<story><title>AutoDesk Releases An Electronics Simulator Called 123D Circuits</title><url>http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/10/autodesk-releases-an-electronics-simulator-called-123d-circuits/http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/10/autodesk-releases-an-electronics-simulator-called-123d-circuits/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>enobrev</author><text>Reminds me of an old idea I had a couple years back.  I assume it&amp;#x27;s a silly idea driven primarily by my own ignorance of these tools and EE in general, but it seemed fun.&lt;p&gt;The idea was to start out with some software similar to this.  Something visually impressive to keep it interesting for beginners, but technically sound to make it useful to those who know what they&amp;#x27;re doing.  It would be open source, internet connected, easily accessible and most importantly simple to create and share ideas.&lt;p&gt;From there, let people make some interesting things for school, work, play, whatever, ideally sharing said creations and try to raise a community around the tools and creations.&lt;p&gt;The next stage would be to add a 3D rendering component which would allow people to create &amp;quot;machines&amp;quot; that could be run by their virtual electronics.  Something like virtual fabrication.  The ideal being to grow those interfaces and try to lead the community towards building virtual robots (that are technically feasible).&lt;p&gt;The eventual goal would be to build a virtual world on top of all of the above tools.  Something like MechWarrior, but with engineers and industrial designers building virtual mechs from the smallest components to the large mechanical fabrication and then getting into all out war against one-another, adding to the mix less technical players to partake in the human elements of combat (generals, soldiers, medics, scavengers for destroyed mechs, etc).&lt;p&gt;Probably ridiculous, and if all went well I assume it would take years of work and planning, but it seemed like a fun idea to ponder.</text></comment>
<story><title>AutoDesk Releases An Electronics Simulator Called 123D Circuits</title><url>http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/10/autodesk-releases-an-electronics-simulator-called-123d-circuits/http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/10/autodesk-releases-an-electronics-simulator-called-123d-circuits/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>moron4hire</author><text>I think there is a lot of value to blowing up your Arduino for reals.  When you blow up a couple of Arduinos, you&amp;#x27;ll tend to force yourself to learn very quickly why it is happening and how to avoid it.&lt;p&gt;What is so bad about &amp;quot;blowing up a capacitor&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;burning yourself with a soldering iron&amp;quot;? Capacitors are a few cents, each. Buy them in bulk and never worry about needing one again. Soldering iron burns are easy to avoid if you have spent any time in a kitchen.&lt;p&gt;I feel like this is missing a big point. Arduino &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; the safe, easy entry point to learn electronics. The danger is miniscule, and whatever danger that is there, is part of the learning process. You need this as much as you need a rice-cooker simulator.</text></comment>