Definitely, we are leaning towards gerber support with gerber generator, sharing and viewing in web.
With regards to HLS like language, our next step over the year will be creating a universal and open format parser to translate designs back and forth between multiple formats and eventually getting it editable using a language, modular visual editor or a complete circuit editor in the cloud.
Have looked into SkiDL definitely a great tool, will explore more and would love to hear your thoughts more on this as to how we should approach this further.
Thank you for trying out and sharing your feedback. Your kind words and appreciation means a lot.
a) This makes sense, definitely a hover/show file name button should be there to facilitate with the complete name. I have added this to our improvement list and we will soon be rolling out an update on this.
b) We primarily targeted the parsing of ECAD formats, and their repacking. We have gerbers support planned for next quarter so you will soon be seeing a gerber generator (from source files) and a gerber viewer within inventhub.
c) This is a great idea, will definitely prioritize this as it could help someone understand platform with a fully populated project.
Thanks for looking into it and sharing your notes. I am glad you see the value and understand its need.
Definitely, the recurring revenue is the starting point, we are in process of integrating with supply chain (basic integration is already rolled out — the minimum you suggested)
We are working towards the maximum with a two way model giving pcb manufacturers to create a tool for estimation and order creation, while giving users a one click interface to get estimates and order parts/boards.
It will be for both public facing projects and private projects, to purchase the boards + parts.
Thank you! we love your product too and have been following along. We definitely are building rule checker with our feature custom rule checking and DRC checker on two levels.
The first level is to be implemented on every design update upload, to check DRC, ERC and custom rules defined by the company in the form of a script.
Second is to have a runtime checker like CI to run rule checks on production/pre-production builds (including DRC, ERC and again custom rules/industry standard compliances etc.)
We are moving forward with the goal of having an open parser, a universalized parsing language for all formats to be generalized in and build utilities on top. Thinking beyond just ECAD leading into, EDA and eventually MCAD.
We envision Inventhub to eventually become a design data dashboard, letting you pull say simulation data, production QA data, gaining more insights beyond just visualization with cross-platform integration and open API for more utilities.
Definitely, Altium is a very capable tool for electronics design. I totally agree the features like commenting, BOMs, component library is in Altium 365.
With regards to differentiator, first being we support same tools and utilities for all formats (Eagle, Altium, KiCAD, PADS, OrCAD and Allegro). The Altium 365 is tied to just their ecosystem is specific to just managing single file PCB projects. Whereas, with inventhub you have flexibility to manage data however you want, it let you go beyond storing designs or components or visualizing in the web (e.g. adding specs documentation, instruction manuals in the project, or attaching more data to components like your internal stock for reference)
- Inventhub let you have consistency in the process of development and gives you a single space to manage all kind of data.
- Secondly, its all in the cloud, today it gives you single source to maintain data (for all ECADS). With inter-portability between formats we take reusability of trusted designs and assets a step ahead.
- With our version control the collaboration is effective and it coupled with the the utilizes let's you focus on just the design and development vs. figuring out how to configure.
Do let me know if this answers your question and give you the understanding of differentiating factor. I would be happy to jump on a call to walk you through the platform with use-case as well.
Hi, Thank you for reviewing and giving such valuable feedback. I am glad you feel this way about the space.
With regards to IP, we definitely ran into this concern couple of times. To address this we are in the process of getting SOC 2 Security Audit and post its report on the platform. Definitely agree on the identity part, will definitely have it up soon. We have the on-premise version in our roadmap for Q2 this year.
This is an interesting insight about iterative fabrication. We are thinking along these lines, for manufacturer space e.g. generating and translating the BOM and design files fabricator anticipated formats within Inventhub from source files.
- Adding manufacturers directly into the partner space for placing order could be an added revenue source. We can probably come up with a utility that facilities manufacturers with their work and have them connect with our user-base. (Like cost estimation utility from source files etc). Agreed on the part of generating revenue from connecting customers and manufacturers within the platform.
- We did build a basic supply chain integration in the BOM to help user find parts from multiple component dealers, compare prices and choose the best one. Will definitely look into the rare stock supply.
- I agree, we did consider building an add-on to github or gitlab, but overtime we have ran into some engineering problems that made us realize it has to be done ground up. Also, the future vision we have does make more sense for us to host data on our platform. We did engineer the architecture in a way to port the utilizes to any git under-base to keep this acquisition door open. This is not a priority though with where we see ourselves headed though.
Thank you so much again for sharing your feedback.It is indeed really helpful.
I am Usama, Founder & CEO of inventhub.io, a platform for securely managing and collaborating on electronics design data, is excited to announce a set of tools which provide an improved way for hardware companies to manage their PCB design projects and allow early collaboration on the data of those projects.
Its been a year since I have posted an early version of Inventhub here on HackerNews (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22476514) with just a visual version control and couple of ideas. Over the year, we were able to work with hardware developers and electronics product teams to get feedback, improve product and add new features.
We just recently launched a completely revamped product with a new website. Inventhub started as a git based version control with utilities to visualize ecad design and changes (diffs) in the web.
In our new release we introduced a complete electronics product design data management and collaboration to enable true collaboration on PCB design projects. Tools and their benefits include:
* Visualization and Discussions on PCB Documents: The design view of a pcb document on the platform helps in bringing a shared understanding where everyone has access to view, discuss and understand the document and its data. Inventhub supports visualization on formats such as Altium Designer, EagleCad, KiCad (more coming soon)
* Git based version control and tools: Having one database is a single source of truth which allows everyone to work from the same single database that is updated with every change from everyone who has access to it. All data is accessible in a centralized and secure cloud space. The information is visible to everyone instantly with its history.
* Access controls and sharing engineering data: Inventhub wants to help make it easy for the reusability of documents with multiple stakeholders. Organization access controls on the platform enable team based collaboration and sharing the latest version of the document and having access controls on top of it helps in early communication.
* Release management and Manufacturer Space: Easily Create, Manage and share a release by marking a point in history of a version controlled project. A manufacturer space is provided in addition for accessibility of project and design data. This helps to communicate production details easily to external stakeholders.
* Bill of Materials: Smart BOM brings a design-to-cost development approach. Create, edit and keep your bill of materials updated with every change in your project. With smart supply chain integration, find prices, generate cost estimates, get parts availability all in one place. This synchronized integration lets your team use the right parts and enable your procurement team to have up-to-date information at every stage.
* Components Library Manager: Inventhub wants to make it easy to manage components libraries and their life-cycle in centralized cloud storage. This gives teams and organizations easy access to trusted reusable assets and adding supply chain integration on top gives designers and procurement teams to see real-time/up-to-date component life-cycle data, pricing and availability.
I would really appreciate if you guys can look at the new website along with new product features and provide us with your feedback. We are keen to hear what do you guys think about the product now?
Also, we will definitely commit to what I said we believe as company in our terms of service. As I have said we are in process to update them with more clarity.
Thanks Animats. Being part of the industry I understand the importance of these policies and how much it can hurt a developer. We are working hard to improve the terms and bring more clarity in them. I would love to chat with you to get your suggestions/feedback.
Currently we are closely following GitHub's terms(adapted under CC license).
"We need the legal right to do things like host Your Content, publish it, and share it. You grant us and our legal successors the right to store, parse, and display Your Content, and make incidental copies as necessary to render the Website and provide the Service. This includes the right to do things like copy it to our database and make backups; show it to you and other users; parse it into a search index or otherwise analyze it on our servers; share it with other users; and perform it, in case Your Content is something like music or video."[0]
Thank you for highlighting this. We are working to improve the language of the terms to make sure we help protect the the designs/trade secrets.
Just to put it out as a company this is how we see the obligation to protect trade secrets.
For public projects: We are giving user leverage to share at their own discretion along with a license made by them, industry standards or the new licenses we are coming up with.
For private projects: No designs will be listed publicly, shared with anyone, they exist in complete privacy to the user who created the repository. We do not and will not list them, rank them, read them or share them in any way.
To summarize if a user makes the project public, that means user is doing that on his own will and we will fulfill the obligation by enabling them with proper licensing tools + providing better licenses which InventHub is working on. For private projects everything will be safe and secret with the project owner and doesn't need protection more than platform infrastructure security which we take very seriously considering a lot of IP's will be hosted on our platform.
With regards to HLS like language, our next step over the year will be creating a universal and open format parser to translate designs back and forth between multiple formats and eventually getting it editable using a language, modular visual editor or a complete circuit editor in the cloud.
Have looked into SkiDL definitely a great tool, will explore more and would love to hear your thoughts more on this as to how we should approach this further.