Is KiCad Ready to Replace Paid PCB Design Software? (with Wayne Stambaugh)
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- Опубликовано: 8 авг 2024
- Is KiCad going to be always free? Is it now good enough to design any board? Who decides what new features will be implemented and where the project goes? Thank you Wayne for a great call. PS: Leave your comments, what do you think about KiCad and its future?
Links:
- Wayne Stambaugh: / wayne-stambaugh-b5161746
- KiCad: www.kicad.org/
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thought I'd give my very short interpretation of the answers since they are so long (leaving out a lot of interesting detail):
Q: *What can kicad do?* A: Most typical designs. There is a feature gap, but it is shrinking. Advanced DRC contraints are added in KiCad 6, a major missing feature.
Q: *How good is cross-platform support?* A: The program works as expected on all platforms, but collaborating on projects between platforms is not perfect.
Q: *Kicad has no limits, but how well does it work for large designs?* A: It's generally usable. There is search and navigation, however it is not as advanced as other offerings.
Q: *Can KiCad become paid?* A: KiCad's license forces modifications to be released freely and this is almost impossible to change.
Q: *Can anyone just add anything to KiCad?* A: There is a circle of trusted developers which collaborate on developing and reviewing code and designs. There are roadmaps that describe what the project thinks it will achieve in the next development cycle.
28:30 Q: *How does KiCad handle conflicting requests from beginners and advanced users* A: Beginners and hobbyists are important, but making KiCad better for professional users is a much higher priority right now.
31:30 Q: *How do you ensure consistency in the design?* A: The UI always varied a lot depending on who made it. There's been a lot of work to clean that up and there's now a professional designer. There are still some major interface changes planned, which will arrive gradually.
38:24 Q: *What is the influence of companies that contribute financially to kicad?* A: How donations get used is up to the project. Companies can pay someone to work on KiCad to make sure some feature is completed, but that does not let them circumvent the normal decision making processes.
45:11 Q: *What is the importer situation?* A: It depends heavily on the file format. EAGLE mostly works, Altium is in progress and very good, CADSTAR works, Cadence has some workaround.
48:27 Q: *What's the library situation?* A: KiCad has a large stock component library that follows their library conventions. Many of them are automatically generated. A number of sites offer KiCad footprints.
52:35 Q: *Does KiCad support component metadata like part numbers?* A: Yes, but they're not included by default because they vary by supplier. There are some BOM tools.
58:00 Q: *How does KiCad handle footprint and symbol versions* A: You can sync your components from the library or edit them in place, but there's no advanced handling yet.
1:02:40 Q: *How does project collaboration work in KiCad?* A: Because KiCad files are plain text, they work well with external version control like Git and SVN. However there is no native support in the interface. There is some preparation for allowing users to replay edits from other users onto their files.
1:09:30 Q: *What are you the most proud of?* A: Just watch the vid :)
Very nice, thank you!
@@RobertFeranec We need detailed video of "How to kiCAD" from you. Year ago the greatest migration of people was from Orkut to Facebook. Now we are going to see this migration here!
Excellent, thank you! I'm sure this took a non-trivial amount of time to put together so thank you for saving time for the rest of us!
Want to keep KiCAD free and up, make a donation, they deserve it. If EACH single KiCAD user would spend $5/5€/5xyz per year, I guess it would secure the team and developement. And boy that is worth it compared to other licence fees and know how much value you get per $/€ !!!
I love that aisler encourages customers to donate to kicad. It's a lot easier to add 2eur to a PCB order where you're already spending 10, 20, 50... eur.
I just donate £5 each month. Just the price for breakfast, still much much less than the other proprietary ECAD.
Watching this months later - but as a professional EE who migrated from Altium to KiCad, I've been very impressed to see how far the project has come, and I'm extremely happy to hear these comments by Wayne. Thank you both for taking the time to put this video together!
This interviews are gold, thanks for them. As a Kicad user I must say that this kind of instances makes me keep working with this beloved software... Thanks to both of you for your time and effort!
Robert, your technically-rich interviews with key figures in the industry make for highly valuable viewing. Well done!
Great video! Really enjoy these kinds of interviews. I have been using KiCad since 2016 and it has improved a lot since then. I am really impressed by the quality and functionality of it today. I use it for all of my designs. Granted, I am merely a hobbyist, but it's great for slightly more complex multi-layer boards with DDR memory and PCIe. I also want to say that the community around KiCad is amazing. People are so helpful and positive - it's awesome.
KiCAD 6 is an absolute banger. I use it for my daily job. (The 5.99 version.)
Where is that download link? I see the newest version is 5.1.8?
@@E3SniperspreeE3 I think you can find it by searching KiCAD NIGHTLY.
@@alicangul2603 I'll try! Just getting out of school. Can't afford altium anymore 😅. Dont have $160 a month. The library/footprint manager seems much cleaner. I'm excited for the move over.
Thanks Robert for the nice video and also congratulations to Wayne and his team for the good job! It seems that KiCad is evolving fast and it is ready for professional use.
Robert, keep up the good job!
When I was looking for a free EDA, KiCAD was mentioned as "one of the best", but having a steep learning curve. After using it for a couple of years I have been impressed with how many manufacturers and vendors are including footprint and model packages for KiCAD (along with Altium, OrCad, etc.) Thank you Robert for showing me that I made a good choice (this time) and I hope to still be using KiCAD 10 years from now.;-)
Thank you very much Robert for the interview, you asked exactly the right questions.
Thanks Robert! I did not know that there is a free software for professional PCB design. This has a great impact on those who do hobby grade design but don’t have the budget for high end software.
I love KiCad, used to work on OrCad, migrated to KiCad and remained there :) ( Now I forgot how to use OrCad :)))) )
My only issue with KiCad I have is that I have no issue :)))))
I do not do very complex boards but for what I need is very, very good, and all my boards have KiCad logo on them.
Looking forward for future releases/features.
Very interesting video, as always! Thanks a lot to you and Wayne! I'm really impressed with the progress the team made, especially between version 4 and 5. At my former company I used Altium and after leaving them, I had to look for a new tool and I started testing Kicad 4, which I found quite annoying to use in some aspects. But with version 5 it's very good and I don't really miss Altium anymore (apart from the integration to parts vendors).
So I highly recommend to anyone who used Kicad in the past to try the latest version!
Exactly. I dreaded having to use v4 (but still better than Eagle) but I truly enjoy using v5.
For Wayne and the rest of the KiCAD contributors:
I got my start in embedded software, electrical engineering, and PCB design thanks adafruit and the rest of the OS community and it's pained me to use non-OS software to design boards. I'm very happy and thankful for all of the KiCAD contributors and the user community for making it an extremely useful tool that I can without reservation move to from other tools that are stagnant by comparison.
Another big thanks to Wayne for his work guiding the KiCAD team in a cohesive manner to accelerate the development to the amazing tool it has become.
$$$ coming shortly!
I have used Kicad since 2010, and I love how simple the interface is, not filled with unnecessary buttons cluttering everything. I wish the new versions will keep this design philosophy while adding the more advanced features. I currently do just fine 14 layer designs with DDR4 and high-speed traces with no problem. so, the software is capable, I just wish the interface will not get overloaded to the point of commercial tools that are just not usable.
I have used Altium in 2015 and 2016 and I was lost with so many menus and graphical objects which distracted me rather than focused on my design
Hi,
I am new to pcb layout and like to learn about ddr routing, can you suggest any good reference material
THANK YOU, Robert and Wayne. It was very informative with well-researched questions. I will definitely revisit Kicad and possibly switch.
Great interview. I personally love Kicad . Its close enough to a professional EDA package to get the job done.
A long video, but very interesting. Great work, Robert! And thanks to Wayne for his answers. I'm even more convinced to use Kicad now. Seems like a very healthy way of developing software.
Excellent, Robert. Thanks for making this video.
Very nice video, TNX Robert and Wayne
Robert your contents are becoming more out of the box great Video, as an Altium user I always say that I need to learn kiCad and I think in some point I need to support the open source community for their great effort and I can only adapt their vision only by using an extra open source software beside the commercial as an electronics engineer I support the open source software community by using python and I'm a big fan of Sentdex too, I think it's time for me to give KiCad a chance in my life as an electroncis engineer
Great video Robert, super informative. Keep up the good work!
I've been using Kicad v6 for a while and it's great! Easy to use and low-friction coming from Altium.
I really appreciate your efforts. Definitely you should go ahead with such type of videos.
EasyEDA was my introduction to PCB design CAD, prior to that it was graph paper and a pencil, but I immediately wanted more ! and I tried KICAD and I love it, kudos to the KICAD team and if your wanting to get into CAD then support this open source project...i dont think youll regret it...cheers.
Thank you Wayne, we appreciate your work.
I just finished my first project in KiCad 5 and I will surely keep using it. I miss only a few extra features that Altium Designer (which I was using before) offers, but I can live with it when I compare the price of the KiCad with the price of Altium :D This video format is really cool!
GREAT..!! I never imagined seeing images of the CIAA board in some of your videos (4:00). We used it in college several times. Perfect for learning various things. There are many variants of the CIAA including a version with FPGA. There is an official page where all the documentation can be downloaded.
Thanks to Robert and to Wayne for this nice talk about KiCAD project. Now I'm completely sure it was a right decision I made when I switched my small company to KiCAD. Upcoming 6.x release is really promising, although we are pretty much satisfied with the 5.x features, new improved design rules paradigm was long awaited. One feature I think KiCAD should have is an improved Gerber editor which could allow to prepare PCB production. Frankly there's no any decent open source gerber editor at the moment with DRC checks and things like they have in CAM350.
That was very interesting. I believe KiCad deserves more love. It's not the only free option, and not the easiest to start with or the most intuitive, but it's the only free option that has the capability to let you grow from novice to pro without feeling restrained.
Most of the alternative are either too limited or unaffordable. Eagle may be more affordable in terms of cost/feature but I don't trust Autodesk and the online-only paradigm is dangerous if you need assurance that your work is safe in the long term (will you still have access to your work in 5, 10, 15 years? Might be ok for hobbyists but probably not for pros who need to maintain their work).
Great to hear this, looking forward to 6.0 with a fresh, really updated GUI…
"Can you design any board with KiCad?"
That was a very difficult question :)
Thank you Robert! New KiCad user here.
Well , i know hone company who switched Eagle to KiCad about a year ago. Their designer fought it little bit at the begining. But now when they converted and fixed all their designs and libraries , they are more than happy with it.
I am a visual artist. I love having this software. As much as designing a circuit board is important, it really is software that has been teaching me circuit design. The combination of Arduino, KiCad, RUclips and inexpensive deals on circuit board printing is pushing my abilities forward at an amazing pace. Its wonderful. Changes between versions have been easy for me. I am still learning to use some of the tools.
V6 KiCAD looks no lesser than any paid tool. Small companies who are using paid licenses can seriously think of using kiCAD. Wayne is so clear in what he was saying, and he seems to have very good understanding of hardware design and various EDA. This was once again a very informative video. Thanks, Robert for this.
Thank you Robert and Kicad.
Great interview! Useful info for sure and, not that I needed it, but this makes me even more confidant in investing in using KiCAD
Hello Robert,
Hello Wayne,
thank you for the nice video (as usual)!
I have been using EAGLE for more than 10 years in semi-professional (education) and later in professional enviroment (like tractive system battery development and really a lot of low voltage board electronics). Then, last year, I had to switch to KiCad for my new job in a startup where I develop LTE based dataloggers for specific usage in the automotive industry (and some other industrial applications in the future).
Except for some features (like gate- and pinswapping, which are coming with KiCad V6) I really enjoy working with KiCad so far. Of course, sometime I have to remind myself that it is open source, but in some other points KiCad is really astonishing (for example the differential pair routing is quite good and I also like the python API, even tough it's pretty bad documented yet). Subversion with GitLab is a joy and if you invest some time to find out how it works, also colloborative library management does work pretty good.
The only thing were KiCad really has to improve to compete in the professional PCB design world is when it comes to management of actual parts. Today, KiCad separates it's library system only into symbols and footprints. In contrast to other EAD packages, there is no way (or at least I have not found it in months) there is no kind of linking table between symbol and footprint. In other words: if you have - for example - two quad-gate OPAMPS with different pinouts, you need two separate symbols with the specific pin information inside the symbol. Of course, as Wayne told, you can add default fields to all library parts. But to have different MPNs with the same symbol, you always have to copy (I know that here is the alias feature, but it does not completely resolve this issue).
As you will know, other EDA packages like EAGLE solve this by adding a device-layer inside the library which can consists of multiple symbols which are linked by tables to multiple packages. Additionally, information like MPNs can then be linked to a specific device variant which includes all the information for the BOM. I hope KiCad will have this possibilities in V7. When I worked with EAGLE, I had a big collection of selected standard components including all values, packages, MPN information and more. The management of this collection was hierarchical and without copying content (which is necessary today if you do that in KiCad).
Apart from that, I hope that the python pcbnew API documentation will improve. As told before, I work in automotive industry, where change management, fixed BOMs, advanced information about used parts (like RoHS certificates) and reliable manufacturing data generation is a must have. Therefore, I wrote myself some independent python based export classes to use them in GitLab inside a Docker Container. So, whenever I tag a version of my design on the GitLab server, I get all Gerber and BOM data automatically. The classes are pretty basic, but gathering the information to implement them was really really tough (and I am still looking for getting the position of the auxilary axis on a board from the api).
So, I am really looking forward von V6 and later :).
Johannes
Hi Robert, I used kicad in some projects for small startup and it very surprised me.
I used it in Ubuntu 20 with last release.
* Great things that I found:
- schematics and pcb files are plain text. You can open with some text editor and make change. This make GIT TRACKING very useful.
- Hierarchical designing are very comfortable. (I tried it with 10 pages).
- Huge community, so you can find every footprint or symbol. There are really a LOT of very good libraries. So time to set up design before routing is VERY quickly.
* Missing features compare with Altium:
- class net and rules.
- vias stitching and shielding tools.
- variants.
- Outputs JOB.
There is a lot of plugging which extends functionalities, I tried KIBOM to make BOM very nicely and Interactive HTML to make a very useful html with 2D map of PCB with component links. (This is great for home made assembly, repairs or testing PCBs).
Disagree on the "Outputs JOB". KiCAD Python interface wipes the floor with Altium. I can create the files i need automatically, on any project i want, without even opening KiCAD.
This was one of the most significant improvements for me when i switched from Altium to KiCAD.
@@happygimp0 yes you can, but externally. i mention KIBOM and Interactive html like examples. They are greats python scripts. You have more flexibility of course, but is your own implementation.
I used eagle education from last 3-4 years, But now switched to KiCAD, I am currently using KiCAD nightly build, Its just awesome, KiCAD v6 can destroy the Eagle and other pcb design software in future, I used Altium very less as they don't have any long term evolution version, they just offer 15Days of trial which is not enough to complete hands-on. And I also used Cadence in my college days for simulation and simple PCB design.
Great video! And I always said KiCAD would make a huge dent on the EDA Market. Everything Wayne said is totally accurate: KiCAD is truly catching up with professional Software and for the most part almost all projects can be done on KiCAD with no problem. It's a hugely valuable proposition. All KiCAD Software developers should be proud of their work.
Kicad seems to be 25-30 *years* behind the "maker" versions of the low-end professional PCB software packages (
@@glenndoiron9317 I am not saying KiCAD is a Professional tool. I'm saying 30% of PCB orders are made, according to the various online PCB manufacturers, on KiCAD ... that means KiCAD at least is good for 30% of boards made online ... for those made by professional companies of course they have no incentive to use KiCAD, we simply can not account for those.
And I repeat, Almost All projects can be done with KiCAD ... of course you must know how to use it first rather then jumping into wrong conclusions, and above all you must Know how to design electronics ...
I even admit that KiCAD is very very poor to below basic in things like auto-routing and some other verification tools present on professional EDA tools that are Not necessary for almost ALL projects.
Again: Almost all projects can be done with KiCAD.
@@glenndoiron9317 Would you mind elaborating on your statements in a bit more detail? Which features specifically do you think are missing? Thanks in advance ; )
@@glenndoiron9317 What are those missing features?
@@xhivo97 Analog simulation, constraints, signal integrity, library management. Yes, people say you don't need these things. No, they are wrong, they just don't know it.
about the importance of commercial support, i never heard of anyone getting really meaningful assistance from altium support
I've had plenty of support from Altium in the past, however it's now mostly other users helping each other in their forums.
Great content. Thank you.
Yes.
Thanks for covering this
Great video Robert, lets to know a bit more about KiCad. But I think it's still not ready for micro electronics, like in my case that I do cellphones pcbs and some other very tiny multilayer pcb. Altiums PDN Analyzer is a great tool I use a lot. I still think KiCad is very useful for very advanced hobbiest to a every day PCB design at companies which needs "normal" PCBs. The KiCad modification symbols is not very friendly. It's very difficult to work on team design. I do have KiCad installed cause some companies DO USE KiCad. I'm NOT saying KiCad is bad..oh no! Only saying it's advanced for the every day design but lacks what Altium, Orcad have.
Nice video! Thanks!
I stopped at 49:48 and I say that Robert had realy good questions also I think that Kicad Is on the right track .
Thank You, Sir.
In reference to the question about OS cross-compatibility, and the use of a base install vs. one customized with footprints, libraries, etc.
I probably fall under the category of advanced hobbyist user. I routinely work on 6+ layer boards with thousands of components and extremely fine-pitch SMD components (basically anything short of BGA. I have all manner of custom symbol and footprint libraries, and use a Dropbox-equivalent to keep the installs sync'd across installs on all 3 major OSes on different computers.
I have had absolutely no issue with intercompatibility. After a bit of setup in the Paths dialog, everything has "just worked" since I set it up. Any change on one computer is immediately reflected across both my other installs. I have a nasty habit of tinkering and breaking things, but that's no fault of Kicad's.
Kicad really is an incredible software suite, and a gem in the open-source world. Add to that software like Freecad for CAD and Eclipse for software development, and it is quickly becoming trivial to design even the most complicated products entirely in an open-source environment.
There are certainly issues, but they can almost always be easily avoided with simple workflow changes.
Im professional developer switched to KiCAD from Altium Designer (I was Altium power user over 6 Years) in my daily job over 2 years ago. KiCAD is my daily job tool, I test the nightly develiper builds of next version (by the way you showed not the nignhtly builds from 6.0, its a builds for 5.x.x future versions). My projects produced using KiCAD are for example in some water pumps for PCs water cooling, but not only. Production and Prototyping in Germany and China as well- no any issues or problems at all. I had a nice contact ro Wayne and Jeff on reporting of bugs in nightlies as well- great team , great gyus as well..;-) Im very very happy using KiCAD in professional daily job..;-)
Sebastian, thank you. PS: Please where are nightly builds from 6.0? I could not find it and I asked Wayne and he answered: "5.99 is just a place holder for the current development version until we officially release 6.0. We do this to avoid users confusing nighty builds with stable release builds." So I believe, 5.99 should be something what will become 6, or am I wrong?
@@RobertFeranec in fact, all calls "5.99", actual nightly installer is kicad-r19522.4ce91d3e92-x86_64.exe , do you used this one? yb the way, I create own libraries started 2 years ago with attributes I need later in BOM file- all works just perfect. 3-D modelling doing with FreeCAD, even though company I working for use Inventor in mechanical department. If someone have questions in workflow, library-management or to switch to KiCAD - feel free to contact me, Ill help ..;-)
@@KulikSebastian I used kicad-r19438.3488ff4013-x86_64.exe .. but it was a few days ago ...
@@RobertFeranec FYI, there is a new build every 12 hours.
@@KulikSebastian what advantages and disadvantages have yKicad? Which one could you recommend for high speed, rf ?
Thank You Sir
I'm excited for this video! I wondered your thoughts on KiCad only a few days ago! I switched from CircuitStudio ($3k sunk, expecting Designer-Lite, but never an update) to Eagle (irritating license and bundling) and now looking at KiCad (and FlatCam for quick isolation milling prototypes.) Thank you!
There is an annual (except this year) electronics industry show local to me where Altium had a booth with several representatives. I went up to the booth and asked a question about CircuitStudio. They basically laughed and turned their backs on me! I guess they were there to sell their higher-priced products.
@@Graham_Wideman Sorry you had that experience. That says it all. And today, my subscription of Eagle auto renewed.
It's all about the bar. I'm a freelance engineer, I spend a few weeks a year designing PCBs some of which I sell in small quantities, it's basically a vehicle for selling my microcontroller programming skills. There's no way starting out I could have justified shelling out for a professional design package, even less for an ongoing licence. I guess I'm somewhere between hobbyist and professional. I'm old, I started out rubbing sticky tape and transfer symbols on a light box (and etching PCBs in the kitchen sink), so I've struggled with a few cheap artwork packages in my time, and migrating old designs to new packages. KiCad does pretty much what I need and it's getting better, and I'm happy to make a contribution.
If you don't like the default BoM scripts in KiCad but don't want to write your own Python script, there are some plugins like KiCost by xesscorp, which searches your components on various suppliers and gives you a spreadsheet with all the prices according to the quantity you want to order, and KiBoM by SchrodingersGat, which gives you a configuration file with lots of options to get the BoM columns and file format the way you need. Some people at KiCon last year showed how you can use these tools and others to fully automate the generation of fabrication files in KiCad, but that is a bit more involved.
Was very useful ! Thanks!
Thank you Haitham
We use KiCAD at work for quite some time now.
It's the next best thing to ALTIUM Designer. We evaluated Circuit studio, eagle and Diptrace before deciding to go with KiCAD
I recently switched to altium from kicad, and I work so much faster now. Kicad misses some not so obvious features that are essential for working efficiently, and thinking about what you are doing instead of how you're going to do it (like editing more properties at once)
@@hsxenon Editing more properties at once - Wayne mentioned this during our call (it is not in the video), I think they wished to have it in KiCad 6, but that feature needs to wait for a little bit longer ...
@@RobertFeranec That is precisely what I miss in KiCAD - and the PAN feature on the keyboard, you only get that on the mouse wheel, worst place you can think of - for professional developement. I hoped so much for it in version 6. Sad. Thanks for the info, hoping for it in version 7 but that is most likely 2022 at best.
@@hsxenon Sadly the object inspector / property editor with which you could edit properties of several items at once (if that's what you mean) didn't get ready for v6. It will probably be in v7 because it already works with 5.99 but needed a bit more development and was postponed.
@@rdson1621 Panning, i.e. moving the view, is configurable in 5.99. It seems to be Shift+arrows by default.
Oh my Ground nets all turned into +5V when pulled across to PCBNEW. Very helpful :-(
As a brand new user to both kicad and circuit design, I wouldn't have completed any of the 5 projects I did whilst furloughed due to COVID-19 without it. If I could, I'd donate big time to it. There's no chance I'd be forking out $100's to buy design software when starting out. With kicad my total investment is just my time to learn how to use it and it's easy enough to use that it doesn't take long. The fact that I can generate all the files needed by places like jlcpcb to get boards made is just fantastic.
I enjoyed the interview, I think the long interviews should also be released as an audio podcast
Thank you ASQ. I started thinking about it. If I have more interviews I may upload them as a podcast.
I think the same thing may happen with KiCad as happened with linux: more companies will contribute developer resources to improve it as it is in the best interest of all.
Im still waiting eagerly for some of the RF features from ADS to get added to eeschema
Robert, for these "non-visual" videos, it would be INCREDIBLE if the audio just magically showed up on my phone in the morning so I could listen to it while walking the dog, for example. Obviously, that's called a podcast. In fact, I used a questionable site to snag the audio from this video and listen to it (on my dog walk). Even if only 3 or 4 videos per year qualify as "non-visual", this is a great way to get your content out and it gives users an alternative to RUclips.
Thank you Brandon. Just a week ago, I had exactly the same idea :) I checked that and a podcast should be supported on the website which I use for my blog. I also recorded the introduction audio explaining, that the podcast is just an audio from a video and the plan is starting to come out with some podcasts around the end of this month. But, I would like to thank you very much for this comment, because I was not sure if people would find it useful and you just confirmed, that there are actually people who would listen to it. So, thank you very much.
@@RobertFeranec Personally, I LOVE having the podcast option. I just listened to the Rick Hartley episode on my phone as well. There were a few visuals I'll have to go back and visit tonight, but 99% of the content was fully digestible in podcast form. Keep up the great work. I'm a big fan.
I like KiCAD. There were some very helpful KiCAD "gotcha" behaviors discussed here one would want to be aware of, if promoting team adoption and use of KiCAD. Thank you for discussing the difficult questions.
Thank you Lydell
Good interview and thanks to Wayne and you for the time. Thanks especially to Wayne for his philosophy and incredible work, I'm sure that it can be a frustrating task- it is truly, truly appreciated. I finally retired my old, old copy (1999) of Altium Design Explorer and am going to KiCad. I'm glad to hear that you're motivated by seeing your market penetration and the growth of KiCad. There was one question that I hoped that you two would explore- "What about burnout of the project and how to keep up the enthusiasm? " Some of the greatest open platforms, Wikipedia comes to mind, have sort of reached a longevity crisis with a few key contributors eventually tiring. Its sort of a natural thing, like the arc of a job or a relationship. You and your team seem to have overcome this so far. One of the difficulties with good software is it takes a strong lead with a vision and philosophy like Wayne. Is there some path in the project for succession? Anyway great work and thanks to both of you.
How about grouping components in the PCBnew. Hope to see it in version 6.
There's grouping functionality in 5.99.
Hello Robert! Hope you are doing well. I'm also looking to switch from Eaglecad to KiCad. Sadly Autodesk broke eagle, I been having a lot of issues I didn't had before. Looking forward to see some tutorial videos from you. ;-)
Hello Jordi, how are you? It's been a long time :) For Kicad, I would recommend Phil's videos: ruclips.net/channel/UCVryWqJ4cSlbTSETBHpBUWw
The real question is when is Altium going full SAS on cloud? That will be when KiCad really takes off.
I work at a relatively medium size corporation and we use KiCad. Its free and KiCad 5 was sufficient even, KiCad 6 even more so. And with it being open source and the community contributing more plugins as time goes on, its going to be unbeatable.
Does KiCad offer pre and post layout power and signal integrity simulations?
KiCAD is very good, I use it everyday :)
KiCAD team, you are doing an amazing job! I am learning KiCAD right now to move over from Eagle. How can individuals best and most efficiently integrate into development of KiCAD (learning the inner workings in a top-down approach for efficient entry into the development team)?
I'm in between the same two programs, why are you leaning to Kicad now? what do you think will still miss in Eagle
What fantastic times we live in where we can download and use sophisticated software like KiCAD and FreeCAD without having to shell out thousands. Of course, if you make regular use of it, it's only right that you make a contribution, and businesses should certainly make a contribution. I'd also like to mention the new competitors such as Affinity (Photo, Vector, and DTP) to the established monopolies who insist on ripping people off with forced subscription licensing.
nice!
Thanks for this as always, Robert. The thing that worries me is the cancer that is Autodesk reaching out and extinguishing another life. It has happened way too many times and honestly I don't know why that company isn't in the firing line for anti-competitive practices. They've destroyed so much throughout the decades.
What has Autodesk done? Need an update
If it wasn't clear in the video: KiCad can't be bought. I can't see any way how any company or or other party could extinguish KiCad. It's just not possible.
@@eelikaikkonen7841 Patents and data formats are the bain of the software industry. Something innocuous like compression can stop a product !!
@@blendarious I assume Vince is referring to Eagle, which is slated to be discontinued as a desktop product next year.
But i have to say there are still quite some things missing from Kicad that is important for use in a industrial setting, thinks like adding your own functionality like adding additional left click function like open a datasheet and so own witch can be easily added, features that are present in Pads Layout or even Eagle. Or also adding easily your own icons to the toolbar with custom functions. Also a much better library Manager is definitely needed. Also important things is that you can fill in Atributes of a component from a database external from Kicad this is important for order number and keeping it inline with inventory management system of any Company be it a SQL, Sage or a SAP system. this is very important. Also simple things like having the ability to just add custom layes for anything you want and not be limited by a view eco layers where you cant change the names. I think the new one will have more layers but i dont know if you can change the name etc. And unfortunately the documentation is really bad especially if you want to add your things etc.
Layer names are configurable in v5.99 and there are 9 additional custom layers.
@@eelikaikkonen7841 yes i think the new ones improve on that, i though i tired that in v5.99 and i could not edit the names. you would be surprised how many layers you sometimes need in Commercial designs, but 9 custom ones i for most enough. can you have also extra layes in your footprint and they are automatically added to the layout if you add the footprint to the layout? have to try that sometime
You can do many of this things with some Python scripts.
love kicad
Development continues at a fast pace. What is your opinion on KiCad 7? Is it ready to replace Altium also for professional work?
The feature I cant live without is object snapping. midpoints, intersections, edges, ect.
Thanks for the video. KiCad is the software that allways fulfills my needs - althought I use it a few times per year. During watching this video, I could not resist the temptation to install the nightly :) Many thanks to it's developers, it's a great piece of work!
I would like to know what are the plans on simulator.
(mimochodem, od první věty jsem si říkal.. není to čech? :D )
Thank you Richard. PS: Ano, dobry tip, Slovak. No, tazke je zbavit sa prizvuku .... :)
Any idea if the "schlist" / "pcbList" for bulk property editing would be available on version 6.0? That would be great together with custom filters.. then Altium should start to worry :D
If I understood right, it was planned for 6, but has not been implemented yet and will be moved probably to a next version (7?)
But on the PCB side what are the new features? will be there a special functions to increase the layout? Thank you. I mean on kicad 6
What are "special functions to increase the layout"?
@@eelikaikkonen7841 by special functions I mean advanced functions for PCB layout. unfortunately I have never used kicad so I don't know the features already present. That's It!
@@massimomantovan8446 :-) this is the funniest comment of all
I see it is not possible to select multiple lines or tracks, then edit their properties as a group. Plz comment.
They planned that in 6, but has to be moved to the next version (7?).
if they make a button for factory export whit the centroid file and bom file all in 1 zip :)
Kicad is the best one!
Can you import a finished schematic created with Kicad into Altium, as i much prefer to use kiCad, its an awsome software package and easy to use, i say this because i have never used a PCB software before, Great work KiCad, keep it going.
thanks
I just looked in Altium 20. There is an Importer called "KiCad Importer". But I haven't tried it.
我已经用Kicad设计产品，可以说这是最好的open source cad软件
I love Altium and have used it since the days it was Protel 99. They started out cheap $1500 but now I cannot afford it for home projects. We now use Altium at work and it is worth it even though it has gotten very expense. I like KiCad but it is too basic and only for home projects. I liked Eagle for side gig professionals but since they got bought they messed up the licensing.
I would be very interested to hear the kinds of things you can do in Altium that you could not do in Kicad, to get a better idea where Kicad is lacking.
It's already the third time I try to scroll the kicad homepage that's on the screen...
:D
Hahahaha me too!
57:20 powerful feature
I like the BOM scripting option too.
What is your view about DesignSpark PCB ? It's free, without any limits, community driven, not open sourced yet.
I do not know. I am not sure if I would invest my time learning it if it is only used by small number of people/companies.
ive started to use it recently.... in my opinion is painfull to use the pcb drawing lacks alot of features and functionality. granted the nightly/bleeding edge version has more functionality but that comes at the price of being mostly untested. .... its free though and that is a big advantage.
I always revisit kicad every 6 months or so, because I like to use linux for embedded programming (it’s easier to get all the tools running than Windows, and much more configurable), but I can’t run Altium there, which means dual boot for me.
The progress it’s amazing, and the UI has been improving somewhat, I’ve yet to see v6 because I can’t get it to compile in archlinux.
Generally the deal breakers for me are the libraries. I want libraries that I can trust and that keep information of the components. BOM by hand is by far the most error-prone, unproductive, and infuriating part of any EDA job.
wish 1. autoroute 2. specific manufacture chip Footprint library by FOLDER NAME
Having used NI Design suite for years (Multisim/Ultiboard) KiCAD lacks some DRC options and "geographical" rename. If these features turn up in the next full release it will equal a £6000 package in PCB layout terms. Small companies are sick of paying £1000+ for commercial software that hardly changed in 10 years.
Geographical reannotation is already implemented in the current nightly builds gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/commit/d08bf90576b21476a69f4a0809f7933c88f9d0fa
@@f6fvy Cool!
I worked with Altium as a professional design for avout 4 years now and i also tried Kicad for my personnal open source hardware projects. It's fine for some Really simple hobbyist projects. I felt like i was designing 10 times faster on Altium than Kicad. Also i would never ever attempt some high speed/RF design on kikad, the features are way too basic for real professional PCB's.
There where RF/HF project made with KiCAD. I would not use Altium for professional projects.
Altium is closed source and produce binary blobs. You depend on Altium to open these. This is a real problem. I had too many problems with this kind of software in the past and we need some old PCs at work that run older OSs (like Windows ME, Windows XP and Windows 7) that we can't update because some closed source software only runs on them and we still need this software.
Altium is ok for hobby project or a PCB you do not care anymore in 4 years, but it is useless for any serious project.
.
For the 10 times faster, yes this is what happens when you invest a lot of time in a Program.
I actually think that changes in KICAD are more evaluated by the user base than the commercial sofware.
The commercial software has changes defined by the supplier, though based often on their customer feedback via support issues. But also commercial/marketting targets, so maybe pushed more by cost/profit targets than true improvement. If not just flat subscription and license continuity, may well introduce changes to justify version upgrade sales, not to make the product really better.
The testing is usually limited to in house team, until well into completion, then evaluation by selected 'prime' customers. Most licensees have no access till release of completed update, and till then little information is public for even discussion.
In KICAD the changes are, as commented by Wayne, recognised better/missing/not perfect features by the experienced lead team. But also considerable direct feedback by the huge number of users, from difficulties by novices to people with massive experience who have had very wide experience with msny different EDA tools. The changes are considered by lead team and even though anyone can edit the source to heart content, own version. To contribute the changes thus created, they can not mysteriously appear in the "daily" or stable version releases. For any proposed personal changes to appear the changes will be seriously evaluated to be sensible, beneficial, workable, desirable and above all of good code quality. Any changes that reach the 'daily' versions will then be visible and evaluated by the hundreds to thousands of users trying these "working" trial software. Lots of feedback on forum or bug reports will occur right through the long cycle before such user changes actually remain in a stable (annual) version update. Such changes may not even exist for more than on future stable version. If there is no sign that the change is wanted or it is found deficient it may never become permanent. All along the changes may be revised by the many software active support people, even morphing into a better solution yet recoded several times by other experienced programmers and lead team.
I would have far less concern about bad changes reaching a stable version that I may not like or makes my work more difficult than changes forced on me by commercial software version updates, where over 45 years I have had some extreme issues even on CAD systems in 1980s where software licenses costing over $50K on $150K computers, had made changes that destroyed older design files or made user jump hoops to do work with the new releases. Up to 4 months delay for fixed new software. The old license software now rejected irretrievably by license manager that even prevented reinstallation of the old license once the new license was installed. Crazy encrypted codes in hidden sectors coding on the SMD hard drives. Even the CAD system supplier failed to reenable the old license. Came close to being taken through the legal court processes.
No I prefer open source and human readable files over closed system with proprietory binary files. Prefer ability to create macro/ script software for own extensions or streamlining of work.
As far as the question of versioning. As KICAD files are pure text, it is inherently usable with any versioning system. Most large organisations will have some form of versioning throughout the technical areas for all design and documentation systems. It is almost essential the the EDA and CAD are not coming with their own imbeded versioning systems, as you can no longer make proper use of the entire company system, without difficult work arounds, if at all feasible in some instances.
Also the pure text formats make possible in any good edotor to repair/recover from mysterious glitch errors that ineviably only occur on the most critical files at the most inconvienet times. Yes many CAD/EDA will have some utility support for basic validation/corruption issues. But often still failing in worst times. The open text files can be hand patched/edited to at worst recover to workable status. Also has been used to fix simple design issues, that were seemingly appearing for unknown reasons by the main software, be it a configuration issue or some bad setup of work environment not clear why or how. Edit manually fixed it faster than spend much time working out the original reason for the issue. Solve that later, get the current job finished and out the door.
One observed issue I have noted in several discussions with both novices through to experts. Many reject KICAD because it is not an identical working interface to the specific XYZ software the person currently is familiar with. As an example in KICAD the zoom is variable rate on the mouse wheel rotation rate and amount. The user hates KICAD because he is workwise zooming in/out rapidly as he carries out his editing, but the prefered software only zooms by amount of wheel rotation, which for them is comfortable and well practiced. On KICAD he will zoom back and forth and suddenly find the change is far more than he desired. The wheel rotation was faster or of larger increment which KICAD scales to greater amount of zoom expecting the rapid rotation or larger wheel pulse count is targetting more zoom. It is convienient action if you are used to that, but a horror if jumping zoom around like a jack rabbit.
I too sometimes dislike the tendency to self centre on clicking the edit field. However I have used and still use many different software packages and expect that the user interfaces will have differences. I adjust to changes rather than try to customise the user interface as that sooner or later results in issues as new version come or when using the software on another computer and you are left puzzeled as you no longer work with the standard interface. I do like ability to rearrange menus placements, add menu items or add hot keys. Always try to be flexible not tied to one way only but avoid making the system to unique to my way, ready to learn each software.
Thank you Helmuth
Zooming/panning and mouse actions are very configurable in v5.99.
@@eelikaikkonen7841 that would be nice, personally I manage fine presently but have noted several users who make the zooming their reason to reject KICAD so that should make it better, if not too hard to configure and that the capability is made evident. Some people rejecting KICAD still, on investigation, have not even tried vers 5 having only run ver 3 or 4 so
I'm definitely going to check 5.99. This zoom BS is killing me. No idea why enyone would prefer it that way.
@@kubsztal default zoom setting is something what I had to change: Preferences -> Mouse and Touchpad -> Center and warp cursor on zoom: UNCHECK
I can't wait to migrate fully to KiCad from CADSTAR.
For those using Zuken CADSTAR, I'd like to make you aware that KiCad V6 will have a complete CADSTAR importer. I am aiming for the importer to replicate the orginal design as accurately as possible. You can test it out in the nightlies now and let me know of any bugs or import errors you find. Discussion in the forum here: forum.kicad.info/t/work-in-progress-native-cadstar-importer/24665
Three thumbs up!
In a corporate setting the need for Customer Support will always be a main factor to deciding whether to go for a professional eda software or one that is free and community driven. Unless KiCad becomes a paid product along with a solid customer support team I just can't see it getting above the hobby range. Certainly looking like its going in the right direction though.
Compare this with Linux (especially commercially developed distributions), Open/LibreOffice, Firefox, MySQL, LAMP combination, or whatever... You can have a non-paid product above the hobby range, and as was told in the video, you can already buy KiCad support from a company.
@@eelikaikkonen7841 All very valid points, thanks. Ok, let me be straightforward in what I'm trying to convey here; where does shareholders and/or management puts the lawsuit(s) when faults are caused by negligence from the software developer side? Not that it is cause for immediate concern, don't get me wrong, however most insurance policy states that it feels better reassured with a strong legal entity supporting corporate tooling, especially when high-tech consumer products are engineered with tools such as eda, automation and analysis/validation software.
@@gtcollection6933 That's interesting. I'm not a legal expert nor do I have experience about big company management. For example the Altium EULA has has the same "provided as-is without any warranty whatsoever" clause than GPL3. Is it really possible to sue a software company because their software didn't work, and win? Like get money from Microsoft when Windows crashes? If not, why would insurance companies require that? Well, if some EE companies need an EDA software company for that, KiCad is out of luck I think.
Otherwise I believe that the KiCad offering may be equal or better in practice. You probably would get better "customer support" even from the end user forum than some companies offer for money. KiCad development and bug fixing is transparent and you can pay for features or fixes or fix it yourself. Some companies answer politely but do nothing and certainly won't let you or a developer hired by you to handle the source code.
@@eelikaikkonen7841 I am aware of cases where exploits and bugs reports weren't dealt within contractual agreement leading to significant financial and reputation losses. Compensation requests were made and effectively won. In a case where deliberate 'negligence' (and there is a lot of that) causing significant losses, or worst, loss of life, there are grounds for legal regardless of the fine prints. When you "Sell for Profits & Gains" there is a legal & social responsibility attached - again - regardless of the fine prints.
Does not change the fact that KiCad is one of the best open source piece of kit out there (so I heard). I simply find it unfortunate that it may struggle to jump from the maker/hobby level to an industry level eda as some wish because of a lack of legal & support. That's all really.
Thanks for sharing your views btw, quite interesting.
@@gtcollection6933 I think you EDA needs coincide with about 1% or fewer PCB designers and you should definitely pay 20K per annum licence to EDA software company plus 500K to the insurance company. But you don't care as you charge 20M per PCB.
Thanks for sharing your views btw, quite interesting. :-)