Link wrote: > Here are some ideas for features that I had, that you may or may not be > interested in. I thought I'd let you know anyway :).
> 1. Field lines indicating the magnetic flux around inductors. Similar to > the animated wires indicating current flow, animated field lines could > show the changing magnetic fields around inductors. Before that we need transformers; 'nuff said. > 2. Tooltips on components. For example, a capacitor's tooltip could show > the charge stored on it, and a resistive component could show the power > it dissipates. The engine does a lot of weird linear algebra stuff, there doesn't seem to be a variable for flux or charge... Computing power draw seems rather straightforward though... > 3. A "discharge all" feature that simply resets every wire to 0V, 0A. > When changing circuits while some components are still powered (by a > supply, or because some capacitors/inductors still have energy stored), > you often get weird results. A "discharge" button would eliminate these > problems. Yeah, there should be a way to kick our buggy clac engine... You'd do it through circuit and have it re-build the ElementSet... > 4. A "show power pins" option on opamps similar to the "show body pin" > on MOSFETs. Using the power pins, one could select the minimum and > maximum values of an opamp's output. That completely changes the nature of the device. It goes from being an idealized linear device to being a nonlinear device which becomes a good deal more complex on the implementation side. =\ It is definitely on the todo list though. > 5. Hidden wires or net ports. When you have more than a handful of > components, it can get extremely tricky to see different wires. A simple > solution would be "net ports" like gEDA's gschem has. Place a net port > on one pin, and another with the same identifier on another, and the > pins act as if they're connected by a wire, though none is drawn. Now that's a good one... > 6. Transformers/mutual inductors, Zeners, regulators and other > components commonly found in real-life circuits that KTL lacks. Big one, > I know, but it would make KTechlab a lot better! You can use the existing diode part as a zener (when it works.) =P > 7. Enhanced potentiometers: log/antilog pots, and the ability to set the > fader position as a percentage in the properties window. Yeah, the slider needs to be longer to permit more precise setting... > 8. Overload indicators: if a component is subject to more > voltage/current/power than it is supposed to handle, it could display a > warning signal, informing the user to change the parameters or supplies. > This also involves addition of polar capacitors, capacitor voltage > ratings, resistor wattage ratings, and so on, but those values need not > be used by the actual simulator (i.e. a .25W resistor dissipating 1W > would still work, but would display a warning sign, as would a polar > capacitor that's reverse-biased), so it shouldn't be /that/ difficult to > implement. Yeah, I had something similar in mind, the bigger problem is that we need to completely overhaul the entire component library cuz the current one is unmaintainable long-term. Right now I'm just fixing bugs and trying to get the code to a state where it's feasible to implement such radical changes. -- New president: Here we go again... Chemistry.com: A total rip-off. Powers are not rights. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Register Now for Creativity and Technology (CaT), June 3rd, NYC. CaT is a gathering of tech-side developers & brand creativity professionals. Meet the minds behind Google Creative Lab, Visual Complexity, Processing, & iPhoneDevCamp as they present alongside digital heavyweights like Barbarian Group, R/GA, & Big Spaceship. http://p.sf.net/sfu/creativitycat-com _______________________________________________ Ktechlab-devel mailing list Ktechlab-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ktechlab-devel
