, I can't wait for the end of the month. Will we see 1.1.0? 

There you go: https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon/releases/tag/v1.1.0

For some background on the new features, have look at the progress report blog posts at http://blog.horizon-eda.org/

[Muny]

Excellent work, Lukas. 

One feature suggestion I have is: when drawing lines/other graphics, the ability to hold Shift to constrain the lines to be at even 45-degree increments based on where the mouse is would be very nice. This seems to be a common feature among 2D graphical editors, and I enjoy it.

[Warhawk]

Lukas, I can't wait for the end of the month. Will we see 1.1.0? 

There you go: https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon/releases/tag/v1.1.0

For some background on the new features, have look at the progress report blog posts at http://blog.horizon-eda.org/

You're a man of your word! Going to try it. It's rainy in Bayern

[Davor]

If anybody wants to try horizon-eda on 32-bit Windows this is what worked for me:

https://horizon-eda.readthedocs.io/en/latest/build-win32.html

Follow these instructions, but use 32-bit versions of everything.

32-bit dependencies:

pacman -S mingw-w64-i686-gtkmm3 git base-devel \
mingw-w64-i686-yaml-cpp mingw-w64-i686-boost \
mingw-w64-i686-sqlite3  mingw-w64-i686-toolchain  \
mingw-w64-i686-zeromq mingw-w64-i686-glm zip \
mingw-w64-i686-libgit2 mingw-w64-i686-oce \
mingw-w64-i686-podofo mingw-w64-i686-libzip --needed

After cloning horizon edit makefile: search for mingw64 and replace with mingw32.

If you have old dual core CPU like me use "make -j 2" for building insted of "make -j 4".

Add "C:\msys32\mingw32\bin" variable to your system path.

Install "Win32OpenSSL-1_1_1g.exe" from https://slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html

Copy C:\msys32\mingw32\ssl\certs\ca-bundle.crt to the directory the directory horizon-eda.exe resides in.
In my case it is C:\msys32\home\USER\horizon\build\horizon-eda.exe.

Too many loops to hop for average Windows user, but that is what you get for using niche OS like 32-bit Windows 10

[mark03]

Hi Lukas,

I haven't tried this yet but based on a reading of your design philosophy and comments here, I'd like to test it on an upcoming project.

Probably my biggest annoyance with Kicad, apart from the library system, is that the PCB editor is still rather crude in the way it connects traces to pads.  For example, if I am routing with a big fat trace, and I connect to a small pad, it does not automatically "neck down"---the only option is to manually change the trace width as you approach the pad.  This invariably ends up looking ugly.  I don't know if this is what other EDA users call "tear drops" but I guess it is all connected feature-wise.  Basically the PCB editor needs to be smart about how it terminates traces onto different types of pads.  Is Horizon different from Kicad in this regard?

Does Horizon support arbitrarily shaped footprints, e.g., with a shape imported from an SVG file?  Sometimes it is necessary to have a particular and complex copper shape for some RF design, or other "physics" tasks.  (Most recently I needed this for a field mill electrostatic sensor.)  It can be achieved in Kicad with some effort, but there are still restrictions on what you can do in a copper layer, while non-copper layers are much more flexible.  This always seemed like an unfortunate distinction to me.

Thanks for pushing open-source EDA forward!

[Lukas]

Pad entry is as stupid as kicad or other tools, nothing special here.

Arbitrary pad shapes have been there since day 1 and are one of Horizon's core features. You can't import DXF directly into padstacks since padstacks don't support lines, so you'll have to import the DXF into a package/board, convert it to a polygon and copy/paste it into the padstack.

[jbay]

Hi Lukas,

First of all I just wanted to say a big thank you for developing this tool. It's fantastic and it's clear to me that you've put a lot of time, skill, and heart into it. I'm just learning to use it right now, so I have a chance to provide some "fresh user" feedback.

- I really like the approach you've taken with library management. It feels very modern, fast, and flexible.

- You've taken some pretty unconventional choices in your UI approach, but I think they work well.

- I appreciate the extensive documentation you've written. I think more is still needed, but you've done an excellent job with it.

- What's your long-term plan for this tool? Do you plan to keep supporting it? Do you develop it in addition to having a separate full-time job?

- Do you accept donations, and will you consider paid feature requests?



OK, that said, here are some thoughts I have about things that could be improved...

1) Grid origin offset. Let's say that I am drawing some features that need to have vertices at locations 1.05 mm, 2.05 mm, 3.05 mm... this is a pattern that frequently occurs. I won't be able to place those vertices with a grid density of 1 mm, so I have to use 0.05 mm grid density, which is actually much finer than the work that I'm trying to do. If I could have a 1 mm grid, but offset it by 0.05 mm, that would be very nice!

2) Exact numeric input for coordinates. Sometimes, even with grid assistance, it's just too frustrating to use the mouse, and I want to put something exactly at some (x,y) location. Especially if I'm reading coordinates off of a device datasheet to draw a pad for some heatsink or something. You have something very much like this for your "Move Exact" tool. The same popup could be used when you're placing a vertex (or something) in the first place, using absolute coordinates. Speaking of which,

3) Move exact absolute. The move exact tool supports relative motion, but it would be nice if I could move something to an absolute coordinate, rather than only shifting. This would let me just throw down a polygon roughly and then move each vertex into the correct position afterward; right now, I need to know exactly where the vertex started in order to move it the correct amount. Of course, I can read that off the UI at the bottom corner and do the math using your handy math-parsing feature, so this is just a nice-to-have since it would save time.

4) (+/-) zoom UI buttons or hotkeys. Sometimes I don't have a mouse or scrollwheel available.

5) Searchable Preferences window. Your brilliant space bar menu has a search box; why not the (much-more-extensive) Preferences window where such a feature is needed more? IDEs such as Eclipse have this and it's quite handy. Once you can search preferences, that also allows you (the developer) the freedom to make much more things adjustable via preferences, without worrying about cluttering the UI. Then you can have less hard-coded constants... such as...

6) Adjustable snap radius. Right now I just find the default distance at which the UI will try to "correct" my cursor by snapping to an existing object location to be much too wide, and I don't think I can configure it anywhere.

7) Speaking of which, sometimes I notice that the (x,y) readout at the bottom of the screen will read something (eg. X:000.000, Y:000.000) but then when I actually click, the vertex will end up at Y:0.005 or something. This isn't because I jiggled the mouse when clicking -- it even happens when I use touchpad entry. I think the coordinate readout doesn't always give a trustworthy picture of where something will go when I click.

I really like your layer system but I think there's a couple of minor UI bugs. For example, try clicking on the display type once to change it. It won't change right away -- not until you move the cursor away from the layer selection, when suddenly at that point it changes. This can be quite confusing.

9) A fillet tool would be awesome -- eg. press a key, then click on the corner of a polygon, and it gets replaced by a tangent arc of a certain dimension.

10) Inclusive/Exclusive group select. This is a neat feature that Solidworks has -- if you click-and-drag your mouse to create a selection box, it will behave differently if you drag the box leftward than if you drag it rightward. If I recall correctly, dragging to the left will select "inclusively" -- any object that has even a tiny corner inside your box will get selected. Dragging to the right selects "exclusively" -- an object must be fully enclosed within the selection box to be selected. This is surprisingly useful.

11) Lock layers. Right now, if I drag a selection box, I'll end up capturing things from other layers even if those layers aren't visible. It would be nice to have an extra column in the layer table UI, perhaps displaying a padlock symbol, that lets you lock layers to prevent selecting or disturbing anything on those layers.

Anyway, thanks again for all the work you've done on this. It looks like a fantastic and very powerful tool.

[jbay]

Another observation...

Right now, the pads named "SMD" (for example -- "SMD rectangular with rounded corners") actually appear to be NSMD pads (Non-Solder-Mask-Defined). SMD pads (Solder-Mask-Defined) should have the solder mask opening smaller than the copper layer; NSMD pads have the solder mask opening be larger than the copper layer. For example: https://www.nexlogic.com/2016/05/31/not-nsmd-smd-question/.

[Lukas]

> - You've taken some pretty unconventional choices in your UI approach, but I think they work well.

Well, there has to be something else than windows 95 with a different shade of grey and ribbons.

> - What's your long-term plan for this tool? Do you plan to keep supporting it? Do you develop it in addition to having a separate full-time job?

Nothing definitive, I'll do whatever's fun and makes sense.

> - Do you accept donations, and will you consider paid feature requests?

Nope

> 1) Grid origin offset. Let's say that I am drawing some features that need to have vertices at locations 1.05 mm, 2.05 mm, 3.05 mm... this is a pattern that frequently occurs. I won't be able to place those vertices with a grid density of 1 mm, so I have to use 0.05 mm grid density, which is actually much finer than the work that I'm trying to do. If I could have a 1 mm grid, but offset it by 0.05 mm, that would be very nice!

I'm glad you asked, we have that since two weeks: https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon/commit/9d96d2114c290a8dd9f6e00596b57265837f3c37

> 2) Exact numeric input for coordinates.
> 3) Move exact absolute

Pads and packages have entries for x/y position in the property editor on the right. That should do the job. Numerical input of polygon vertices similar to https://techdocs.altium.com/display/ADOH/Outline+Vertices+Editor+for+Polygonal+Pours+and+Regions definitely is something that's doable.

> 4) (+/-) zoom UI buttons or hotkeys. Sometimes I don't have a mouse or scrollwheel available.

That seems rather clunky. Touchpads and trackpoints have gotten good enough to support smooth zooming. Apart from that, Pinch-to-zoom is supported on touchscreens (and touchpads apparently). Although I don't know how well all of this works on windows.

> 5) Searchable Preferences window.

I try to keep the number of preferences to a minium, so that'd be more of an anti-feature. Aside from that, developing that is time I could better spend on other things as the preferences window is a rather low-traffic area of the application.

> 6) Adjustable snap radius.

Once i decide where to put the setting in the preferences window, that's easy to implement.

> 7) Speaking of which, sometimes I notice that the (x,y) readout at the bottom of the screen will read something (eg. X:000.000, Y:000.000) but then when I actually click, the vertex will end up at Y:0.005 or something.

Can't reproduce that. You need to provide more detail on how to reproduce it.

> -- not until you move the cursor away from the layer selection, when suddenly at that point it changes.

Seems like a GPU driver issue to. You happen to be using an intel GPU on windows?

> 9) A fillet tool would be awesome -

We have that since about two months. I'ts called 'round off vertex'.

> 10) Inclusive/Exclusive group select.

Click on the selection thing in the bottom left corner and select box, auto.

> 11) Lock layers. Right now, if I drag a selection box, I'll end up capturing things from other layers even if those layers aren't visible.

That shouldn't happen. In which situation did you encounter this? To further narrow down what can be selected, have a look at the selection filter.

> Right now, the pads named "SMD" (for example -- "SMD rectangular with rounded corners") actually appear to be NSMD pads (Non-Solder-Mask-Defined). SMD pads

In that case, SMD refers to surface mount (as opposed to through hole)

[jbay]

Hi! Sorry for the late reply!

I'm glad you asked, we have that since two weeks: https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon/commit/9d96d2114c290a8dd9f6e00596b57265837f3c37

Ooh, awesome! I'm just trying out the new version now. It's a huge improvement! The offsets and rectangular grid option makes it so much easier to do what I want! Thank you!

Numerical input of polygon vertices similar to https://techdocs.altium.com/display/ADOH/Outline+Vertices+Editor+for+Polygonal+Pours+and+Regions definitely is something that's doable.

A feature like that would be fantastic, but I was thinking something much simpler -- just a "relative / absolute" toggle in your existing Move Exact dialog box, which would go a long way. (The context of this is drawing fancy heatsink outlines and such).

Can't reproduce that. You need to provide more detail on how to reproduce it.
(...)
Seems like a GPU driver issue to. You happen to be using an intel GPU on windows?

Yes, exactly -- an Intel GPU on Windows. How did you know? Anyway the coordinate offset issue is probably just the same GPU driver issue, then. If it's a problem specific to my system then don't worry about it. If you do know a fix then I'd be happy to hear it, otherwise I'll just find some way to fix it myself or deal with it.

That shouldn't happen. In which situation did you encounter this?

You might be right -- I might just be misinterpreting what's going on. In the package editor, if I place a bunch of pads and then 'invisible' the copper / mask / solder layers, and go to the silkscreen layer, then do a drag select, I'll select a bunch of (invisible) pads. If I click delete, the pads will disappear. Perhaps that's because the pads have silkscreen layers, even though they're empty? At any rate it's a bit surprising that such a selection on the silkscreen layer picks up the pads, even though they don't have any visible silkscreens.

In that case, SMD refers to surface mount (as opposed to through hole)

That makes sense, but it's an important acronym for padstacks too. If I want to name a solder-mask-defined rectangular pad I end up having to call it "SMD SMD rectangular pad" or something, as opposed to the existing "SMD rectangular pad" which is actually an NSMD pad design. Would it be possible to instead use the SMT acronym (Surface Mount Technology) to contrast with through-hole, instead of SMD (Surface Mount Device)?

By the way, the more I use Horizon EDA the more I love it. I never found KiCAD any fun, but I'm actually having fun using Horizon. And the way that combining and configuring padstacks, packages, elements, and parts -- it makes so much sense. I still don't have the hang of parameter programs yet, but I'm sure I'll get there. Thank you for making this.

[Lukas]

A feature like that would be fantastic, but I was thinking something much simpler -- just a "relative / absolute" toggle in your existing Move Exact dialog box, which would go a long way. (The context of this is drawing fancy heatsink outlines and such).

It just came to my mind that there's already something that may fit your use case: Select a polygon vertex and press enter. This will invoke the "enter datum" tool that can be used to numerically set the position of polygon vertices, among other things. Since you're talking about fancy outlines, the dimensions also support numerically setting their length (select the point you want to move and press enter). The dxf import combined with the line loop to polygon to might also do the job. For complex outlines for parts with a STEP model available, I usually do a 2D projection of the 3D model in freecad, import the DXF and use it as a reference to retrace a simplified outline.

Yes, exactly -- an Intel GPU on Windows. How did you know?

There has been another bug similar to this where a redraw didn't happen when it should have: https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon/commit/db61b4542b8f8abc51e29b50c0a9dac80f0b7e3d

At any rate it's a bit surprising that such a selection on the silkscreen layer picks up the pads, even though they don't have any visible silkscreens.

I see. The thing is, from the application's point of view, pads aren't on any particular layer as they can span multiple layers. That's why they're always selectable. To prevent them from being selected, you can enable the work layer only mode in the selection filter or exclude pads specifically.

Would it be possible to instead use the SMT acronym (Surface Mount Technology) to contrast with through-hole, instead of SMD (Surface Mount Device)?

Definitely something to consider.

[Bob Sava]

I like Horizon EDA a lot.  While rough around the edges (in places) it's actually quite complete.  One issue I have with the software is new nomenclature and use of words that have different or multiple meanings outside of this EDA.  If you fall into this category, it helped me to rename part creation tabs to highlight their hierarchy and function.  Here's what works for me:



Also, I think it's a bit confusing at first, that Units tab preview is in a format of Symbol.  I think it should be just a table.

[Lukas]

First-time users will now see the info bar with a link to the docs to make things more clear (see attachment)

Also, I think it's a bit confusing at first, that Units tab preview is in a format of Symbol.  I think it should be just a table.

The table is available in the info page. Symbols are shown by default as they're quicker to parse visually.

[tooki]

Any updates on getting it to run on macOS?

[Lukas]

Any updates on getting it to run on macOS?

Unfortunately no. If anything will happen it'll most likely be captured there https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon/issues/271#

Long story short: I don't have a mac os machine at hand and don't have any personal interest in getting it to run on mac os.

For everyone else: There's a new release, version 1.2: https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon/releases/tag/v1.2.0

[Bob Sava]

Congratulations on v1.2 release.  I like addition of colored nets and traces in this release.  As far as I know only (of free software) EasyEDA has something similar and KiCad may have it in v6.

[gord]

Hello Lukas,
I have begun using your software and I too would like to congratulate you on the effort you have placed in it, it is superb software.
Here is some feedback. I have listed priorities, just to show my personal subjective ranking of the requests, for what it is worth (could be worthless). Please consider this all as just some ideas for ruling in or out, none are showstoppers. Most of these items are low priority ranked:
1. Is there a way to route tracks at any angle, instead of 45 deg? If any angle is not possible, then 22.5 deg or 12.5 deg step modes could be useful and meet most requirements where 45 degree is not sufficient. If I had a choice this would be a high priority for me. Eventually curved tracks may also be good but this may be a major feature?
2. A button to override the rules during routing could be useful, because sometimes it is helpful to lay down tracks for layer refinement. This is useful when quickly testing to see if traces and positioning may be fine. For me this is a medium priority.
3. Unfortunately I also agree zoom buttons could be useful. I have pinch-to-zoom and mouse zoom capability, but when working it can be easier and quicker to key-press (say PageUp and PageDown). With mouse or pinch-to-zoom it takes longer to trim if the scroll is overshot accidentally, and it is a very frequent action so it adds up. I think this is low priority though.
4. Route track mode enabled by context. When the pointer is positioned on a pad, clicking the mouse does nothing if track mode is not enabled. I think it is better if Horizon automatically switches to track mode (x) if the user does this, because the intent would be to lay a track if the user was on a pad. If this is easy to implement then it could be a medium priority ranking.
5. Escape is too aggressive. Pressing Escape makes the selected tool or mode to be disabled. When drawing a line for instance, pressing Escape both terminates the line and disables the line mode. Would it make more sense to just terminate the line on Escape (like with right mouse click), and second Escape click would terminate the line mode? It is easy to get into the habit to quickly double or triple-press ESC to fully exit out of a mode. This is a low priority.
6. For schematics, a switch in the rules or elsewhere so that the red label absent warnings are not visible or present. I think it is common to name nets and not require all the labels to be visible on the schematic.
7. Lines to default to the current trace width instead of 0mm, if they are drawn on a copper layer. This is because any line drawn on a copper layer is deliberately intended to be in the gerber for the copper layer, so the user intent will be to have it thicker than the default 0mm. The current behaviour means that each time the line mode is exited and re-entered, it again defaults to 0mm. Again low priority.
9. A low priority request to add your release version number on the Horizon EDA window, if it is quick to do.
Thank you for reading this and your tremendous effort again.
10. How are new parts created? The user instructions refer to a parts wizard, but don't mention how to invoke it. I cannot see from the Horizon EDA window, nor the part viewer or pool cache button, how to invoke part creation. The spacebar menu may also be a possible option to request the part creation window, but I couldn't see it.
11. How are via sizes modified? I can see the rule setting, but clicking on a via does not allow overriding (for instance a larger via).
12. When no item is selected, the cursor keys should allow for pan operation of the display, because it is quicker after zooming, to just pan around the board rather than repeated zoom out/zoom in operations. Currently the cursor keys have no effect if nothing is selected in board or schematic view. This is low priority too, but some of the low priority things can have a great usability or productivity impact.

[Lukas]

1. Is there a way to route tracks at any angle, instead of 45 deg? If any angle is not possible, then 22.5 deg or 12.5 deg step modes could be useful and meet most requirements where 45 degree is not sufficient. If I had a choice this would be a high priority for me. Eventually curved tracks may also be good but this may be a major feature?

2. A button to override the rules during routing could be useful, because sometimes it is helpful to lay down tracks for layer refinement. This is useful when quickly testing to see if traces and positioning may be fine. For me this is a medium priority.

There's the draw track tool, but it's fairly basic. IIRC the kicad router used in Horizon EDA supports routing arbitrary angles without DRC and disabling DRC, so it's just a matter of adding the glue logic.

3. Unfortunately I also agree zoom buttons could be useful.

Ok, adding shortcuts doesn't hurt that much. Should they zoom in/out relative to the screen center or where the cursor is?

Route track mode enabled by context.

Dragging away from a pad starts the router.

5. Escape is too aggressive.

Dunno, probably boils down to personal preference.

it is common to name nets and not require all the labels to be visible on the schematic.

As this can lead to unintended connectivity and I got bitten by exactly this in another schematic entry tool, that's not going to happen.

again defaults to 0mm. Again low priority.

That's not supposed to happen. The draw line tool remembers the last-used line width (press w to set).

How are new parts created?

Open the pool manger from the start window.

11. How are via sizes modified? I can see the rule setting, but clicking on a via does not allow overriding (for instance a larger via).

Uncheck "from rules" and you can edit the parameters for just the selected via.

if nothing is selected in board or schematic view

This doesn't mesh well with hover select.

just pan around the board rather than repeated zoom out/zoom in operations

Use the middle mouse button or shift-left click to pan.

[gord]

Hi Lukas,

Thanks for the response.
The Route Track feature is good, I have added a 'd t' shortcut for that. It will work for now until curves or other features can be supported. Right-clicking fully exits the feature, I think it should only terminate the current Route Track and re-allow it to begin again with a left click? Currently I have to type 'd t' again (not a big issue).
For your zoom question, I think the buttons should zoom relative to where the cursor is.
For the width defaulting to zero, I understand now how it works, and it applies to the other tools too, such as the text tool:
If the 'w' key is pressed then it allows changing the width and then when the line tool is used later, it retains the setting.
However, if an existing line is selected, and then the width is changed in the properties, then that setting is not used when the line tool is used next. That's unfortunate, because the big benefit in changing the width (or text size or any other parameter) using the right-side properties pane, is that the change is instantly visible, so it can be trimmed to the desired value. That's not possible when the tool is selected and the width key is pressed, because the change doesn't take effect until the OK button is pressed. If the change doesn't look correct then the width key needs pressing again, another width needs guessing, and then the OK button has to be pressed to see the effect. This is a minor usability issue.
Regarding the Pool Manager, thank you, I've found it now. I had not realized it was not visible until the board and schematic are closed and then top-left click to go back out of project view (so that the window title is "Horizon EDA"), and then click on the pool name under Recent pools. I will try it out and leave feedback.

I quickly tried the symbol editor and had this question: What is the box shown (I marked it with a blue line) for, it moves into this position when I add pins, and how do I move it out of the way, because it is intersecting with the symbol outline. I couldn't find a menu item (in the spacebar menu) that seemed relevant to it. Closing and reopening the symbol didn't change it, and clicking on the line doesn't select it either.

[Lukas]

I had not realized it was not visible until the board and schematic are closed and then top-left click to go back out of project view (so that the window title is "Horizon EDA"), and then click on the pool name under Recent pools. I will try it out and leave feedback.

You can as well either launch it a second time or click on "new window" in the hamburger menu on the top right.