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> Our conclusion was that for hobby projects and very simple professional PCBs, KiCad is a great tool, but it's just not enough for even slightly demanding proj

by aylons 10y ago

> Our conclusion was that for hobby projects and very simple professional PCBs, KiCad is a great tool, but it's just not enough for even slightly demanding projects (and I'm not even talking about high-frequency design, EMI analysis, and multi-person projects). You are entitled to your opinion, and surely there are more advanced tools, but lots of people do high-frequency design using Kicad. HackRF, from Michael Ossman, is a SDR board entirely built in Kicad [1]. Heck, I've done nice, complex high-density, high-speed FPGA-based boards in Kicad. It's still not at the high leagues, but I wouldn't dismiss it as only an option for hobbyists and simple PCBs. I, personally, find it much better than Eagle, and I'm not the only one. [1] https://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/ https://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/

vvanders 10y ago
I'm not sure I'd hold up Eagle high as a bar to beat.
- Cerium 10y ago
  Eagle may not be a high bar to beat but it is a commercial product that in my experience KiCAD has exceeded.
- aylons 10y ago
  It surely isn't, but is a commercial product that get much less heat then Kicad.
the_duke 10y ago
Can you respond to the specific criticisms of OP then?
- aylons 10y ago
  Not every discussion has a winner and I'm not Kicad's lawyer. I'm just honestly adding to the discussion, not trying to "win" a debate or anything.
  - the_duke 10y ago
    That was not what I was inferring, I was just geniously interested in counterpoints.
adwn 10y ago
I didn't say that it's impossible to do these things in KiCad, it's rather that KiCad doesn't offer a lot of assistance for those scenarios. In the extreme case, you can design your PCB by hand-writing the Gerber files, but the point of an EDA tool is that it should handle the automatable stuff.
- aylons 10y ago
  I agree that it has wide room for improvements, but I still find it very comparable to Eagle, for example. But it is in a steady improvement route, while operating in a much harder segment to attract the resources they need than most free/open-source projects: their best users aren't high-level programmers, neither UX experts, and UX experts and high-level programmers aren't their typical users[1]. I still use Altium for my most complex designs, even for reasons beyong those you've posted, but it surely can be used for professional projects beyond the simplest ones, even taking advantage of the automation by learning a few simple patterns. [1] Except, of course, by coincidence. As a primarily hardware engineer, I'm trying to help by re-learning desktop programming, something I haven't done in years.

by aylons 10y ago

vvanders 10y ago

I'm not sure I'd hold up Eagle high as a bar to beat.

Cerium 10y ago
Eagle may not be a high bar to beat but it is a commercial product that in my experience KiCAD has exceeded.
aylons 10y ago
It surely isn't, but is a commercial product that get much less heat then Kicad.

the_duke 10y ago

Can you respond to the specific criticisms of OP then?

aylons 10y ago
Not every discussion has a winner and I'm not Kicad's lawyer. I'm just honestly adding to the discussion, not trying to "win" a debate or anything.
- the_duke 10y ago
  That was not what I was inferring, I was just geniously interested in counterpoints.

adwn 10y ago

I didn't say that it's impossible to do these things in KiCad, it's rather that KiCad doesn't offer a lot of assistance for those scenarios. In the extreme case, you can design your PCB by hand-writing the Gerber files, but the point of an EDA tool is that it should handle the automatable stuff.

aylons 10y ago
I agree that it has wide room for improvements, but I still find it very comparable to Eagle, for example. But it is in a steady improvement route, while operating in a much harder segment to attract the resources they need than most free/open-source projects: their best users aren't high-level programmers, neither UX experts, and UX experts and high-level programmers aren't their typical users[1]. I still use Altium for my most complex designs, even for reasons beyong those you've posted, but it surely can be used for professional projects beyond the simplest ones, even taking advantage of the automation by learning a few simple patterns. [1] Except, of course, by coincidence. As a primarily hardware engineer, I'm trying to help by re-learning desktop programming, something I haven't done in years.