New PCB design tool project

[JamesDean]

Hey yall,

I'm an ECE student, and I've been building a tool called ProtoFlow for the past several months. It's been through a lot of versions, and I want honest feedback on where it's at now (I’ve posted on EEVBlog before, and y’all gave me a lot of feedback).

What it is: a standalone, AI-native PCB tool with a modern UI (not a KiCad plugin). You can use it entirely by itself to take a design from idea to a board, or transfer a project to and from KiCad and Altium and do the deeper layout there if you'd rather. It's built to fit your existing flow, not fight it.

Yes, there's an AI part, and I know how this room feels about LLMs and hardware. I feel the similarly so it's kept on a tight leash (datasheet lookups, symbol generation from datasheets, BOM cleanup, and a second-pass ERC check). The validation is deterministic, not the model guessing, and everything works with the AI off.

It's free, and I'd rather have criticism than praise. If something's broken, tell me where. Link's below. Thanks!

link removed!

[jwet]

My main comment is why make this a standalone?  Make it as an add-on or  series of add ons for KiCad.  These can be moneitized if that's your concern.  The last thing that I want is yet another big application with a new philosophy of how PCB layout should be done.  Stand on the shouiders of giants don't try to start at the ground.

I downloaded your app and will give it whirl.  I'm working on a CAD model and I don't want my computer to crash right now.  I'll give you more specific feedback.

Think about enhancing KiCad as an alternative.

[lichurbagan]

Thank you. It will be helpful for many of us who cannot afford paid solutions for PCBs.

[free_electron]

Can this run in a browser ? I Do not want to install random programs on my computers anymore.
I'm ditching almost anything that cannot run in a browser, unless it comes from a big company (Altium, Cadence, Dassault systems, Adobe, Altera, TI, ST are all fine) or is open-source (Inkscape for example).
The security risk are just too high.

Bonuspoints for browser based : it is operating system agnostic. Doesn't matter if you run on windows, mac, linux or even a tablet. Make it chromium compatible. Prime examples : OnShape.

Oh, and very important : LOCAL STORAGE or Github integration ! i do not want to host my stuff in some random cloud. GitHub is fine (even though cloud based), just not some random cloud bucket that will disappear if the app vendor disappears.

[free_electron]

one more very important thing : it needs to be able to use MY libraries. not some random stuff found in the internet. If it needs a 10k resistor it should check first in my local library if there is one and use that one.
This is a point where ALL the current "AI" tools fail. They create random parts over and over. The headache starts when trying to manufacture the board. you spend days adding the correct footprints, linking up part numbers and producing a working BOM.
I have a curated library with components that has all relevant data already in it including 3d models, footprints, spice models a manufacturer part numbers and order codes for digikey, mouser, lcsc , tme and others.

The tool should first look what is available in my library and instantiate my symbols and footprints.

Anything new it should add to temporary library and let me first manipulate the symbols ( the symbols generated by AI tools are generally utter crap ) and link up the relevant data.

i am tired of spending days doing "busywork" trying to produce a working BOM. a curated library is key .

[pilou22]

Hi all, just to warn everyone about this ProtoFlow software. User Trey33 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/profile/?u=1095635) has done almost exactly the same post on it on April 11th, 2026:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chatgptai/i-automated-the-entire-part-importing-process-for-pcb-design/msg6236087/#msg6236087

Users have expressed strong security concerns, with the download process explicitly asking to ignore warnings and "accept risks anyways". Some also believe that ProtoFlow has stolen https://github.com/uPesy/easyeda2kicad.py without attribution, and borrowed https://ngspice.sourceforge.io/. User Trey33 has never addressed these questions and is silent since.

Please be mindful before downloading this software.

[Simon]

Banned both of this assholes accounts. Hopefully he has worked out that we won't take this shit here!

[jpyeron]

Banned both of this assholes accounts. Hopefully he has worked out that we won't take this shit here!

... almost exactly the same post on it on April 11th, 2026:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chatgptai/i-automated-the-entire-part-importing-process-for-pcb-design/msg6236087/#msg6236087
...

I see the post is deleted, was there anything amusing in it or was it very identical to this?

Spam aside - was curious if there was 0.001% merit in ideas... Here I saw 0% or less

[Simon]

No idea, the world is awash with claims of AI crap. Seems like you can't do a damn thing now without AI, no idea how we evolved this far.

[jpyeron]

No idea, the world is awash with claims of AI crap. Seems like you can't do a damn thing now without AI, no idea how we evolved this far.

yep, my wife is watching dancing AI kittens while I read this...

[zapta]

No idea, the world is awash with claims of AI crap. Seems like you can't do a damn thing now without AI, no idea how we evolved this far.

AI is for real and will not go away.