People at an electronics workshop

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Fritzing simulate my circuit? (a.k.a. Where is the play button?)
The answer to this was "No, sorry" for over a decade. Great news! Beginning with Fritzing 0.9.10, the answer is... well, kind of. Which is an understatement for both: For what was achieved. And for how much this simulation lacks to satisfy all your requests. We still think sketching in hardware is the best way to learn, verify and prove your ideas! But there are plenty of use cases for a simulator, and demand for this feature has increased ever since. So we follow up.

A first beta of the simulator is now available for testing to all adventurers. See our blog post for more details.
How do I report a bug?
You can report a bug either using the issue tracker, or in the forum. From our point of view, the most important thing is that the bug report contains enough detail for us to understand the problem and to recreate it. Most of the time, once we can recreate a bug, we can fix it.
  • If it's hard to explain, taking a screen shot might help.
  • Include a description of what you were doing in Fritzing just before the bug occurred. The more detailed you can be, the better.
  • It's really helpful to have a copy of the sketch you were working on when you found the bug.
If you report the bug on the forum, then send an email to info (at) fritzing (dot) org with your sketch file or screen shot attached and tell us which forum post it refers to.
How do I share a part I made?
First, export your part to an .fzpz file: select your part in the Parts Bin or a sketch and select "Export" from the "Part" menu. Then upload the fzpz file by attaching it to a comment in our issue tracker at http://code.google.com/p/fritzing/issues/detail?id=2753. To add a comment to that page, scroll to the bottom. This is a "temporary" measure until we get around to implementing something more friendly.
What license is Fritzing released under?

The source code of Fritzing is licensed under GNU GPL v3, the documentation and breadboard view graphics under CC Attribution-ShareALike.
You may re-publish our Fritzing documentation, as long as you attribute us, and publish it under CC-By-SA.
However, we do not allow the use of Fritzing part graphics in other software systems at the moment. If you think we should make an exception for you, please contact us.
GNU GPL License Creative Commons License

What about the circuits that I created with Fritzing?
First of all, you can do whatever you want with them. Only when you decide to publish images of the breadboard view on a website or in a book, we ask you to attribute us. Attribution can be as simple as "this image was created with Fritzing." And if you think it turned out particularly nice, drop us a link/copy!
On which systems does Fritzing run?
Fritzing works on all common platforms: Windows (XP and up), Mac (OSX 10.5 and up) and Linux (any fairly recent linux distro with libc >= 2.6). If you run into problems with any of these operating systems, please let us know!
What do you mean by "Fritzing was created in the spirit of Processing and Arduino"? What spirit?
The main point here is that we are building tools that put technology in the hands of non-experts, so that everyone can become creative about it. This means both radically lowering the entry barrier, and not limiting advancing users in the long run. That, together with a notion of learning by doing and through the works of others, as opposed to from a textbook. There's a lot more to say about this. Read more in our publications.
Why do I need a real PCB for my project? It works fine the way it is!
Sometimes, you want to get beyond the state where you always have to be weary that no one touches your precious circuit. If it's all on a PCB, it is stable and durable to run for decades, it can have the shape and size that you want it to be, and you can produce as many of it as you like. Yes, this means, you might even be able to sell your own product's limited edition!
How did you come up with this funny name?

Fritzing takes the ing from Processing, Wiring, and Physical Computing. Did you know that Arduino is a medieval king (and a bar..) from Ivrea, where the Arduino project was created? Well, and Fritz is how the people in Potsdam liked to call their king Friedrich. Last but not least - we like the sound.

How is Fritzing programmed?

Fritzing is currently written in C++ using the Qt framework. The framework is open-source, cross-platform, has a rich collection of tools and widgets, is very stable, and is pleasant to program with. Qt and C++ together also give us fast performance. We chose Qt after several weeks of researching and testing a large set of frameworks (and programming languages), after hitting difficulties using Fritzing's original development framework Eclipse GMF.

Who made this fantastic illustration on the front page?
That's the work of the even more fantastic Myriel Milicevic.
The graphics for the electronic components were originally created by Dirk van Oosterbosch and expanded by Lionel Michel and Fabian Althaus.