[sdiy] Anyone here use Kicad?

[Tim Parkhurst]

On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 7:32 PM, Alex Iles <alexi at io.com> wrote:
> I briefly checked it out quite a while ago and it seemed pretty hoaky, but
> now its looking a lot better.  I think the databases are ASCII and
> therefore script-friendly.  I wonder if its worth the effort to check it
> out again.
>
> _______________________________________________

Hi Alexi,

I've used KiCAD for several PCBs, including all my Magic Smoke stuff.
It has a few quirks, but overall it works very nicely. The most recent
version is very good, and you certainly can't argue with the price! I
don't use the 3D visualization capability (all my mechanical design is
done in SolidWorks, so that's were I do any 3D stuff), but it creates
Gerber files for board fabrication and EPS files that I use for
documentation.

One of my few gripes with the program is that some of the 'footprints'
used in the schematic capture portion are flakey. Some that I've run
across have hiddne power pins, or pins that generate 'not connected'
errors even when I KNOW they're connected (and they connect just fine
in the net list and PCB layout portions). I guess I could create my
own footprints, but that's the part I've worked with the least.

Tim (not connected) Servo
-- 
"Sire, the church of God is an anvil that has worn out many hammers."
- H.L. Hastings