KiCad 5.1

It's got a steep learning curve but having gotten fed up with the limitations of Eagle I migrated and never looked back. It has its quirks, sure, but there is a large community and I have yet to come across an issue that hasn't been addressed or answered already.


Now why won't it use the *******' footprint for TO-252-2!
 
Makes you wonder how many PCBCAD businesses have gone under or suffered because of KICAD being free ?
You have to ask why any organisation deliberately sets out to create a free item and mess up a healthy market place ?
Ford would be pretty upset if I started churning out free cars yet KICAD are doing just the same thing.

Why do people expect free software ?

Glad to hear it has improved because I found it just too hard to get to grips with, very clunky, unintuitive, slow etc and I have been writing software for 40 years+ so am a good judge of UI.

Open-source software has been around for decades. When the paid companies continue to keep pumping out crashy, garbage software with poor UIs, useless features and horrible licensing models, it's inevitable that people are going to get fed up with it and write their own.

It's the same issue that's killing Pro Tools- awful licensing for software that doesn't work nearly as well as it should for the cost.

Companies that write paid software are the VERY REASON that software like KiCAD is having the success it is. When you spend $10,000 a year on software like Solidworks, it gets really frustrating to spend half a day fighting with a licensing issue. Ditto for Altium.

If companies are worried about losing business to KiCAD, then they need to stop writing software and conducting business in a way that pushes their customers away.

Why do I use Windows on a daily basis? Is it because I think it's good software? No, it's a steaming pile of hot garbage that costs me time, money (and years off my life when we consider the stress and anger it induces). I only use it because too much of the software I need won't run on Linux.

Companies like Microsoft, Adobe, Altium, Dassault Systems and Autodesk have been doing this to themselves, and I won't shed a tear to see them suffering.
 
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Companies like Microsoft, Adobe, Altium, Dassault Systems and Autodesk have been doing this to themselves, and I won't shed a tear to see them suffering.

Yes, I can feel their pain. Here's MSFT. :)

@Nigel: if you can do a direct connection to LTspice, maybe we can talk.
Something like reading in their netlists, then adding or linking the footprints.
 

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One downside of the 4.0 to 5.1 transition is that the libraries have been rebuilt, in a good way, which makes them much easier to deal with, but means designs built with 4.0 need component links updated. It doesn’t stop you from working with an older design - all the old schematic components and footprints are archived and attached to the file, but it breaks the 3D rendering.

So I’ve updated my latest 4.0 designs; both my class G boards. While I was working I properly got my head around 3D model creation and manipulation, so all the models now are completely correct, including stuff like 1/4” spades and such forth. I’ve got a good process flow where I do the part design in SketchUp, then use FreeCAD to add colour and translate to a KiCad compatible model. That then goes in the directory structure with the other 3D models, and a link is created in the footprint. And voila!

I can also export the PCB from KiCad, and import to SketchUp, but while that’s dimensionally good it doesn’t look so great, as all the colours disappear. Can’t have em all!
 

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Its because of the likes of freeware/shareware that we have the massive amount of bloatware. They have to bloat up the software so you think you are getting more for your money than the free stuff.
I have written pc programs since 1985 and noticed from a programmers view just layer upon layer of software. Started off with MFC, then WPF, .net framework, .net core etc etc Makes it very hard for someone to compete against Windows.

I agree with the problems bloatware software brings but with freeware and bloatware two wrongs dont make a right.

I also design embedded systems and this has bloated up too.
Microchip MPLAB X and Harmony now takes a whopping 10 gig bytes of disc space to install ! And I sometimes design a system with an 8 pin PIC with less than a 1k of memory !

I write minimalist software that simply does the job and I get slated for it because its not bloatware. It installs quicker, runs quicker yet still does the job well.
 
I'm not a professional user in this field, so for me the most important feature of KiCAD is : ITS FREE ! And for a free program its feature list and robustness is very very good. Of course it evolves different than paid software, but this is how open source projects work. There is a big number of people working on it in their free time and also some people at CERN, so coordination needs a longer time.
But look what they achieved in the last years. I know 2 startups, that use KiCAD for professional 4 layer projects and they are very happy with the software. For a hobbyist its more than suitable.
 
Look at what they have achieved.
But thats looking at it through rose tinted spectacles.

What about the programmers who no longer have a job due to free software ?
Or the businesses who lose out ?

How would you feel if i came into your work place tomorrow and offered to do your job for free ? Just think about the consequences off that, no job, living on the dole etc etc

KiCAD is starting to look like bloatware from what I have seen of it.
A million icons with no idea what any of them do.
Your obviously brighter than me because I seriously struggled with it.
 
First of all, I think KiCAD is a fantastic piece of software. I used Target 3001 and Eagle before and was pleasantly surprised that designing a new PCB from scratch went far less painful as expected. Still learning minor details but all in all it's been more than rewarding to use it.


I was tempted to respond to nigel's rant, especially as an open source developer. But I think that thread is not the place for that.
 
KiCAD evolved so fast because many premium companies went over the top. They no longer sell software, they sell subscriptions now and this is a no go for me as a hobbyist. I do not care about the programers working there, but trust me, these companies neither do.
Dont understand me wrong, i am also a programmer and i also do not like what is happening in the software business, but freeware is nothing that makes it worse. Freeware at the moment is the only option for non professional use.
I was using Eagle for many years, it was about 100 bucks, no problem at that time. Then autodesk bought it. They made a subscription out of it, just because they want to earn more. But do you really think, that any of the programmers working there will earn more than before ?
Nigel, I dont know your software, but i know that today its hard for individuals. Dont understand me wrong, I like individual coders, I just dislike big companies like autodesk, who just buy one product after another and destroy it for many users. I loved ArtCAM, a CNC program, they bought it and discontinued it, just to sell more of their programs. Only problem is, they dont have anything comparable and by far not for 149 dollars.
The only way i see at the moment is to make it web based and offer a basic version for free and one with less restrictions and more funcionality as paid version. The free version can get ads implemented to make it more profitable. I dont like it neither, but this becomes the only way for individuals at the moment.
 
KiCAD is not Freeware, it's actually free software as in open source. There's a huge difference. The term "Freeware" is usually used for closed source projects. They have a huge drawback - what happens if the software needs an extension or a bugfix and the author went silend/dead/living on the moon? In case of open source anybody can fix bugs, add extensions, even fork the whole project.
 
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Have you tried it for real? Going through all the forks to find THE line of code you want to change/fix? I did it once, with a different piece of software: never again!


Yes, i have tried it before, several times. Even on the linux kernel itself. Nobody said that it would be easy and that you didn't eventually have to acquire skills along the way. But at least it's possible.
 
One downside of the 4.0 to 5.1 transition is that the libraries have been rebuilt, in a good way, which makes them much easier to deal with, but means designs built with 4.0 need component links updated. It doesn’t stop you from working with an older design - all the old schematic components and footprints are archived and attached to the file, but it breaks the 3D rendering.

So I’ve updated my latest 4.0 designs; both my class G boards. While I was working I properly got my head around 3D model creation and manipulation, so all the models now are completely correct, including stuff like 1/4” spades and such forth. I’ve got a good process flow where I do the part design in SketchUp, then use FreeCAD to add colour and translate to a KiCad compatible model. That then goes in the directory structure with the other 3D models, and a link is created in the footprint. And voila!

I can also export the PCB from KiCad, and import to SketchUp, but while that’s dimensionally good it doesn’t look so great, as all the colours disappear. Can’t have em all!


Suzy, there is a python script that converts mod to pretty, I used it many times, it saved me a lot of time. The repo also has more scripts that you might find useful.


You can also export KiCAD PCB into 3D in FreeCAD with KiCADStepUp plugin installed, it works great. The small PCB on top has been exported with KiCADStepUp
 

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Have you tried it for real? Going through all the forks to find THE line of code you want to change/fix? I did it once, with a different piece of software: never again!

My PCBCAD software is 500,000+ lines of code.
It takes me all my time to navigate it sometimes and I wrote it.

When I was a consultant we often got other peoples software to modify.
Most times it was easier to just start from scratch. But these were often sub 10,000 line programs.

It takes me all my time to make bits of code work together, in a freeware environment with dozens of programmers it must be nigh on impossible.
It really needs each programmer to look after his bit to be efficient.