Why is that?
Because it is the standard response from open-source programmers when they want to tell you to shut up and fuck off. First they make it incredibly hard to contribute (e.g. because the software is hard to build, convoluted and undocumented, they have hundreds of obscure rules how to submit and then ignore or reject 99% of all submissions), then they tell you to fuck off when you tell them they have a problem but don't rub their back exactly the way they want.
But still, complaining about a free piece of software seems very counter productive.
Think about Atmegas in DIP or QFP packages for example with their different pinouts that you have to have in mind when doing your schematics. Thus in KiCAD you have to create two identical schematic symbols for the same component depending on its package variants. Flawed ...
This is very good practice. Two similar devices in different packages are different components with have different part numbers, and the fact that they're electrically similar is irrelevant - especially once you've designed one of them into a schematic and given the BoM to a customer.
Is it really a big deal to have both variants in a library? Really?
An I have not talked about using it under OSX. I gave that idea up very fast!
I was using Kicad up until the point they broke their library.
I was using Kicad up until the point they broke their library.
For what it's worth: most users maintain their own libraries and simply do not depend on libraries provided by the tools. [...]
Oh, and so the Kicad developers have created this git-based system to pull library parts from ... somewhere. Oh, great. That goes against the whole idea of a user's standard vetted library, but I guess enough users think that sort of thing is OK.
Oh, and so the Kicad developers have created this git-based system to pull library parts from ... somewhere. Oh, great. That goes against the whole idea of a user's standard vetted library, but I guess enough users think that sort of thing is OK.
Oh, and Kicad's CvPCB program -- fucking stupid. Sure, let's put a dozen transistor symbols on a schematic, and then have some intermediate tool map those symbols to one of the myriad possible footprints (excuse me, modules) one might need, and then not fuck it up. There are Kicad users who actually defend this lossage. (At least one can include a footprint identifier in the symbol which is stored in the symbol library, so you don't actually have to use CvPCB.)
Oh, and Kicad's CvPCB program -- fucking stupid. Sure, let's put a dozen transistor symbols on a schematic, and then have some intermediate tool map those symbols to one of the myriad possible footprints (excuse me, modules) one might need, and then not fuck it up. There are Kicad users who actually defend this lossage. (At least one can include a footprint identifier in the symbol which is stored in the symbol library, so you don't actually have to use CvPCB.)I don't necessarily like this, but I don't consider it a big deal either. When you select a designator in CvPCB, it is highlighted in the schematic editor, and if package selection is critical you would have put it into the properties while capturing the schematic. I would really like to see it work more like Altium, however, where each symbol can be associated with multiple footprints and have different pinouts depending on the package. Then you will know the symbol and footprint match.
We use Altium at the day job, and we don't do the mutliple-footprints-per-symbol thing. That's because our system has a part number embedded in the symbol, and that part number is used by a downstream database to generate BOMs against which we order parts. It's not like we have a thousand parts in the library so it becomes unwieldy. So it's easy enough to have RES0805 and RES0603 as separate symbols, or perhaps LM317EMP and LM317T. The designer chooses the desired part at entry time. That's because package selection IS critical. You have to know what you're putting on the board and you have to know what you're ordering.
That it is!
I just finished drawing several schematics with it and when I went to create the first PCB I started getting the constant errors stating that footprints can't be found, libaries can't be found, etc., etc., etc.
Today I've officially given up on Kicad. It's just too broken.
That it is!
I just finished drawing several schematics with it and when I went to create the first PCB I started getting the constant errors stating that footprints can't be found, libaries can't be found, etc., etc., etc.
Today I've officially given up on Kicad. It's just too broken.
What easy software is there to draw a schematic then make a PCB. And I'm not looking for something that will necessarily import everything from schematic. I don't mind doing everything manually on the PCB design and just looking at the schematic for reference. I just want something that I can design in without spending an entire DAY trying to get it working.
That it is!
I just finished drawing several schematics with it and when I went to create the first PCB I started getting the constant errors stating that footprints can't be found, libaries can't be found, etc., etc., etc.
Today I've officially given up on Kicad. It's just too broken.
That it is!
I just finished drawing several schematics with it and when I went to create the first PCB I started getting the constant errors stating that footprints can't be found, libaries can't be found, etc., etc., etc.
Today I've officially given up on Kicad. It's just too broken.You just need to add the libraries to the PCB side of the software as well. Nothing is broken in that sense. Slightly cumbersome yes.
Oh, and so the Kicad developers have created this git-based system to pull library parts from ... somewhere. Oh, great. That goes against the whole idea of a user's standard vetted library, but I guess enough users think that sort of thing is OK.They came so close to getting this right it's really disappointing. If they had just put the entire library in a single git repository, this would've been almost ideal. You can clone the upstream libraries, make your local adjustments in your own github (or local git) and then easily pull improvements from upstream without breaking your changes. The UI is obviously not there yet, but will come I think. The big problem is that every category is a separate git repo, so you can't easily clone it wholesale.