17 Feb
2017
17 Feb
'17
11:35 a.m.
From: Jon Elson
Dave Bridgham and I have been using KiCAD for our stuff, and we're pretty
happy with it.
Here are a few bits: this is just data, I'm not trying to convince anyone to
use it - the points about 'complex tools one is already very used to' are
very good ones.
I'm most concerned about the reliability of the
design rules check
...
If these checks miss errors, I REALLY don't want to use the package.
I'm not quite sure what's covered here, but I have used the checker on my
admittedly-tiny projects, and been happy with it.
and layout vs. schematic.
Again, Dave has used it to lay out at least one moderately-sized card, and
seems to have been happy with the results.
(KiCad seems to still require picking operations from
a menu, Protel
has user-configurable keyboard shortcuts that are a big help. Maybe
KiCad has that and I just need to learn them.)
KiCAD does have keyboard shortcuts. I don't know if they are configurable.
From: Guy Sotomayor Jr
In terms of community supplied libraries, Eagle has
those too and I've
found that by and large they are junk (it's easier/quicker for me to
create a part on my own
... While I haven't seen a lot of KiCAD contributed libraries (that's
part of the problem)
KiCAD came with a fairly large set of user-contributed libraries. For various
reasons (including working with archaic parts), I've wound up adding quite a
few, but i've usally found it pretty easy to modify an exising part from the
libraries, to get what I need. YMMV.
Noel