This document gives an overview of the many features of PCB Tracer. It is much more than a drawing program and is very data-rich. The software creates, reads and writes a number of different files. These include netlists, schematics, pdf datasheets, project files, project history, BOM, and PCB photos. https://pcbtracer.com/PCB_Tracer.html

That's odd. File Sytem API seems mostly available in Firefox since 111.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File_System...

Remember when some sites called IE a modern browser?

During a session, PCB Tracer reads and writes over a dozen different file types — including images, schematics, datasheets, netlists, and revision history. It also has an AutoSave feature to prevent losing your work. Every file is saved to your project directory during a session. Doing all of this without constant requests for use permission requires the File System Access API, which is not yet available in all browsers. The Firefox developers has explicitly stated that this API will not be supported.

Honestly that's exactly what it would look like if someone posted malware to a show HN. I'm not claiming that's what this is, just that it's _exactly_ what it would look like so you'd have to be braindead to go that route.

"Gerbers" are indeed several individual files -- there's one for each layer of the PCB, such as front copper, front solder mask, front silkscreen, back copper, back solder mask, etc, etc.

A zip library is precisely how other webapps that load or output Gerbers handle it.

(I am not the app author, just a sympathizer)

I didn’t realize spite for users was a good reason for me to not bother with Firefox support in my web apps, thank you for enlightening me

Same.

Bugs me so much that my mid-sized US city posts official documentation (only) as google drive hyperlinks. I should not have to allow google products onto my networks just to get my recycling schedule, court documents, &c.

So instead, I go into city hall and ask them to print it out for me (they know who I am at this point).

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My bank is literally right across the street from me; when their 2-factor garbage started preventing me from checking balances, online, I just started walking into their lobby every time I need my balance.

There was another Show HN recently (today?) that explained this. The JS feature to access local file system is currently not available in FF.

https://caniuse.com/native-filesystem-api

Firefox allows saving and loading files from the local file system. This site just uses some method to do it that's only supported by Chrome/Edge. So it's a unnecessarily user-hostile design choice they made.

It's just super weird to get downvoted multiple times for saying that I'm excited about something. I guess we won't call that hostility.

The funny thing is that for all of the people complaining about granting filesystem access, it actually won't allow you to select sensitive paths; no system folders, no drive roots.

I don't regret getting downvoted to talk about how excited I am for PCB Tracer one bit. It's awesome - I've spent the past day pretty much doing nothing but tracing a fairly complex (for me) board.

I do have some feedback, and I've found some bugs. I gave up on your photo manipulation tools and just did manual keystone perspective tweaks in my photo editor. I would happily use your app to do it if it worked, but the keystone thing was super broken for me; the sanest way to make this work would be to have the user drop 4 points on each side and just do it; all of the fussy nudge/scale stuff is really just a half step towards point-based keystones.

Early on I had some pretty serious bugs that emerged when I was jumping between magnification levels. At one point all of my objects were unceremoniously moved off where I'd placed them to whitespace outside of the photo. That sucked. Now I save frequently and only change magnification when I'm in select mode.

I also find that the "fit canvas to window area" is a bit broken when moving between full and partial sized browser windows in Brave on Windows.

However, the biggest bug or behaviour I can't quite figure out is that when I switch to the back view it doesn't seem to reverse the position of the dots and objects placed. I am probably doing it wrong, but still: my strongest feedback currently is that switching sides is awkward at best and slightly broken at worst.

All of that said... I love it! I am thrilled with it. You've made something totally amazing in a short time.