Getting Started in Kicad the Kicad Team Table of Contents .In
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Getting Started in KiCad The KiCad Team Table of Contents .In. .t.r.o.d.u. .c.t.i.o.n. .t.o. .K.i.C. .a.d. .2. .D.o. .w.n. .l.o.a.d. .in. .g. .a.n. .d. .i.n.s.t.a.l.l.in. .g. .K.i.C. .a.d. .2. .S.u.p. .p.o. .r.t. .4. .K.i.C.a. .d. .W. .o.r.k.fl. .o.w. .5. .O.v. .e.r.v.i.e.w. .5. .F.o.r.w. .a.r.d. a. .n.d. b. .a.c.k. .w.a. .r.d. .a.n. .n.o. .ta. .t.io. .n. .7. .U.s.i.n. .g. .K.i.C.a. .d. .8. .S.h.o. .r.t.c.u.t. .k.e.y.s. .8. .D.r.a. .w. .e.l.e.c. .tr.o. .n.i.c. .s.c.h. .e.m. .a.t.i.c.s. .1. .0. .U.s.i.n. .g. .E.e.s.c. .h.e.m. .a. 1. .0. .B.u. .s. c. .o.n.n. .e.c.t.i.o.n. .s. .in. K. .i.C.a.d. 2. .2. .L.a.y.o. .u.t. .p.r.i.n.t.e.d. .c.ir.c. .u.i.t. b. .o.a.r.d. .s. .2. .4. .U.s.i.n. .g. .P.c.b. .n.e.w. 2. .4. .G.e. .n.e.r.a. .t.e. .G.e. .r.b.e.r. .fi.l.e.s. 3. .0. .U.s.i.n. .g. .G.e. .r.b.V.i.e.w. 3. .0. .A.u. .to. .m. .a.t.i.c.a.l.l.y. r.o. .u.t.e. .w. .i.th. .F.r.e.e.R. .o.u. .t.e.r. 3. .0. .F.o.r.w. .a.r.d. a. .n.n. .o.t.a.t.i.o.n. i.n. .K. .iC. .a.d. .3. .2. .M. .a.k.e. s.c. .h.e.m. .a.t.ic. s.y. .m. .b.o. .ls. .i.n. .K.i.C. .a.d. .3. .3. .U.s.i.n. .g. .C.o.m. .p.o.n. .e.n. .t. L.i.b. .r.a.r.y. .E.d. .it.o.r. 3. .3. .E.x.p. .o.r.t., .i.m. .p.o. .r.t .a.n. .d. .m. .o. .d.i.f.y. l.i.b.r.a. .r.y. c. .o.m. .p. .o.n.e. .n.t.s. 3. .5. .M. .a.k.e. s.c. .h.e.m. .a.t.ic. c.o. .m. .p.o. .n.e. .n.t.s. .w. .it.h. q. .u.i.c.k.l.i.b. 3. .5. .M. .a.k.e. a. h. .ig. .h. .p.i.n. c.o. .u.n. .t. s.c. .h.e.m. .a.t.ic. c.o. .m. .p.o. .n.e. .n.t. 3. .6. .M. .a.k.e. c.o. .m. .p.o. .n.e. .n.t. .fo. .o.t.p.r.i.n. .ts. .3. .9. .U.s.i.n. .g. .F.o.o.t.p. .r.in. .t. E. .d.i.t.o.r. 3. .9. .N.o. .t.e. .a.b.o. .u.t. .p.o. .r.ta. .b.i.l.it.y. .o.f. .K.i.C.a. .d. .p.r.o. .je. .c.t. fi. .le. .s. .4. .1. .M. .o.r.e. .a.b. .o.u. .t. K. .iC. .a.d. d. .o.c.u. .m. .e.n. .t.a.t.i.o.n. .4. .2. .K.i.C.a. .d. .d.o. .c.u.m. .e. .n.t.a.t.i.o.n. o. .n. .t.h.e. W. .e. .b. 4. .2. Essential and concise guide to mastering KiCad for the successful development of sophisticated electronic printed circuit boards. Copyright This document is Copyright © 2010-2018 by its contributors as listed below. You may distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General Public License (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), version 3.0 or later. All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners. Contributors David Jahshan, Phil Hutchinson, Fabrizio Tappero, Christina Jarron, Melroy van den Berg. Feedback Please direct any bug reports, suggestions or new versions to here: About KiCad documentation: https://gitlab.com/kicad/services/kicad-doc/issues About KiCad software: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/issues About KiCad software internationalization (i18n): https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad-i18n/issues Publication date 2015, May 16. 1 Introduction to KiCad KiCad is an open-source software tool for the creation of electronic schematic diagrams and PCB artwork. Beneath its singular surface, KiCad incorporates an elegant ensemble of the following stand-alone software tools: Program name Description File extension KiCad Project manager *.pro Eeschema Schematic and component editor *.sch, *.lib, *.net Pcbnew Circuit board and footprint *.kicad_pcb, *.kicad_mod editor GerbView Gerber and drill file viewer \*.g\*, *.drl, etc. Bitmap2Component Convert bitmap images to *.lib, *.kicad_mod, *.kicad_wks components or footprints PCB Calculator Calculator for components, track None width, electrical spacing, color codes, and more… Pl Editor Page layout editor *.kicad_wks The file extension list is not complete and only contains a subset of the files that KiCad NOTE supports. It is useful for the basic understanding of which files are used for each KiCad application. KiCad can be considered mature enough to be used for the successful development and maintenance of complex electronic boards. KiCad does not present any board-size limitation and it can easily handle up to 32 copper layers, up to 14 technical layers and up to 4 auxiliary layers. KiCad can create all the files necessary for building printed boards, Gerber files for photo-plotters, drilling files, component location files and a lot more. Being open source (GPL licensed), KiCad represents the ideal tool for projects oriented towards the creation of electronic hardware with an open-source flavour. On the Internet, the homepage of KiCad is: http://www.kicad-pcb.org/ Downloading and installing KiCad KiCad runs on GNU/Linux, Apple macOS and Windows. You can find the most up to date instructions and download links at: http://www.kicad-pcb.org/download/ 2 KiCad stable releases occur periodically per the KiCad Stable Release Policy. New features are continually being added to the development branch. If you would like to take advantage of these new features and help out by testing them, please download IMPORTANT the latest nightly build package for your platform. Nightly builds may introduce bugs such as file corruption, generation of bad Gerbers, etc., but it is the goal of the KiCad Development Team to keep the development branch as usable as possible during new feature development. Under GNU/Linux Stable releases of KiCad can be found in most distribution’s package managers as kicad and kicad-doc. If your distribution does not provide latest stable version, please follow the instruction for unstable builds and select and install the latest stable version. Under Ubuntu, the easiest way to install an unstable nightly build of KiCad is via PPA and Aptitude. Type the following into your Terminal: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:js-reynaud/ppa-kicad sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude safe-upgrade sudo aptitude install kicad kicad-doc-en Under Debian, the easiest way to install backports build of KiCad is: # Set up Debian Backports echo -e " # stretch-backports deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch-backports main contrib non-free deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch-backports main contrib non-free " | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list > /dev/null # Run an Update & Install KiCad sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -t stretch-backports kicad Under Fedora the easiest way to install an unstable nightly build is via copr. To install KiCad via copr type the following in to copr: sudo dnf copr enable @kicad/kicad sudo dnf install kicad Alternatively, you can download and install a pre-compiled version of KiCad, or directly download the source code, compile and install KiCad. Under Apple macOS Stable builds of KiCad for macOS can be found at: http://downloads.kicad-pcb.org/osx/stable/ Unstable nightly development builds can be found at: http://downloads.kicad-pcb.org/osx/ 3 Under Windows Stable builds of KiCad for Windows can be found at: http://downloads.kicad-pcb.org/windows/stable/ For Windows you can find nightly development builds at: http://downloads.kicad-pcb.org/windows/ Support If you have ideas, remarks or questions, or if you just need help: Visit the forum Join the #kicad IRC channel on Freenode Watch tutorials 4 KiCad Workflow Despite its similarities with other PCB design software, KiCad is characterised by a unique workflow in which schematic components and footprints are separate. Only after creating a schematic are footprints assigned to the components. Overview The KiCad workflow is comprised of two main tasks: drawing the schematic and laying out the board. Both a schematic component library and a PCB footprint library are necessary for these two tasks. KiCad includes many components and footprints, and also has the tools to create new ones. In the picture below, you see a flowchart representing the KiCad workflow. The flowchart explains which steps you need to take, and in which order. When applicable, the icon is added for convenience. 5 6 For more information about creating a component, read Making schematic symbols. And for information about how to create a new footprint, see Making component footprints.