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Advantages And Disadvantages Of Kicad

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KiCad
Kicad is an open source (GPL) software for the creation of electronic schematic diagrams and printed circuit board artwork.

This project was started by Jean-Pierre Charras, a researcher at GIPSA-LAB and a teacher in IUT de Saint Martin d'Hères.(France), in the field of electrical engineering.
It is now mature and very actively supported by a team of developers and a user group.
This team counts three main developers, and a dozen regular contributors, and is supported by the CERN.

Kicad is a software which includes a project manager, 4 tools & some utilities.
• Gerbview: GERBER viewer.
• Eeschema: Schematic entry.
• Cvpcb: Footprint selector for components used in the circuit design.
• Pcbnew : Board editor.
• Kicad: project manager. …show more content…

It is running under LINUX, MACOSX, and Windows.
KiCad is an EDA software suite for the creation of professional schematics and printed circuit boards up to 32 copper layers with additional technical layers. KiCad runs on Windows, Linux and Apple OS X and is released under the open-source GNU GPL v2 free of charge.
If you are a person who enjoy KiCad or is interested in making a good living using KiCad in your toolset. However, if not then you can make a contribution by donating money to kiKad firm. CERN has put up a place to collect donations which will be used directly to support a developer.
KiCad is under heavy development. Below you can have an idea of the size of KiCad in both lines of code and equivalent estimated value in US$.
Source: …show more content…

To successfully perform these steps KiCad comes with additional software tools. Two library component editors allow you to create or modify schematic components and footprint components. The 3D viewer allow you to render a final 3D model of your PCB. For the generation of the necessary compliant files for manufacturing your printed circuit board (GERBER files for photo-plotters, drilling files and component location files) Pcbnew and Gerbview are used. Postscript or PDF file generation is also possible.
KiCad Component Libraries
Kicad comes with a large set of open-source library components. A text-based format is used for both schematic and PCB component. This allow the direct editing of your library files with any text-based software.
Both Eeschema and Pcbnew have a library manager as well as a library component editor for modifying and creating components and footprint parts. You can create, edit, delete or exchange easily library items. Documentation files can be associated to components and footprints, and key words, allowing a fast search by

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