4 ms·
Love KiCAD and used it to make single and 2-layer boards around 2014. One niggle was if you had an unusual component it was not much fun to define new one, bind
by nonrandomstring 4y ago
Love KiCAD and used it to make single and 2-layer boards around 2014.
One niggle was if you had an unusual component it was not much fun to
define new one, binding together the schematic symbol and footprint
into a package, dealing with unused pins and labels etc. Eagle seemed
to have more professional component libraries. Anyway I expect that's
improved in the past 8 years.
- fest 4y agoIt's still not fun, but I'd put it on par with Altium Designer: + at least I don't have to generate my own bog-standard 0402, 0603 resistor/capacitor footprints, + a lot of the standard IPC-something footprints are included in kicad standard library (e.g. SOT23, SOP8, etc) + you can easily copy an existing transistor symbol, assign it a particular footprint you've verified and save to your library). - Altium has a lot more built-in wizards for symbol and footprint generation. There are some online kicad symbol library generators and a few built-in footprint wizards, but I believe AD has more. The Altium online component library probably does provide a larger selection, but I personally don't really trust it to be around forever. I'm also not sure if you don't need an active altium subscription (5000-8000USD/yr/seat) to have access to it.
- phendrenad2 4y agoThis is what keeps me from using Kicad also. In my opinion creating custom components is the #1 thing pcb editors should focus on, but most freeware or libre pcb editors assume you'll mostly want to pull parts from a standard bank. That's fine, but I like to customize my footprints and also carefully validate them against the manufacturer datasheet.