Buyers’ Guide

EFY Plus DVD KiCad overview

Beneath its singular surface, KiCad incorporates an elegant ensemble of the following standalone software tools. KiCad includes a project manager and comprises four main independent software tools:

Eeschema—the schematic capture editor.

Cvpcb—the footprint selector for components used in the circuit design.

Pcbnew—printed circuit board editor. It also has 3D view.

Gerbview—Gerber (photo plotter documents) file viewer.

Three utilities also included are:

Bitmap2Component. A component maker for logos (creates a schematic component or a footprint from a bitmap picture).

PcbCalculator. A calculator that is helpful to calculate components for regulators, track width versus current and transmission lines.

PlEditor. Page layout editor.

Kicad Pcbnew3D

Project

example.pro project management file example.sch main schematic file example.kicad_pcb printed circuit board file example.net netlist file example.xxx various files created by the other utility programs example.cache.lib cache file of libraries used in the schematic (backup of the components used)

Being open source (GPL licenced), KiCad represents the ideal tool for projects oriented towards the creation of electronic hardware with an open source flavour.

each single schematic component with its footprint component. A very large component footprint library comes with KiCad.

Step 3: PCB layout. The Pcbnew board editor can handle up to 16 copper layers plus 12 technical layers (silk screen and solder mask) and allows you to layout the final PCB.

To successfully perform these steps, KiCad comes with additional software tools. Two library component editors allow you to create or modify schematic components and footprint components. The 3D viewer allows you to render a final 3D model of your PCB. For the generation of the necessary compliant files for manufacturing, your PCB (Gerber files for photoplotters, drilling files and component location files), Pcbnew and Gerbview are used. Postscript or PDF file generation is also possible.

What one can do with KiCad

KiCad is considered mature and can 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 16 copper layers and 12 technical layers. KiCad can also create all the files necessary for building printed boards like Gerber files for photo-plotters, drilling files, component location files and a whole lot more.

Being open source (GPL licenced), KiCad represents the ideal tool for projects oriented towards the creation of electronic hardware with an opensource flavour. It is an excellent tool for professionals and hobbyist, mainly due to the excessive cost of commercial software that are prohibitive for students and hobbyists.

With the help of the project manager, one can start the creation of a project by launching Eeschema. It manages a direct and fast access to component documentation. Eeschema is an integrated package because it comprises all the functionalities such as library management, layout, drawing and control to name a few. Using multi-sheet diagrams, it allows hierarchical drawings—simple, complex and flat hierarchies. Needed for modern schematic capture, Eeschema provides some essential additional functions such as: 1. Design rules check (DRC) for the automatic control of incorrect connections, and the inputs of components left unconnected. 2. Export of the layout files to POSTSCRIPT or HPGL format. 3. Printing the layout files on a local printer. 4. BOM generation. 5. Net list generation for PCB layout or simulation software.

KiCad component libraries

KiCad comes with a large set of open source library components. A textbased format is used for both schematic and PCB components. This allows the direct editing of your library files with any text-based software.

Both Eeschema and Pcbnew have a library manager as well as a library component editor for modifying and creating components and footprint parts. You can create, edit, delete or exchange library items easily. Documentation files can be associated to components and footprints, and key words, allowing a fast search by function. Very large libraries, created over many years, are available for schematic components and footprints. Most of printed board modules (footprint) are available with their 3D shape model.

The other very exciting aspect of KiCad is that library components for both PCB and schematic are actually plain text files.

KiCad’s principle of use

In order to manage a KiCad project, schematic files, PCB files, supplemen-

About KiCad

Type: EDA Initial Release: 1992 Latest stable release: BZR-4022 on July 7, 2013 Coded in: C++ Licence: GNU GPL v2, GNU LGPL v2.1 Operating systems: Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X (experimental) Disk space required: 197MB (for Windows), 268MB (for UBUNTU)

Fig. 1: Main window

Fig. 2: Utility launch pane

Fig. 3: Project tree view tary libraries, manufacturing files for phototracing, drilling and automatic component

Fig. 4: Top toolbar

placement files, it is recommended to create a project as follows: 1. Create a working directory for the project (using KiCad or by other means). 2. In this directory, use KiCad to create a project file (file with extension .pro) via the ‘Start a new project’ icon.

It is strongly recommended to use the same name for both project files and its directory. KiCad creates a file with a .pro extension that maintains a number of parameters for project management (such as the filename of the principal schematic, list of libraries used in the schematics and PCBs). Default names of both principal schematic and PCB files are derived from the name of the project. Thus, if a project called example.pro was created in a directory called example, the default files will be created as in the ‘Project’ box.

KiCad’s graphical user interface

The main KiCad window (Fig. 1) is composed of a project tree view, a launch pane containing buttons used to run the various software tools and a message window. The menu and the toolbar can be used to create, read and save project files. KiCad allows you to run all standalone software tools that come with it. The launch pane (Fig. 2) is made of the seven buttons that correspond to the following commands (from left to right): 1 – Eeschema, 2 – Cvpcb, 3 – Pcbnew, 4 – Gerbview, 5 – Bitmap2component, 6 – Pcb calculator, 7 – PI Editor.

Each project has a project tree view (see Fig. 3). Double-clicking on the Eeschema icons runs the schematic editor, which in this case will open the file ‘pic_programmer.sch.’ Doubleclicking on the Pcbnew icon runs the layout editor, in this case opening the file ‘pic_programmer.kicad_pcb.’ Right clicking on any of the files in the project tree allows generic files manipulation. KiCad top toolbar (Fig. 4) allows for some basic files operation (from left to right).

Download and install KiCad

KiCad runs on Linux, Apple OS X and Windows. You can download a copy of KiCad from:

http://kicad.sourceforge.net/wiki/

Main_Page

Installation instructions are available on the KiCad website under: Info/ Install.

Whatever installation method you choose, always go for a recent version of KiCad.

Under Linux. Under Linux, the easiest way to install KiCad is via Aptitude. Type into your terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:paxer/ppa

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude

safe-upgrade

sudo aptitude install KiCadKiCad-

doc-en

At the time of writing, the standard apt-get repository of Ubuntu offers a version of KiCad which is about one year old. Alternatively, you can download and install a pre-compile version of KiCad, or directly download the source code, compile and install KiCad.

Under Apple OS X. At the time of writing, the best way to install KiCad on Apple OS X was to download a prebuild binary from:

http://kicad.sourceforge.net/wiki/

Downloads

Note. Installation files for only Linux and Windows platforms are available in the DVD that accompanies this issue of Electronics For You Plus. 

The author is a senior technical correspondent at EFY. The article has inputs from KiCad’s latest documentation released on March 17, 2014