[Timot05]

Yeah that’s an interesting aspect. We did implement a viewer very early on. And we then removed it from the project.

What we discovered is that:

- making a visual viewer is a non trivial endeavor. It takes a lot of time but the value add is marginal for an average viewer. - people tend to spend a lot of time making the viewer look good instead of improving the circuit

We think that in the long run, a viewer could be awesome to inspect what is going on or get a general understanding of the circuit. But it’ll be difficult to justify the time spent on it early on in the project.

[napowderly]

Worth adding, we have found much higher returns building tools to solve the problems that a visualizer would normally help you with in other ways. For example ERC checking and modular abstraction of circuits. Working at a 'block diagram' level is much more intuitive than at the net level in my experience.

We also think that there might be better and more interesting ways to view your data, for example maybe you want to just see all the power paths through your circuit, or investigate how a signal travels from your input to your adc through filters, protection etc. Often on big designs these things might be strewn across multiple sheets and a bit hard to follow.

[malfist]

As a novice, a viewer would be really helpful to me to understand what it's actually doing. I did bookmark this for the next project I have in mind.

[napowderly]

I am definitely curious for feedback from people after using it for a while. I felt the same in the beginning, but after writing a fair bit of it, I rarely find myself wanting it. I could imagine for more casual or new users it could be helpful at least for the transition.