GRgruntwork·Apr 27, 2024
The contributions appear to be to Horizon EDA: https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon.
In What contributing to Open-source is, and what it isn'thorizon-eda
horizon
C2018–2024
horizon-eda / horizon
horizon
Horizon is a free EDA package
11Distinct people
15Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
1.3KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Horizon is a free EDA package
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
Kind of amazing that they're finally working on usability. I did some free usability testing for them years ago and they buried their heads in the sand. Basically "it's fine,…
IshKebab used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year15 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2018-10-26 08:41:42 UTC to 2024-04-27 09:35:50 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
15 sourcesHorizon Schematics and PCB layout package in modern C++
2 points · Open discussionKind of amazing that they're finally working on usability. I did some free usability testing for them years ago and they buried their heads in the sand. Basically "it's fine, how dare you say that it's not intuitive". Very frustrating. I actually got a few private emails from people saying they agreed with me and found it frustrating too but didn't want to speak up on the mailing list.
Anyway fortunately I found that someone else has made an alternative PCB designer using the Kicad core engine (which is good) but with a sane UI. Well mostly sane. There are a few rough edges but it's waaaaaay easier to use than Kicad.
I recommend trying it: https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon
I still haven't tried LibrePCB but Horizon is better than the other free options: Eagle (awful), GEDA (bad), Kicad (powerful but badly designed) and DesignSparkPCB
Read the rest
(surprisingly decent).
I'm not sure if/how this is improved in KiCad 6 but from the KiCad 5 tutorials I've seen, "manually match symbols to footprints" was its approach to library management :/
I'm learning PCB design with https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon instead — and here library (pool) management comes first. You actually place full "parts" (that associate symbols and footprints and other metadata) onto schematics — and if you don't want to decide on a particular model number, you can still place a "base" part (e.g. "generic 5k resistor") and change it later. Oh, and the schematic editor actually edits nets, rather than what KiCad does (seemingly just a basic CAD drawing that gets analyzed into a netlist as a very separate explicit step).
In Why Wolfram tech isn’t open source (2019)I haven't used Altium but I have use Kicad and the experience was pretty bad. It's very unusuable software. I don't think Altium has anything to worry about at all from Kicad.
However, I did recently discover Horizon EDA, which uses the Kicad core, but is way way way way saner and easier to use. Give it a decade and it might be worthy competition. Though surely Altium is only really targeted at FTSE500 companies who need really advanced features and can easily afford $10k licenses. I don't see them using open source alternatives.
Anyway, I just want to big up Horizon a bit more because it's so so so much better than Kicad:
https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon
In Software maker Altium rejects $3.9B takeover bid from AutodeskDoes anyone have any experience with Horizon EDA? https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon
Two days ago version 2.0 of Horizon EDA was released. I haven't tried it yet, but I've watched some Youtube/twitch Videos about it and I've to admit I am really impressed. It has some really nice convenience features - and the way it handles libraries is much nicer than the way Kicad does.
The only thing that's holding me back is, that it's basically a one man show. Although the project already exists for several years there's always the fear that the author at some point abandons the project. I really wish there would be some sort of semi automated conversion tool which allows me to convert Kicad projects to Horizon EDA.
In Real-time Netlisting in KiCad [video]Horizon is developing a good reputation. I haven't tried it yet (I'm a daily Altium user) but keep meaning to give it a whirl.
https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon
In From Idea to Printed Circuit Board in One Week> 1. Does Horizon support an equivalent to the 'Variant Manager?'
No, but there's been some discussion on it: https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon/pull/347#issuecomment...
> 2. In the docs it seems to mention submitting parts to the default pool. If people submit parts to the pool are there style guides somewhere?
There's https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon-pool-convention, but that's still work in progress.
> 3. Is there a way to set paste mask expansion like is done in Altium?
Yes, you can set it globally in the board.
In Horizon – a free and open source electronic PCB design packageAs a longtime horizon user (at least relative to the time this project exists), some of the points you mentioned are definitly on the radar:
- Navigation Buttons: I proposed a solution here: https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon/issues/119#issuecomme... This is part of the effort to add icons and toolbars to things that right now are reachable behind the spacebar menu
- Many TH (as well as audio/synthesizer-related) parts can be found in the work branch of my fork of the offical pool: https://github.com/atoav/horizon-pool/tree/work The offical library/pool only includes parts that have been checked by four eyes, so many parts are still open as Pull requests: https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon-pool/pulls
As for the other points:
- on 1: Starting projects: for me it is only entering a project title and selecting a path, which is reaso
Read the rest
nable unless you are the type who wants to decide things like these in the end on saving.
- on 2: While I also like single window concepts better (with panes like Blender), I think having schematic, board and pool/library editors in seperate windows is kinda reasonable.
- on 4: You actually can. You are not forced to use existing parts if you use "Place component"
- on 6: Given how the whole thing works, such a thing like "Part properties" doesn't really make sense. In Horizon everything you place on the schematic is either a generic unit (E.g. "Two-terminal resistor") where you can enter a value or a existing part mapped to this generic unit (e.g. a "ERJ-6ENF2003"). This is (on purpose) different from how other EDA-tools do it, but in practise it works quite well. The point on the different assign window is something I'd like to have changed as well : )
- on 8: if you want to move something you have to use the move tool which you invoke by pressing the m key. You can also move things with the arrow keys.
Generally the UX paradigm of horizon is very much built around single key shortcuts or key sequences. And if you don't know the keys just press the spacebar and search for the command and it will tell you right there.
As for now the experience for power users is very fluid, but when it comes to installation, onboarding etc. the whole thing could use a lot of improvement (and are gladly beeing worked on).
It can be built on mac OS and starts but isn't really usable due to OpenGL issues: https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon/pull/290#issuecomment...
In Horizon – a free and open source electronic PCB design packageSee also: HorizonEDA [1], which I've used for a handful of projects and are really happy with - mostly due to how much its library/parts UX is better than anything I've every used before.
[1] - https://github.com/horizon-eda/horizon
In LibrePCB 0.1.3 released, now with DRCFascinating! As somebody who uses that kind of software, old timer electrical engineers seem to be very very unforgiving to UI problems and even more unforgiving to any change for better or worse. I learned that while volunteering for UI/UX at horizon-EDA which aims to become a more usable kiCAD¹
I have never seen worse UX/UI than in electrical engineering tools and I worked a lot with 3D software. They are completely inconsistent with other software, often even with themselves. It often resembles the heating room of a 500 year old building were everybody added things but nobody deared to clean up the things that were already there.
My suffering as a user of such tools motivated me to change things for the better. I never got the idea behind resisting change in UI/UX. It seems to be rooted in the believe that change in UX always means cha
Read the rest
nge for the worse and never for good. Which is weird, because even someone like a carpenter is very much interested in the usability of their own tools.
Maybe the problem is that each change in the software means they have to adapt and this demands a certain adaptability, or a will to stay on top in a changing world. It certainly costs energy to do that.
---
¹: Check it out here: https://github.com/carrotIndustries/horizon or watch the FOSDEM19 talk:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13xmFwgikh8
It is quite usable already, but there is no 1.0 release yet so useful things like installers and documentation are still lacking.
> and I have heard other newer projects exist???
Yeah, know of librepcb [1] and horizon [2]. Both try to solve kicad's library problems. Librepcb files are designed with version control in mind, which I like. Horizon used parts of kicad (like autorouter) and is more feature rich.
I probably would have switched to kicad by now, but these new projects seem nice, too, and I decided to wait and see where the community settles. Hence, in my case, variety in open source hurts adoption.
[1] https://librepcb.org/
[2] https://github.com/carrotIndustries/horizon
In KiCad 5.1.0It is very cool to see that lately there are some conceptually different counterparts to KiCad out there.
I stumbled uppon LibrePCB at least a year ago, I can't wait to test it. Currently I am totally hooked on Horizon EDA (see: https://github.com/carrotIndustries/horizon/wiki/Feature-ove...) which has a especially cool library managment IMO. I am curious how LibrePCB changed over that period
In LibrePCB: First release candidate