There are many PCB design software solutions available. The software you use should be able to draw both schematics and printed circuit boards.
You can install KiCad on Windows, Mac OS and several flavors of Linux using operating system-specific installers. Its source code is also available, so you can download it and compile it yourself. You can find the version of the installer for your OS at the KiCad download page. KiCAD EDA is open source and a cross platform supporting software. Free Mac DWF Viewer software. Best 7 Stick Figure Animation Software Download; Top 21 Mac.
- Download KiCad 2013.07.7 from our software library for free. KiCad is suitable for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10. This free software is an intellectual property of KiCad Developers Team. The most frequent installer filenames for the program include: kicad.exe, cvpcb.exe and kicad-4.0.6-i686 1.exe etc.
- KiCad for Mac OS X 5.1.5 freeware download. The download should start automatically in a few seconds. If it doesn't, click here to start the download process manually. Would you like to receive announcements about new KiCad for Mac OS X versions by email? More details and free registration here.
And it should be able to output Gerber files that you can send to a PCB manufacturer and get your board made.
Below I’ve compiled a list of three free cross-platform programs available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS.
I have copied their own description of themselves from each of their websites. Just to give you an idea of what they are about (or at least how they like to present themselves).
And at the end, I’ll let you know my favorite ;)
BTW – I HIGHLY recommend learning PCB design as it will help you big time in building cool projects. Without this knowledge, I would never have been able to build projects like a quadcopter, LCD screen, RFID Music Player +++
It’s one of many skills that I teach over at Ohmify.
KiCad
From the KiCad website:
“KiCad is an open source software suite for electronic design automation (EDA) made for designing schematics of electronic circuits and printed circuit boards (PCB). KiCad is developed by the KiCad Developers Team, and features an integrated environment with schematic capture, bill of materials list, PCB layout and much more.
Compared to the other free software alternatives, KiCad solves all stages with the same interface: Schematic Capture, PCB layout, Gerber generation/visualization and library editing.
KiCad is cross-platform, written with WxWidgets and runs on FreeBSD, Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. A lot of component libraries are available. Also migrating tools for components are available (from other EDA software tools). File formats are plain text and well documented, which is good for CVS or Subversion and to make automated component generation scripts.”
Cadsoft Eagle
From the Cadsoft Eagle website:
“The name EAGLE is an acronym, which stands for Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor. This award winning software offers user friendly, powerful and affordable solutions for PCB design, including Schematic Capture, Board Layout and Autorouter. User Language Programs enable features such as simulation and 3D-visualization.
Whether you are a team of one, or part of a large engineering department, EAGLE provides quality PCB design software with the features that get the job done. For over 20 years, EAGLE has been satisfying design engineers around the world, by offering the same core functionality as expensive commercial software, at the fraction of the cost.”
gEDA-project
From the gEDA website:
“The gEDA project has produced and continues working on a full GPL’d suite and toolkit of Electronic Design Automation tools. These tools are used for electrical circuit design, schematic capture, simulation, prototyping, and production. Currently, the gEDA project offers a mature suite of free software applications for electronics design, including schematic capture, attribute management, bill of materials (BOM) generation, netlisting into over 20 netlist formats, analog and digital simulation, and printed circuit board (PCB) layout.
The gEDA project was started because of the lack of free EDA tools for POSIX systems with the primary purpose of advancing the state of free hardware or open-source hardware. The suite is mainly being developed on the GNU/Linux platform with some development effort going into making sure the tools run on other platforms as well.”
My preference: KiCad
My preferred PCB design software is KiCad. I used to prefer Eagle up to around 2016. But then I switched to KiCad and I’ve never looked back.
KiCad is used by professionals and researchers alike. Did you know that even the people over at CERN use Kicad? They also contribute a lot to the development of it.
I wrote an article called Kicad vs Eagle where I do a more detailed comparison. Check it out if you’re not sure which one to use.
And if you’re sold, head on over to my KiCad Tutorial: Make Your First PCB.
Original author(s) | Jean-Pierre Charras |
---|---|
Developer(s) | KiCad developers[1] |
Initial release | 1992; 28 years ago[2] |
Stable release | 5.1.7 / 30 September 2020; 32 days ago |
Repository | |
Written in | C++[3] |
Operating system | Linux, macOS, Windows |
Available in | 23 languages[4] |
Type | EDA |
License | GNU GPL v3+[5] |
Website | www.kicad.org |
KiCad Eeschema for schematic capture
KiCad Pcbnew for layout design
KiCad 3D Viewer showing both VRML and IDF features on a demo board
KiCad 3D Viewer
KiCad (pronounced 'Key-CAD'[6]) is a free software suite for electronic design automation (EDA). It facilitates the design of schematics for electronic circuits and their conversion to PCB designs. KiCad was originally developed by Jean-Pierre Charras. It features an integrated environment for schematic capture and PCB layout design. Tools exist within the package to create a bill of materials, artwork, Gerber files, and 3D views of the PCB and its components.
History[edit]
KiCad was created in 1992 by Jean-Pierre Charras while working at IUT de Grenoble.[7] Since then KiCad has gained a number of both volunteer and paid contributors. Notably in 2013 the CERN BE-CO-HT section started contributing resources towards KiCad to help foster open hardware development by helping improve KiCad to be on par with commercial EDA tools.
KiCad adopted a point release versioning scheme in December 2015 starting with KiCad 4.0.0. This was the first release featuring the more advanced tools implemented by CERN developers. CERN hopes to contribute further to the development of KiCad by hiring a developer through donations. Contributions may be made through the links on KiCad's website.
Components[edit]
The KiCad suite has five main parts:
KiCad
– the project manager.Eeschema
– the schematic capture editor.Pcbnew
– the PCB layout program. It also has a 3D view.GerbView
– the Gerber viewer.Bitmap2Component
– tool to convert images to footprints for PCB artwork.
Features[edit]
KiCad uses an integrated environment for all of the stages of the design process: Schematic capture, PCB layout, Gerber file generation/visualization, and library editing.
KiCad is a cross-platform program, written in C++ with wxWidgets to run on FreeBSD, Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Many component libraries are available, and users can add custom components. The custom components can be available on a per-project basis or installed for use in any project. There are also tools to help with importing components from other EDA applications, for instance EAGLE. There are also third party libraries available for KiCad, including SnapEDA, and the Digi-Key KiCad Library.[8] Configuration files are in well documented plain text, which helps with interfacing version control systems, as well as with automated component generation scripts.
Localisation[edit]
Multiple languages are supported, such as Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, and Swedish.
Eeschema[edit]
Eeschema has features including hierarchical schematic sheets, custom symbol creation, and an ERC (electrical rules check). Schematic symbols in Eeschema are very loosely coupled to footprints in Pcbnew to encourage reuse of footprints and symbols (e.g. a single 0805 footprint can be used for capacitors, resistors, inductors, etc.).
Pcbnew[edit]
Internally Pcbnew supports up to 32 copper layers and 32 technical layers. Dimensions are stored with nanometer precision in signed 32-bit integers making the theoretical maximal PCB dimension 231 nm, or approximately 2.14 meters.
Currently[citation needed] Pcbnew is being heavily refactored, including getting a new rendering engine (called the graphics abstraction layer, or GAL) with OpenGL and Cairo back ends. Pcbnew is also getting a new tool framework to more easily allow developers to add tools without having to deal with supporting multiple renderers. Due to this some tools are only available on the legacy XOR-based renderer and some are only available with the GAL renderers.
KiCad has a built-in autorouter for basic, single connections. Alternatively, Alfons Wirtz's open-source Java-based FreeRouting[9] can be used to externally autoroute boards. Anthony Blake's Toporouter, a topological autorouter developed in 2008 for gEDAPCB as a Google-funded open source project mentored by DJ Delorie,[10] has been adapted for use with KiCad as well.
A DRC (design rules check) is available to check for common logical errors.
Kicad Free Download For Mac
The 3D PCB viewing function is based on VRML models, and the board model can be exported for CAD integration.
Some recent[citation needed] additions follow.
An interactive router, which features the ability to walk around existing traces in the way or shove existing traces into a different position while maintaining their connectivity.
High-speed PCB routing tools such as track-length matching and differential pair support.
Python scripting support.
Kicad Version 6
Community[edit]
On 12 March 2015 Olimex Ltd,[11] a provider of development tools and embedded device programmers, announced that they have switched from EAGLE to KiCad as their primary EDA tool.[12]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
![Version Version](/uploads/1/2/9/4/129426245/751854489.jpg)
Kicad Free Download
- ^''KiCad Developers' team'. Archived from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
- ^Halvick, Remy (2007-07-08). 'Re: About KiCad first release'. kicad-users.
[…] JP Charras said me that the first drafts were made in 1992 for a DOS version, but not diffused […]
- ^Manveru (2009-10-13). 'KiCad'. Archived from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
- ^'kicad-i18n - Translations for KiCad source code'.
- ^'KiCad Program License'. Archived from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2016-07-12.
- ^Stambaugh, Wayne (2018-02-03) [2018]. 'KiCad Version 5 New Feature Demo'. Archived from the original on 2018-07-29.
- ^'Kicad'. iut-tice.ujf-grenoble.fr. Archived from the original on 2015-12-21. Retrieved 2015-12-29.
- ^'Digi-Key KiCad Library'.
- ^Wirtz, Alfons (2014-03-08) [2004]. 'FreeRouting - Printed Circuit Board Routing Software from FreeRouting.net'. Archived from the original on 2017-09-23. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
- ^Blake, Anthony (2009-07-07) [2008]. 'Topological Autorouter - Introduction'. Archived from the original on 2011-02-27.
- ^'Olimex Ltd.'
- ^'Our first two small KiCAD OSHW boards are ready!'. 2015-03-12. Archived from the original on 2015-03-17.
External links[edit]
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Kicad |
Kicad Download Mac Tutorial
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