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I am sitting firmly on the fence here.
I can remember when I first started using it, the WTF moments were common but all becomes clear after some time.
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Not sure the point of dredging up a 3 year old thread. Kicad is not the same software and has an active forum for those needing help.
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"The learning curve on kicad is pretty steep." - Gabe Newell
Yep.
Are you kidding me? Try one of the professional CAD varieties. The only reason KiCad has steep curve is because 1. you either never used EDA before, or 2. you are just really used to the other EDA you have used, so changing to anything else will suck. -
I don't agree with that at all."The learning curve on kicad is pretty steep." - Gabe Newell
Yep.
Are you kidding me? Try one of the professional CAD varieties. The only reason KiCad has steep curve is because 1. you either never used EDA before, or 2. you are just really used to the other EDA you have used, so changing to anything else will suck.
The main issue with KiCad is that the interface in VERY inconsistent.
Dave also showed that a few times in his live-stream.
Non standard keyboard shortcuts and that kind of silly things.
(and no, not all of them can be changed)
Most people I know and have been doing professional PCB design for many years working with at least 3-4 different programs all say exactly the same thing.
Not to speak about certain other options that are totally missing (thermal reliefs, anyone)
Multiple people have been saying this now over and over again, but at KiCad they seem to have other priorities.
It's a shame because it has so much potential.
This is also the reason why I admire Diptrace as cheap alternative, they seem to take the community and feedback very serious as you can seen in every update.
If they keep going on like this I do see Diptrace becoming a serious alternative, Kicad not.
That will just be there for people who like to fiddle around with stuff as an hobby.
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Not to speak about certain other options that are totally missing (thermal reliefs, anyone)
?
Exactly what do you mean? It sounds like you are saying you can't have thermal relief in Kicad? That is wrong. -
You can that's true.Not to speak about certain other options that are totally missing (thermal reliefs, anyone)
?
Exactly what do you mean? It sounds like you are saying you can't have thermal relief in Kicad? That is wrong.
But any changes, custom shapes, changing it per via and what not is a pain in the ass -
How recent is your experience with Kicad?
You can that's true.Not to speak about certain other options that are totally missing (thermal reliefs, anyone)
?
Exactly what do you mean? It sounds like you are saying you can't have thermal relief in Kicad? That is wrong.
But any changes, custom shapes, changing it per via and what not is a pain in the ass -
The last time I tried it was about 2-3 months back.
How recent is your experience with Kicad?
You can that's true.Not to speak about certain other options that are totally missing (thermal reliefs, anyone)
?
Exactly what do you mean? It sounds like you are saying you can't have thermal relief in Kicad? That is wrong.
But any changes, custom shapes, changing it per via and what not is a pain in the ass -
I think the complainers need to spend some time in a DOS version of Protel
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Kicads feature set it built upon developer interest, Less so the community forums, But like any dev team, making there job easy makes your wishlist more likely to be completed.
E.g. I regularly abuse there 3d export to test fit multiple boards in there 3D veiwer, however it was not adding a tag on export to allow this to work reliably, I raised a bug, made clear what would need to be changed, and it was merged in to the dev version 1 week later.
As to your specific gripes, I feel its lack of familiarity with some of there UI choices, The majority of the UI overhauls are talked about as being V6, whereas the current release candidates for V5 are aimed at improving the library system and creation tools. and making integration with suppliers for atomic libraries easier.
"It's a shame because it has so much potential."
On that note, What exactly would you like to see it expand into, what features do you feel it lacks?
For pads you can change shape, size and thermal / non thermal settings, by selecting the copper layer then right clicking over the pad you want to change. There are even plugins built to help make the really specific stuff e.g. antennas, https://forum.kicad.info/t/kicad-stepup-the-sketcher-for-footprint-generation/9582
Now there are limitations, some like the segments per circluar zone are a pain, So as i go, I keep poking the relevent bug reports / feature requests, and eventually the squeaky wheel will get the grease. -
I think setting default thermal relief parameters on a per net basis would be a great feature! Currently it can be set for a zone, which is then inherited by a footprint as a default value. (Or as a global default pad property, of course.)
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I think the complainers need to spend some time in a DOS version of Protel
EasyTrax. Get it here:
http://www.lupinesystems.com/easytrax/
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Wow surprised that is still out there. Knackered my space bar using that once
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"The learning curve on kicad is pretty steep." - Gabe Newell
Yep.
While I only have experience with KiCad and Eagle I have to say I was impressed with KiCad's learning curve. Learning Eagle was a long, painful and frustrating experience. Granted, it was the first schematic/PCB software and even the first CAD software I ever tried, so I had to learn the GUI and also learn the basic principles behind electronic CAD.
Learning KiCad was a much, much better experience. I was put off from trying it for a long time fearing I will have to repeat all the pain I went through with Eagle. But eventually I had to learn it because I needed to design a PCB larger than Eagle's free licence allowed. I was amazed how easy it actually was. And I could even import all my Eagle footprint libraries! Yay!
One thing's for sure - I am not going back to Eagle.
Now, I'm sure that commercial packages like Altium Designer are much better, but hey - at that price it would be a tragedy if they weren't.
I got a free Eagle Pro 7 licence from a company I interned at. It's installed on my personal laptop.
Still use KiCad