EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => PCB/EDA/CAD => KiCad => Topic started by: opello on December 30, 2014, 04:00:07 am
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I was going to reply to this thread (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/open-source-kicad-geda/importing-altium-pcb-into-kicad/) but there was a warning about its age.
During 31c3 (http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2014/) there was a presentation for the Fernvale project (http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2014/31c3_-_6156_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201412282145_-_fernvale_an_open_hardware_and_software_platform_based_on_the_nominally_closed-source_mt6260_soc_-_bunnie_-_xobs.html#video), which is trying to support a development environment for the Mediatek MT6260 SoC. However near the end of the talk (about 57m) there was a question about CAD tools and the altium2kicad project (https://github.com/thesourcerer8/altium2kicad/) was mentioned. They said it seems to work for bunnie's Novena project (http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?tag=novena) schematics and PCBs. I've not tried it yet but it seemed like something this community might be able to get some benefit from and possibly improve.
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I'll have to give this a try when I've got an afternoon free. The process seems a bit cumbersome to say the least.
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One of the steps is converting the STEP files to WRL with FreeCAD to feed KiCAD. I have never be able to do that. It looks like KiCAD can't handle FreeCAD WRL files.
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Altium to KiCad? Does it work?
Altium is going to release a lower cost version, and file formatbcomoatibility could be very interesting for KiCad. Altiim with Circuit Studio is going to compete with Eagle, DipTrace, gEDA and KiCad.
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Checking Circuit Studio price it can't compete.
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True about price, but maybe there will be student licenses and give it away to universities. This will make KiCad less popular, unfortunately.
I see many nice designs done I'm Altium I wish I could modify in KiCad, but vendor lock-in is putting me off.
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I am the developer of the Altium2KiCad converter.
The converter is currently able to handle most of the files, not just Bunnie´s files. Most schematics are converting fine, the 2D PCB layout is nearly done, the 3D PCB is still work in progress.
If anyone finds files that cannot be converted with it, please let me know.
I was recently given a converter for STEP->WRL files which I will try to integrate soon, which would replace FreeCAD in the conversion process, that should make the whole process much easier and fully automatable.
I was thinking about offering the converter as a web service, if it is really too difficult for people to install and use it themselves.
I would appreciate any help and feedback, if you notice anything that could be converted better.
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If you are looking for more test files you can use Robert's i.mx6 Rex project.
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Any progress report?
It would be amazing if merged into KiCad!
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Any news?
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Looking at the Github page, it hasn't been touched in months... :popcorn:
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I see...
Anyway, I see file format interoperability as an important goal.
EDA provides lots of vendor lock-in by using proprietary file formats. In order to counter act, a joint effort between FOSS EDA tools and maybe small EDA developers should be done.
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I did see some activity...
https://github.com/thesourcerer8/altium2kicad/
Two months ago :)