Electronics > KiCad

KiCad : probably a new user...

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mushroom:
Hello,

I just installed a working version of KiCad. I first installed the last stable version, but wanted to use a more recent one. I tried to compile the distro, but it failed for some executable files. (had to redirect output to a text file to see errors). I don't know why it failed. I had to open my firewall for cmake and bazaar, but maybe some others need access to the web (the firewall did'nt ask for other tools wanting access to the Internet) ?

Finally, I found a working Windows installer named KiCad_BZR5258-product-2014-11-08. Do you know a reliable source for an up to date windows installer, or at least a working "portable" distro for Windows ???

I am very confused with these versions, and the way to use this.

I am a Eagle CAD user, and I am used to its kirks and workarounds. I want to switch to KiCad for at least one reason : 3D models. Until now, I had to create minimalist 3D models from the Eagle boards to integrate them in my CAD projects.

With KiCad, I created a minimalist PCB : a resistor + BNC connector. But no 3D modeling of these components :( I got a naked PCB, exported a VRML file, imported it in SolidWorks as surfacic, and got a nice rendering with PhotoView.

But this took me 3 hours ! The KiCad learning curve is not fast. I've never seen such mouse + keyboard combinations before, and schematics editing is not as easy as Eagle (wires don't automatically follow components if 'G' is not pressed, weird cursor repostionning, etc.).

Could someone give me a link to a KiCad example project file with some "standard" 3D components (using default libraries), just to test exports, rendering and assemblies, in order to see if it is worth switching to KiCad ? I spent a lot of time googling for this with no result.

(there are probably other reasons to switch to KiCad, such as a far better library / footprint editor, and the possiblity to edit pads at PCB level, export to PSpice, etc.)

c4757p:

--- Quote from: mushroom on May 06, 2015, 01:43:56 am ---Finally, I found a working Windows installer named KiCad_BZR5258-product-2014-11-08. Do you know a reliable source for an up to date windows installer, or at least a working "portable" distro for Windows ???

I am very confused with these versions, and the way to use this.

--- End quote ---

Dude, did you look? It's right on the website.

kicad-pcb.org
"Installing KiCad"
"Windows"

Right here.

ElektroQuark:
CLICK!

Wilksey:
I would recommend looking at Chris's YT channel (Contextual Electronics) and his KiCAD tutorials, they are quite comprehensive!

And others have posted links to the download site for KiCAD builds so I won't but KiCAD examples should have 3D models IIRC.

If not, I think you can import them, also look at the Kicad info forum, quite a useful resource (http://kicad.info/) and is run by Chris himself I believe and contains links to his YT videos.

mushroom:
Thanks for your answers.

c4757p >

as I explained, kicad-winbuilder-3.4-3.7z is a total fail on my computer. It does *not* compile ; in fact, eeschema.exe, gerbview.exe, gnucap.exe, gnucap-modelgen.exe, idf2vrml.exe and many other exe's and dll's don't get linked. It is unusable on my system, and it seems that many people have problems when attempting to build it. (I have Visual Studio, Arduino env., gcc,  and Visual Micro installed, and there could be environment variables or registry keys conflicts for example...)

EdoNork >

The link you give (http://www2.futureware.at/~nickoe/) installed flawlessly. But I have weird problems : the About dialog does not display relevant version information (reported as unknown !), the software is installed in Program Files instead of Program Files (x86), I get error messages about missing library ("special") : many directories and libraries are not installed (when comparing with the BZR5258 install program that offers many more options) ; different folders hierarchy

I uninstalled everything, reinstalled BZR5258, and it did'nt work anymore !!! It does'nt even create Start menu entries ! I deleted all registry entries, edited path environment variable to point to KiCad bin and mingw folders, reinstalled as administrator (something I had'nt to do previously...), and finally got it to work... until it crashes when launching pcbnew.  :-DD

missing "_pcbnew.kiface" : this missing file *is* in the kicad folder and in the path variable !!!

I reinstalled the http://www2.futureware.at/~nickoe/ distro ; still no version information in About box, but seems to work... until now...

Completely crazy ! Too much teams, too much versions. The reason why I definetely stopped trying to use alternate OS's 15 years ago after first trying with BSD in the late '80.

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