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I work with some Orcad designers who view it as a necessary feature for the style of schematics that they draw. They feel like forced-hierarchical is arbitrary and high friction, but also don't want to throw a complex design onto one giant sheet.
Not to distract from the topic, but I was just wondering: how is HorizonEDA doing these days? Can KiCAD learn from this project? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23062174
For any Kicad devs reading this thread, are multi-sheet schematics on the roadmap at all? I work with some Orcad designers who view it as a necessary feature for the style of schematics that they draw. They feel like forced-hierarchical is arbitrary and high friction, but also don't want to throw a complex design onto one giant sheet.
For any Kicad devs reading this thread, are multi-sheet schematics on the roadmap at all? I work with some Orcad designers who view it as a necessary feature for the style of schematics that they draw. They feel like forced-hierarchical is arbitrary and high friction, but also don't want to throw a complex design onto one giant sheet.
Yes, multi-sheet schematics works. It has since version 5.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploratory_data_analysis
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never worked with the auto-router, but personally I think placement is giving me the most headaches.
The expensive as hell "default" alternative, Altium Designer, has autoplacer to comlement the autorouter, and it usually works really nicely.
I've not tried Altium's autoplacer, but its autorouter is crap. I bought into PADS in the 90s (it was better than Protel, but not as expensive as OrCAD PCB). It used Specctra and then their own Blaze router. Both were excellent. I can not believe how bad Altium's autorouter still is (it leaves your board full of drc errors including shorts).
It is difficult to convey how well auto-routers can work to people who are used to manually routing boards in Altium because of it's broken auto-router. Seriously you hit the auto-route button, and a few minutes later it's done. You do want to ensure you have good constraints, all of the work is there, and it's a good idea to have them even when manually routing. It's very feasible to move parts around and do trial full routes to help find the best placement.
PADS did have an autoplacer, but it did not work very well as I remember.
S-expression schematics. Nice. There are entire markup disciplines that probably should have just been s-expressions and saved a few billion people hours.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDIF
At least for netlists, it is a popular format.
I used KiCad 5 design some PCBs which are being shipped to me now. I've never done this before, and it was a fantastic experience after I went through a few tutorials on how to actually use it. I look forward to using KiCad 6!
I created a set of small boards and had them SMT-assembled for (the other stuff on his channel is good, too)
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…
I think the simpler explanation is that good PCB CAD tools are extremely difficult and require a lot of developer effort. KiCAD is very good for an open-source tool that can produce basic PCBs. However, modern paid CAD tools are on a different level entirely. The differences may not be obvious for simple boards with low speed connections, but it’s a world of difference to use one of the high end CAD tools on a comple…
No, not really. KiCAD is more than adequate for DC to GHz range circuitry. Add to that being able to develop custom tools in Python and we are at a point where there's almost no comparison --in favor of KiCAD.
For context, we were doing GHz-speed boards with PCAD back in the dark ages (20 years ago? Can't remember). As someone else mentioned, you work with your board house for controlled impedance manufacturing. Not that big of a deal. Also, you have to understand the subject or it won't go well, no matter what magic and pixie dust the EDA tool might offer. If the designer does not understand transmission lines, software isn't going to save you.
The same is true for power distribution systems. Just 'cause chips are connected to the various voltages on the board it does not mean anything is going to work. PDS design is a subject in and of itself. You can't just throw a bunch of 0.1 µF capacitors at the problem and expect things to work. Much as is the case with transmission lines, when it comes to power distribution for high speed designs, you have to know what you are doing.
We are very seriously considering migrating away from Altium Designer to KiCAD. I spent a good portion of the last couple of weeks taking a look at this in detail.
I am sick and tired of paying thousands of dollars per year to maintain our licenses only to see them pile-on the bugs. Altium has been focusing so much on trying to find a buyer for the company that they have actually done damage to the product and the user base.
For example, nobody I know has any interest in anything involving the cloud when it comes to EDA. Nobody. It is interesting to note that, if you work in an ITAR environment, today, given software realities, KiCAD is far more secure than Altium. I cannot, with a straight face, approach our clients and tell them that Altium Designer isn't reaching outside our network without air-gapping the system. With KiCAD, I can issue such a statement with absolute certainty.
Here's another one: Nobody who knows what they are doing would ever use schematic symbols and PCB footprints from a library. I don't care where they came from. This means libraries have nearly zero value (or negative value) for serious design work. You have to make all of your own symbols and PCB footprints in-house and qualify them for your designs.
Here's an interesting KiCAD advantage: I can actually ship the entire EDA tool with the design. Clients can archive all of it, software and design. That is powerful.
If we make the transition (very likely) we will our annual Altium maintenance fees to the KiCAD organization. For me this isn't about getting free software at all. I prefer to pay for software because it generally means it will be well supported. However, that changes rapidly once it become obvious that the company isn't using the money to actually work on what matters most. By supporting KiCAD financially I would help ensure it keeps moving in the right direction.
Oh, yeah, and code. We can definitely help with plugins and maybe even some main application development or bug-stomping. It would be fun.