kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Collin Anderson <metacollin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Some weeks ago, KiCad hit some sort of personal 'critical mass' for me and I began using KiCad exclusively for all my projects, including some fairly complex high end switch mode and power designs, the kind of project where most of the components will need custom footprints unique to that board.  Heatsink mounting, thermal 'hacks', some random ferrite bead put on a trace at the last minute, the kind of stuff that keeps board layout guys up at night (but perhaps not as much as RF stuff keeps them, or me at least, up at night ;)  )

I know KiCad is still evolving and still pushing towards a new stable release, but for me, I'll be using KiCad exclusively now, stable be damned :).  I am coming from the perspective of a long time Eagle and Altium Designer, a schematic, board, full design that would have taken many days in Eagle and 2 or 3 in Altium (for some stuff Altium is a much more capable tool than Eagle) by my estimation took me an AFTERNOON in KiCad.  As the first small piece of a much larger project, I've been really digging in to the bigger stuff the past couple of weeks, and I am much further along than I ever planned or expected to be, thanks primarily to choosing KiCad as my CAD tool for this project.  And sure, KiCad is not without it's quirks and issues, but neither are Eagle or Altium, or any CAD tool I would imagine.  What will say is that I can think of no better measurement of software being 'powerful' than letting the same person produce the same results or better results in much less time.

But honestly, that's not even the part that made me so excited that I felt I had to write the developers as I am doing right now though.  Results are, of course, results.  But KiCad did something for me that I never expected, or really ever thought would be possible, on a much more emotional level.  KiCad is fun.  I've always been passionate about electronics, but making a board, meticulously translating dimension drawings to footprints, layout and deadend refactoring and respinning, all that stuff was more of a chore to me. Frustrating.  EDA/CAD software always felt like it was preventing me as much as enabling me to do my work, and that's after becoming very familiar with a EDA package, I don't mean learning curve stuff.

 I don't know what quality or design decisions caused this, it's a very irrational 'gut' sort of thing, but KiCad does the impossible by making CAD fun!  Maybe it's as simple as more immediate results, kind of an instant gratification kick, or minimization of frustrations, I don't know.  But for the first time, I enjoy every part of this field, from start to finish.  I enjoy making footprints.  In fact, that's my favorite part.  Which seems absurd to me, but is also true.  Things that would be painful, like needing to switch out a bunch of components or refactor a board due to production logistics? It's fun! I just draw a new footprint, regenerate a netlist, boom boom boom, it's done and it was painless, no problem at all. I can't even imagine dealing with, say, Eagle's lack of symbol/footprint mutual agnosticism the way KiCad does now.  I even like running the DRC, and no one likes doing that.  It just gives you a list of how you screwed up.  Now though, things are rapid enough that its fun to really 'perfect' a board in a way it never was for me.

As silly as this sounds, KiCad as made me a much happier person :).

Everyone, thank you so much for all the years and countless hours of work you've done to produce this tool.  The best part is it's only going to keep getting better!  I know this list is for discussing development, but I really wanted to let you guys know about my recent experiences.  Thanks!
--
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." - Isaac Asimov

--
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." - Isaac Asimov

> On Jun 6, 2015, at 7:55 AM, Eldar Khayrullin <eldar.khayrullin@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> Not fully understood. I meant that part libs is complement component libs
> but don't change current components using. Part libs are optional for using.
> 
> 06.06.2015 15:19, Vesa Solonen пишет:
>> 06/06/15, 11:44, Eldar Khayrullin kirjoitti:
>>> Maybe add new file format "components library" that consist something
>>> like that:
>>> 
>>> ##########################################
>>> EESchema-COMP-LIBRARY Version x.x
>>> 
>>> PART "part_id"
>>> SYMBOL "sch_symbol_lib_name" "sch_symbol_name"
>>> FOOTPRINT "pcb_footprint_lib_name" "pcb_footprint_name"
>>> PINS
>>> #sch_symb_pin    pcb_footprint_pin            // pins assignment
>>> 1    2
>>> 2    4
>>> 4    A
>>> ENDPINS
>>> ENDPART
>> This kind of structure will be needed and abit more to manage pin and
>> gate swapping... Please guys spend some time searching the archives, I
>> promise it pays off by saving poor keyboards ;)
>> 
>> Pin and gate swapping means swapping equivalent function pins (multiple
>> inputs of a AND gate or MCU ports) in a part/component and gate swapping
>> meand swapping equivalent funtion units in multi-part component (e.g.
>> dual opamp or quad NAND gate) to optimize layout.
>> 
>> Currently such is completely manual in Kicad.
>> 
>> -Vesa
>> 
>> 
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