Collin Anderson <metacol...@electropi.mp> writes: > 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.
Hi Collin Interesting... I gave kicad a good try over the new year hoping to switch to it (for commercial use). It was precisely the footprint creation workflow that I could not get to be usable for me. It was too hard to create accurate footprints with the legends I wanted (following the component outline basically, with gaps to avoid pads). Just moving the cursor accurately (e.g. to typed-in coordinates), precisely visiting a sequence of points (to define the shape) - this seemed almost impossible. > 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! You make me want to try it again, see what I missed! John -- John Devereux _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers Post to : kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp