21–30 of 97 posts
Some of the improvements look universally great (especially sweet & simple ones like the ratsnest improvement) others will slightly alienate the current users but hopefully make the program feel more familiar to first time users.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never worked with the auto-router, but personally I think placement is giving me the most headaches.
1. Learn to carefully structure schematics as hierarchical sheets. 2. Use the replicate-layout plugin to duplicate schematic sheet layout across multiple instances. 3. Get a graphics tablet.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. Learn to carefully structure schematics as hierarchical sheets. 2. Use the replicate-layout plugin to duplicate schematic sheet layout across multiple instances. 3. Get a graphics tablet.
I don't think he was talking about schematic view. He is talking about component placement on the PCB.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think he was talking about schematic view. He is talking about component placement on the PCB.
The two are linked. If you structure schematics suitably, you can deduplicate layout (component placement). Another tip is to have two large screens so you can simultaneously navigate both layout and schematic. When you click a component in either, the other is highlighted. This can be a big help during layout. Finally, be aware of right click | Select | Items in same hierarchical sheet .
How I do placement now: deleting part of my schematics, then copying the remaining components to the PCB layout, then undoing to get my schematics back, delete another part of the schematics, etc.
Regarding a graphics tablet: I've thought about it, but then I miss the scroll-wheel which is absolutely necessary for zooming in/out. Are there tablets with scroll wheels?
This should be a good release, although this particular article could probably be edited down to 50% of its size without losing any information :-). One of the things that KiCAD is doing to making a legitimate open framework for eCAD design. Not surprisingly, back in the 80's when the "CAD Framework Initiative" started up and everyone was going to be able to mix and match CAD components a bunch of CAD vendors got sca…
"although this particular article could probably be edited down to 50% of its size without losing any information :-)." Reminds of me of the time a friend and I were working on copy for a marketing site (we're both engineers) and we started out with a long sentence and kept removing words until we had just one word... like "box" or "apple" or something like that when originally it was like as long as my comment...
I was a KiCAD user until they dropped support for the auto-router. They apparently had some dispute with the developer of the auto-router, and took out auto-router integration. (Yeah, there's some hack to make it still work, maybe.) I have an old board I'd like to revise slightly, but it's too much work and risk to convert to the new "interactive" (i.e. manual) routing system.
I've never worked with the auto-router, but personally I think placement is giving me the most headaches.
Has that gotten better in recent versions and it is worth another go?
I tried KiCAD out a few years ago but abandoned it because you couldn't move components around easily without breaking the connected wires. IIRC there was "G" shortcut to do it but the pathing was so poor as to not be worthwhile. Has that gotten better in recent versions and it is worth another go?
1. Ability to produce several PCB layouts from the same schematic (e.g. right-to-left and left-to-right, I needed this a couple of times to accommodate different chassis)
2. Ability to have "outboard" circuit fragments (i.e. a set of panel mounted pots interconnected with wires, or a sub-board that's logically a part of the same circuit).
Neither of which seems to be there, unless the review forgot to mention them. Unfortunate, but still there's a significant number of updates that make upgrading worthwhile once the release stabilizes.