What is KiCad about? Starting with KiCad ...

[@rjordans]

"It's so easy, I just had to look into the manual", if only there were more users that actually took that effort!

[@myetis1990]

It will eventually gain much more popularity because makers always need free and easy-to-use-software. (it is a good alternative to expensive-complex-software for many projects) Thanks for such an excellent 101 of kicad.

[@RobertFeranec]

I agree

[@ats89117]

Another outstanding video. I've been using KiCad for several years and it still has its quirks, especially with filled areas, but it's pretty good and getting better.

[@xhivo97]

Yes! KiCad is awesome. Your Altium course transfers really well to KiCad. The only thing I missed was importing parts info directly from digikey and other suppliers.

[@RobertFeranec]

It was super easy to use it. And yes, I was thinking how they do component and BOM management for more complicated projects.

[@gtag174]

Robert Feranec BOM management is done with a script which is very good. It’s here github.com/openscopeproject/InteractiveHtmlBom

[@kenanmert2016]

You are my best teacher. Salute from turkey.

[@DzpcbElectronicWorld]

Hi, my teacher, I learned a lot from your excellent Altium courses, and now I work mainly with Kicad for many reasons. The most important is that Kicad is free and Altium is very expensive. And what we larned with your courses can be applied for Kicad easily.

[@aarondcmedia9585]

Your logo looks great - a shame there's no translation subtitles for your videos, they look like they would be educational.

[@ahbushnell1]

I'm glad to hear KiCAD is real now. Good Video!!!

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you Andy

[@4mb127]

I'm also interested in giving KiCad a real shot, so this is really interesting and useful for me.

[@vladimircoufal8617]

I v ČR ti mnohokrát díky za takto jednoduchý ucelený návod pro začátečníky. Věřím, že vzniknout od tebe další videa, která ukáží, že Kicad je použitelný i na složitější projekty

[@RobertFeranec]

Dakujem Vladimir

[@BobBeatski71]

Robert, thank you so much for making this video. Having to manually assign footprints to symbols as part of the schem -> PCB process drove me away from KiCad to Altium, but now they've added attaching footprints to symbols I'll be sure to dig out my KiCad book and work through it. Many thanks for all your PCB related videos.

[@nihar0689]

Thanks for the video Robert, I am also thinking of using KiCad and this is a good starting point!!!

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you very much Nihar.

[@ohmgroan2363]

Excellent demonstration. Thanks Robert.

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you

[@RiyadhElalami]

I love the conclusion. WOW

[@fooballers7883]

Thank you so much... This is one tutorial.. which need to come back to for few weeks to fully take it all in.. and build the muscle memory to use kicad. Thanks again.

[@Yahweh_Is_Great]

Robert, thank you so much for posting this! I watch your videos on Altium, I use Altium in my profession and always appreciate your videos and fantastic tips on HW design. Super excited to hear your opinion on KiCad as I’ve been looking for something for the hobbyist projects :)

[@kushlavr]

Oh. Thanks Robert!. Very nice tips of how to start. I think about trying Kikad for a long time. Now it's time.

[@gintarasbaranauskas2035]

Great tutorial! I am OrCAD user, for several years thinking about to switching to KiCad. But I was afraid of learning time. After this tutorial it seems that learning curve will be not so steep as I was thinking before :)

[@saelgonzalez2983]

Thank you Robert. I'm waiting for this a long time

[@nsk6914]

Liked the way of speaking like a boss😂❤

[@tox401]

Great video! I learned a lot about KiCad libraries and footprints in general from kicad library convention. There is information about layers grids and so on.

[@tombutsik7389]

Thank for this tutorial

[@pcbdesigner5516]

Thank you, continue with the great work!!

[@faridgerami2777]

Thank you sir your videos are great👍👍👍👍

[@giannisasp1208]

Thanks Robert! KiCAD seems really interesting. With a few more improvements it will be far better than Eagle if it isn't already.

[@ankittank7843]

Thank You for this Tutorial 👍🏻 Really helped me a lot

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you Ankit

[@bukitoo8302]

I congratulate you to do this kind of Video where you use a tool that is not known for you. I always used Altium but when I moved from one company to the other, the new one didn't whan to pay the licence. So the migation from one software to another could be hard. THanks!

[@bukitoo8302]

the only thing I am not seeing is the parameter manager, that is a fundamental tool for me.

[@shahzaibshamim6524]

Thanks Robert, I like KiCAD more than Eagle.

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you Shahzaib. PS: I have not heard about Eagle much since they have been sold to autodesk

[@OrbitalCookie]

When making footprints, for every new thing I update the user grid. For example, if a shape needs to be 3mm wide, but centered, I enter "3/2" for X in user grid. Then I draw the thing, and update user grid for something else, and keep repeating. All fields in kicad that accept numbers also accept expressions. So you can type something complicated like "(3.2+0.2)/2+0.3" and there is no need to do calculations in your head. So now creating footprints is even fun for me :)

[@RobertFeranec]

Nercury, thank you for the tip!

[@johnyang799]

I tried Cadence a few times, diptrace once recently, KiCad a few times, Eagle a few times. Altium regardless from being not so stable and being slow, it is still the more user friendly, more efficient, powerful enough EDA. EasyEDA is something different, I can get it working in few minutes with all the things you need for beginners. I recommend it for simple, first project.

[@tuttocrafting]

I have an altium license thanks to my University. But lately I'm importing a lot of footprints and 3d models from kicad. They have a great library with the similar footprints so the parts are homogeneous. Things that is not always the same with the Altium IPC generator or parts in the default lib.

[@hoki4381]

It would be great if you could have the academy courses with KiCad as an alternative. This would be a big effort, of course, but perhaps you could crowdfund the effort? I want to do things with KiCad because it seem a natural fit for OSH.

[@OrbitalCookie]

By the way, in KiCad nightly things can be selected in all editors, everything can be copy-pasted as you would expect. It is so much better that I have now found a stable enough nightly version and switched to it. Be warned though, there are some serious glitches, like old lib files need to be re-created in new version manually. Thankfully nothing ever broke completely.

[@RobertFeranec]

That is a very good news!

[@bassome3000ify]

just, wow!

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you Knowledge Dosage

[@SoorajGopakumar]

Hi Robert, can you do a video on Kicad 6? The new update seems to have a lot more features.

[@danmanmgm]

Davam odber. Treba nam viac slovenskych youtuberov s kvalitnym odbornym obsahom.

[@RobertFeranec]

:) Vdaka Daniel

[@forresterickson6225]

Very helpful. I tried to leave some time stamped questions but KZbin ate them after I tried to edit. Wonder if you got notification of the originals.

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you very much Forrest PS: No, I didn't get the time stamped questions :(

[@forresterickson6225]

@@RobertFeranec At 24:33 is the Footprint Properties dialog. There is a Path drop down and a Configure Path button. I can not figure out what they do or how to use them. When I tried to navigate to my project folder for 3D models I had I had a very long series of clicks way up to the root of my hard drive and back down. Seamed like this path feature should have helped me but I was baffled by it.

[@forresterickson6225]

At 14:45 you made a foot print and used metric grid. I had to change my grid from imperial to metric at this point. Navigate: Preference, Footprint Editor and select metric.

[@forresterickson6225]

At 24:37 when editing to add the 3D model, My dialog opens up into my huge, difficult to navigate, default footprint libraries. I could not find an easy way to change the path to my project path. Anyone have suggestions on using this dialog box better?

[@forresterickson6225]

At 34:45 I tried the left click but the trace segments move as a piece not reentered routing mode. I missed something. Using Version: 5.1.12.

[@forresterickson6225]

How would you describe the purpose of the Court Yard? Is it a keep out or ???

[@PriyankBolia]

I love your courses on Udemy. Looking for a repeat course with KiCad with more advanced things and less focus on designing components from scratch, but more on importing from lets say easyEDA library and then modifying them, like designing PCB antenna for ESP32 or Bluetooth, designing proper power supplies with battery charging, designing PCB based on plastic enclosure already available, they are not perfect rectangle from inside and have cuts for screws, panelising PCB for real world production, importing artwork, etc.

[@tomislavivanis54]

KiCad is excelent. What it lacks to become a Go-to tool is net-to-net clearance definitions and better net class system. Hopefully this will be fixed in 6.0.

[@RobertFeranec]

Looking forward to 6.0!

[@squelchedotter]

It is already in kicad 6! You can download the nightlies to try it out, but I don't know how usable it is yet.

[@squelchedotter]

I personally always use the nightly development builds. They are stable enough for hobby projects and it always has enough improvements for me to switch just a couple of months after an official release.

[@lars-magnusskog3983]

Maybe a little bit over my head when starting to use KiCad because as a noob user I probably don't need to know how to create new components and footprints. For me that would be a follow up video. Nevertheless very helpful anyway. Thanks Robert!

[@Aemilindore]

Finally. Thanks! BTW, can you do a video why KiCAD is not as good as ALtium since you seem to do a lot of videos on ALtium?

[@Aemilindore]

and I should not forget to say this, your channel is a gem

[@RobertFeranec]

@@Aemilindore thank you. I will keep playing with Kicad and when I have more info I can make a video to compare them.

[@matel9985]

Free open source software is the way to go

[@Berghiker]

Why do wires sometimes not snap to the component leads in Schematics?

[@andreneves3597]

Thanks Robert. I used kicad a few years ago. I had some problems exporting the 3D model of board. I couldn't export on step or stl file.

[@mavamQ]

This is the very first video I'm watching after downloading Kicad, I'm a little confused, isn't there a library where I can just pick pads for an 0805 resistor and a SOT 23 transistor?

[@JrSflor]

Hello Robert. Are you planning to make a KiCad course?

[@squelchedotter]

Curious what you think about the tools for microwave and high speed design!

[@RobertFeranec]

Honestly, I do not know. I would need to play with it a little bit more.

[@squelchedotter]

@@RobertFeranec Yes, that's why I'm curious!

[@shahzaibshamim6524]

Hello Robert, please do a video on antenna designs for RF and BLE boards and xray images for BGA packages. It will be very helpful!

[@59Hertz]

RF took the Legendary Weapon! :)

[@RobertFeranec]

Finally I had a look at what everybody is talking about :)

[@markworkman6544]

Hi Robert. As usual thanks for the video. I was curious were / how the BOM info (i.e. part properties) are assigned to the part. When you created the LED i did not see you enter part info (MFG part number, cost, dist info, etc.) but if showed up when you generated the BOM. maybe I missed it? Thanks again.

[@RobertFeranec]

Mark, I am not really sure how BOM management is done in KiCad. It is not clear to me what is the idea behind library & component management as they have many generic symbols.

[@markworkman6544]

@@RobertFeranec Hi Robert, I see thanks. If you have time a "Part 2" on KiCad would be good. How to set up multi-layer PCB with split / nested power planes etc. Also, diff pairs with auto tune / length match. I'm try to see how "advanced" KiCAD is. Thanks Again!

[@jamesm6951]

They need to improve BOM management, net naming, and the snapping on to certain parts of components/gird, which feels a bit clunky in my opinion. Other than that, it is a really great tool.

[@gtag174]

Bom management github.com/openscopeproject/InteractiveHtmlBom

[@jamesm6951]

@@gtag174 Wow that is an awesome plugin! Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[@RobertFeranec]

@@gtag174 Wow! very nice!

[@freeelectron8261]

Really good tutorial! (I hate to be picky but a diode cathode is conventionally shortened to K, so A and K on part footprint.)

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you

[@MuhammadAli-iy4qn]

Pls make a new version of this tutorial.

[@AydinTarikZengin]

I'd like to hear your comments on HackRF board, which was designed by using KiCAD.

[@Berghiker]

KiCad is great but it just lacks a symbol resizer. Once you made the symbol, there is no way you can resize it without having to start all over again.

[@tejeshwvardhan1165]

More video on kicad

[@RobertFeranec]

I have a call with KiCad today ... let's see if I will be making video from the call ;)

[@creativeideaseee]

How to download kicad please share the link

[@RobertFeranec]

kicad-pcb.org/download/

[@homemade83]

Kicad is amazing as it's free and open source, also it's so fast than other big ones like altium for example. however, kicad is suffering from many bad points , some basic settings every program should have to make the layout and routing more easier.

[@RobertFeranec]

yeah, I also miss a few settings. if they add them, it has a potential to be a good software even for complex boards.

[@feldon27]

KiCad is in active development. If you have specific requests I'm sure they'd love to hear from you. Just from 5.0.2 to 5.1, the symbol and footprint library managers have gone from torture to decently workable.

[@powil4ss]

show us some complex content on kicad

[@RobertFeranec]

If you would like to see more complex design in KiCAD, Alex imported our iMX6 Rex module there designhelp.fedevel.com/forum/test/pcb-layout/14271-is-kicad-production-ready If you mean to create a video designing something more complex, I do not have any plans for it .. yet. But let's see how KiCad will improve in coming years.

[@HemalChevli]

I've been using KiCAD for 10 years. But for high-speed stuff it's quite lacking. Altium wins that race in my opinion.

[@RobertFeranec]

Let's see what they will add in future. I will keep my eye on the software. It looks to me, like in coming years it can become popular for smaller companies and altium can lose these companies.

[@johnyang799]

Why altium has to be so expensive. I find it offensive when it crashes...and lags.

[@DzpcbElectronicWorld]

But don't forget that Kicad is free and Altium cost aroud 10K$.

[@p_mouse8676]

I've tried KiCad now multiple times, but coming from a professional background, I just can't get used to how inconsistent it is. Also the user interface is just so extremely clunky and actually far from intuitive (which is the opposite what you're saying in the video). There is no real use of the right mouse button, there is only one way of doing certain things, and the interface can't be customized. As well as the non-standard keyboard short-cuts that are being used. This all means that when you're stuck, you're forced to google and search what to do, instead of finding it somewhere in a top menu or right mouse button menu (like the majority of other programs do) I have even tried this with a couple of co-workers, and they also keep coming back to the same conclusions. It's to unfortunate, it has so much potential, but especially the user interface and user experience feels like going back 15 tears in time. Currently I am actually pretty interested in either Diptrace or EasyEDA (which is free and online). Both have an excellent user interface.

[@iot_enthusiast]

hope you will do a similar video on EAGLE sometime in near future :)

[@NatureAndTech]

Just too bad the schematics diagrams look so shit.

[@thebullybuffalo]

lol now try making a multi unit custom symbol with a custom footprint in one project then append a schematic which uses that symbol and footprint into a multisheet project. The library organization is a pain in the neck. You have to copy over all the custom things you made (the symbol's .lib files and the footprints .pretty files) into the multisheet project. Then create hierarchical labels and pins to avoid using global labels which allows you to not have to use unique names. Still a good program once you get the hang of it but definitely requires a step up for bigger projects