WireBender

WireBender is a high-performance schematic routing and PCB net visualization library. It is written in C++ and compiled to WebAssembly via Emscripten for use in web environments.

⚡ WireBender is the routing engine used by PCB ReTrace for generating schematic diagrams.

The library handles complex tasks such as automatic component placement, connection routing, and auto-detecting buses.

🚀 Key Features

• Initial Component Placement: Automatic component placement on schematic diagrams.
• Schematic Routing: Automatic orthogonal hyperedge wire routing with junction dot generation.
• Smart Labeling: Computes collision-free coordinates for net, reference, and value labels.
• PcbVisualizer: Optimized multi-point network routing for PCB pad clusters (non-orthogonal, crossing minimization).
• Smart Classification: Statistical auto-detection of power and ground buses (VCC, GND, etc.) with option to override.
• Interactive Re-routing: Real-time incremental routing updates during netlist expansion or component drag-and-drop/transform.
• Component Swapping: Swap component geometries while maintaining netlist integrity via pin mapping.

📥 Installation & Downloads

• GitHub Releases: Zipped release versions of the compiled library can be downloaded from the GitHub Releases page.
• Direct Hosting for Web Apps: Unzipped WireBender.js and WireBender.wasm files are hosted directly via GitHub Pages for immediate use in web applications. They are available for latest, wip (work-in-progress), and all specific release tags:
  • Base URL:https://dev-lab.github.io/WireBender/
  • Example import: https://dev-lab.github.io/WireBender/latest/WireBender.js

📖 Documentation

For complete details on classes, data structures, coordinate systems, and advanced use cases, please see the API Reference.

🛠 Usage Example

import WireBenderModule from 'https://dev-lab.github.io/WireBender/latest/WireBender.js';

// Instruct Emscripten to fetch the .wasm file from the remote URL
const Module = await WireBenderModule({
  locateFile: f => f === 'WireBender.wasm' ? 'https://dev-lab.github.io/WireBender/latest/WireBender.wasm' : f
});

// 1. Initialize the router
const wb = new Module.WireBender();

// 2. Describe your netlist
// Note: See API reference for details on passing Vectors vs plain JS arrays.
const pins = new Module.VectorPinDescriptor();
pins.push_back({ number: 1, name: 'VCC', x: -20, y: -30, directionFlags: Module.PinDirection.DirUp });
pins.push_back({ number: 2, name: 'GND', x:  20, y:  30, directionFlags: Module.PinDirection.DirDown });

wb.addComponent({ 
    id: 'U1', width: 80, height: 60, padding: 16, 
    pins: pins
});
pins.delete(); // Free C++ memory

const netPins = new Module.VectorPinRef();
netPins.push_back({ componentId: 'U1', pinNumber: 1 });
wb.addNet({ name: 'VCC', pins: netPins });
netPins.delete(); // Free C++ memory

// 3. Auto-place and Route
const classification = wb.classify();
wb.applyClassification(classification);
classification.delete();

const placements = wb.computePlacements();
const routes = wb.routeAll();
placements.delete();

📦 Memory Management

Because this is a WASM-wrapped C++ library, certain class instances (e.g. WireBender, PcbVisualizer, ComponentPlacements, PinMap) and input vectors must be manually destroyed to free C++ memory by calling .delete() when they are no longer needed.

Output result objects are copied to standard JavaScript variables and do not need to be deleted. (See the API Reference for detailed vector memory rules).

⚖️ License & Commercial Use

WireBender is Dual Licensed:

1. Open Source (AGPLv3): Ideal for hobbyists, educational use, and open-source projects. You are free to use and modify the software, provided that any modifications are also made open source under the same terms.
2. Commercial License: For proprietary use, internal corporate deployment without copyleft restrictions, or integration into closed-source workflows, a commercial license is available.

Please see LICENSE for details.

For commercial licensing inquiries, please contact: Taras Greben taras.greben@gmail.com.

📦 Third-Party Libraries

WireBender utilizes several open-source libraries from the Adaptagrams project. We are grateful to the maintainers and contributors of these projects.

See THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md for full text.