Many component libraries are available, and users can add custom components. KiCad is a cross-platform program, written in C++ with wxWidgets to run on FreeBSD, Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. KiCad uses an integrated environment for all of the stages of the design process: Schematic capture, PCB layout, Gerber file generation/visualization, and library editing. Features KiCad Schematic editor for schematic capture KiCad PCB editor for board layout and design KiCad 3D Viewer showing both VRML and IDF features on a demo board KiCad 3D Viewer Īdditionally two lead developers formed a services corporation in 2019 to help provide additional paid development support for KiCad. KiCad joined the Linux Foundation in November 2019. This was also the first release featuring the more advanced tools implemented by CERN developers. Ī major milestone was hit in December 2015 starting with KiCad 4.0.0, the first KiCad release adopting a point release versioning scheme. Well over 1400 hours of developer time has been provided by CERN. Help is also provided by organizing donations and fundraisers to help pay for additional contract developers for KiCad, along with sponsoring KiCad's web infrastructure. Much of the work provided by CERN involved massive refactoring of the code base to give KiCad a better structure to grow and adapt. From 2013 until approximately 2018 CERN provided two developers part time to help improve KiCad. In 2013 the CERN BE-CO-HT section started contributing resources towards KiCad to help foster open hardware development by helping improve KiCad to be on par with commercial EDA tools.
As a result, KiCad started gaining significant traction and a larger developer base. With the price of professionally made printed circuit boards rapidly dropping, hobbyists electronic design became much more popular. The main tools were EESchema, PCBnew, a gerber viewer, and calculator.
KiCad originally was a collection of electronics programs intended to be used in conjunction with each other.
The name came from the first letters in the name of a company of Jean-Pierre's friend in combination with the term CAD. KiCad was created in 1992 by Jean-Pierre Charras while working at IUT de Grenoble. Tools exist within the package to create bill of materials, artwork, Gerber files, and 3D models of the PCB and its components. It features an integrated environment for schematic capture, PCB layout, manufacturing file viewing, ngspice-provided SPICE simulation, and engineering calculation. It facilitates the design and simulation of electronic hardware. KiCad ( / ˈ k iː ˌ k æ d/ KEE-kad ) is a free software suite for electronic design automation (EDA).
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