In this version, harnesses now have useful labels and only carry a single interface for simplicity. The Harness Inspector has been overhauled with a much better flow for connecting the parts on your board. Finally, a project planning view has been added to the left sidebar.

New Features:

• Simplified Harnesses: In previous versions of the app, each line could represent essentially everything about a connection between 2 devices (power, data, mounting, anything)! We have simplified these lines, called “harnesses” to be limited to a single purpose. This purpose can still contain multiple wires (think power being positive and negative) but all the wires are contributing to the same “interface” between parts.

  

• Labeled Harness: Now that harnesses contain only one function, they also have been given a visual update. There is a simple text label on each line in the diagram, greatly enhancing the readability of your diagrams.

• Individual Function Pairing: As stated above, harnesses can carry multiple functioned wires that contribute to the same interface. There is now a visual update which allows you to choose which wires/functions within that harness can be linked together.

  

• Board Plan Tab: We are focusing Protoboard’s features toward a multi-step process that takes your idea from plan to design to ordered prototype. The left menu is being developed to support this experience, starting with the Plan tab. Here, you can name, describe, and add requirements that need to be fulfilled for your project to work. In the future, you can work with team members our AI assistant (in development) to create a solid plan and verify that your project meets your design goals.

  

• UI Improvements: We completed some general UI improvements, including light mode and menu visual changes.

Future Features in Development:

• Bill of Materials: As a part of the prototyping workflow, we want to offer you the ability to export your parts list with calculated prices and links for purchase.

• Image Export: A simple tool for creating a screenshot of your diagram to use in other programs or share with others.

• Harness Visual Improvements: We are working on an even more robust visualization of connections between parts, including visualizing every wire but still retaining the “single connection” experience.

• Custom Part Geometry: Instead of simply having the option of rectangles for every part, we are working on a way for custom SVG shapes to be used for parts. These will be definable in part definitions and changeable in the app.

• App UI Overhaul: Our app visuals and theme are getting an upgrade. Kevin’s been cooking up some new UI, and we are working on getting that implemented for v3.

• DRC: We’re improving Protoboard’s ability to show you where and why your parts are incompatible, and recommendations on how to improve your design. We are building a “Design Rule Checker” and overhauling the ProtoPart definition system, with the hope of rebuilding it based on Atopile, a hardware description language.