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this resonates. i will share that i'm trying out and having luck with flux.ai. it's not perfect, but for a small hobby project and someone with little experience and not getting far quickly in kicad, it works. i have a pcb in-hand from jlcpcb right now and it works. it also introduces some of the shared features discussed above. (i don't work for them, just looking for something that would let me do a fairly fast PoC)

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Oh now this one is interesting, I've given it a short try and the UX is just on another level compared to the usual, I might actually be able to get something done with it. This is what EasyEDA should've been, not the terrible KiCad web clone that it is.

For us hobbyists there's no point in investing years learning something proper like Altium because we won't ever be shipping to production or doing stupidly complex multilayer boards. We need the Tinkercad for PCBs, not Fusion360. Something that can be crude and oversimplified, but quick to use and also simple enough that even middle schoolers can learn it.

i've even figured out how to create a component that didn't exist in their library - a lot of the manufacturers/related appear to provide the symbol, footprint and 3d files to recreate it on flux. this is one for example - https://www.flux.ai/centplaids0u/oki-78sr-51p5-w36-c-1480 - a 12v to 5v voltage regulator. got files from here: https://www.snapeda.com/parts/OKI-78SR-5/1.5-W36-C/Murata%20.... Got it built into the board and it works! holy heck.

hope it works for you!

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