KiCAD a Free and Open Source EDA Tool http://dev.emcelettronica.

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KiCAD a Free and Open Source EDA Tool

By allankliu
Created 09/25/2008 - 01:38

Hardware eda kicad open source orcad PCB

KiCAD, a free and open source EDA tool, solves the stages: schematic capture, PCB layout,
gerber generation or visualization and library editing.
In my OpenAVL project [OpenAVL - an AVL Open Source project (I), OpenAVL - an AVL free
project (II) - using an open source compiler too! ], I try my best to use open source software
products in the whole project. These open source tools include open source C compiler
(WINAVR/WINARM) open source JTAG debugger, and open source EDA tool. I found Kicad,
a free and open source EDA tool, which is maintained by Mr. Jean Pierre Charras, a
researcher at LIS (Laboratoire des Images et des Signaux) and a teacher in IUT de Saint
Martin d'Hères.(France), in the field of electrical engineering and image processing.

Kicad has been

developed for years. It becomes a multilingual, cross-platform and complete independent
EDA tool, follows GPLv2 license. It is a set of software tools with a project manager:

1. eeschema: Schematic Capture;

2. PCBnew: Board Editor with 3D viewer, requires open source Wings3D as 3D modeler;
3. Gerbview: GERBER viewer;
4. CVPCB: footprint selector;
5. Kicad: project manager.

1 din 3 26.09.2008 09:18

KiCAD a Free and Open Source EDA Tool http://dev.emcelettronica.com/print/51917

It offers comparable performance to the popular commercial EDA tools like

PADS/OrCAD/Protel. Besides the listed features, Kicad works on three major operation
systems, Windows (2000 and XP), Linux/UNIX (Mandrake/FreeBSD/Solaris) and MAC OS.

I highly recommend to the users to read its tutorial and FAQ first, especially to the people
who were working on commercial software tools. The work flow and terminologies are slightly
different, do not let your previous experience misguide you. This software also offers
comprehensive help information and supports PDF document links.

After all, it is a complete, multi-platform, powerful, and handy tool collection for your
electronics projects. However it would be better if the author embedded a library sharing web
service in Kicad. We can save some efforts in drawing components and footprint libraries.

Read More

One of the official site of Kicad project.

Kicad Libraries (for eeshema and PCBnew)

Multilingual Kicad Wiki site.

Trademarks

2 din 3 26.09.2008 09:18

KiCAD a Free and Open Source EDA Tool http://dev.emcelettronica.com/print/51917

Source URL: http://dev.emcelettronica.com/kicad-free-and-open-source-eda-tool

3 din 3 26.09.2008 09:18