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KiCad

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Original author(s)Jean-Pierre Charras
Developer(s)KiCad developers[1]
Initial release1992[2]
Stable release
BZR-4022[3] / July 7, 2013; 11 years ago (2013-07-07)[3]
Repository
Written inC++[4]
Operating systemFreeBSD, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X (experimental)
Available inMultilingual (8)
TypeEDA
LicenseGNU GPL v2, GNU LGPL v2.1[1]
Websitehttp://www.kicad-pcb.org
KiCad Eeschema for Schematic capture.
KiCad PCBnew to create the PCB layout.
3D View using KiCad PCBnew (Wings 3D based).

KiCad is an open source software suite for electronic design automation (EDA). It facilitates the design of schematics for electronic circuits and their conversion to PCBs (printed circuit board) design. KiCad was developed by Jean-Pierre Charras, and features an integrated environment for schematic capture and PCB layout design. Tools exist within the package to create a bill of materials, artwork and Gerber files, and 3D views of the PCB and its components.

Parts

KiCad software is organized in five main parts:

  • kicad - the project manager.
  • eeschema - the schematic capture editor.
  • cvpcb - the footprint selector for components used in the circuit design.
  • pcbnew - the PCB layout program. It also has 3D View.
  • gerbview - the Gerber (photoplotter documents) viewer.

Features

KiCad uses an integrated environment for all of the stages of the design process: Schematic Capture, PCB layout, Gerber file generation/visualization and library editing.

KiCad is cross-platform program, written with wxWidgets to run on FreeBSD, Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Many component libraries are available, and users can add custom components. The custom components can be available on a per-project basis, or installed for use in any project. There are also tools to help with importing components from other EDA applications, for instance EAGLE. Configuration files are in well documented plain text. This fact helps with interfacing to CVS's or SVN and with making automated component generation scripts.

Multiple languages are supported, such as English, Catalan, Czech, German, Greek, Spanish, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovene, Swedish, and Chinese.

The 3D PCB viewing function is implemented with the Wings3D subdivision modeler.

KiCad has a built-in basic autorouter. Alternatively, the freeware java-based FreeRouting can be used. To do that, a PCB design is exported to a Specctra DSN file, which is then loaded into FreeRouting. After the autorouting is done, the result is saved as a Specctra session and imported back into KiCad's pcbnew module.

See also

References

  1. ^ https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
  2. ^ JP Charras said me that the first drafts were made in 1992 for a DOS version, but not diffused :-) , (kicad-users) Re: About KiCad first release By Remy, 08 Jul 2007
  3. ^ a b "KiCad author's home page". Retrieved 2013-07-07.
  4. ^ "KiCad in Launchpad". Retrieved 2011-01-20.
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Kicad
Complete Basic Kicad Tutorial (video)

7 Parts, approx. 4 minutes each

Symbol Libraries
Projects
  • Biting the KiCad bullet..., September 1, 2006, Open source Self-Copying machine Blog
  • TimEX3 FPGA based multi-purpose 3U compact PCI board released under CERN OHL License
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