KiCad és una eina de programari de codi obert per a la creació de diagrames d’esquemes electrònics i plaques de circuits impresos. Sota la seva aparença singular, KiCad incorpora un recull elegant de les següents eines de programari:

3 utility tools are also included:

Aquestes eines generalment s’executen des del gestor del projecte, però també es poden executar com a eines independents.

KiCad no presenta cap limitació quan a la mida de la placa, pot gestionar fins a 32 capes de coure, 14 capes tècniques i 4 capes auxiliars.

KiCad can create all the files necessary for building printed circuit boards, including:

En ser codi obert (amb llicència GPL), KiCad representa l’eina ideal per als projectes orientats a la creació de maquinari electrònic amb un gust de codi obert.

KiCad is available for Linux, Windows and Apple macOS.

KiCad crea i utilitza els fitxers (i els directoris) amb les següents extensions específiques de fitxers per a l’edició d’esquemes i de plaques.

Ficher del gestor del projecte:

Fitxers de l’editor d’esquemes:

Fitxers i directoris de l’editor de plaques:

Fitxers comuns

Fitxers especials

Altres fitxers:

Es generen amb KiCad per a la fabricació o la documentació.

Hardware accelerated renderer in Pcbnew and Gerbview requires video card with support of OpenGL v2.1 or higher.

The default configuration file named kicad.pro is supplied in kicad/template. It serves as a template for any new project and is used to set the list of library files loaded by Eeschema. A few other parameters for Pcbnew (default text size, default line thickness, etc.) are also stored here.

Another default configuration file named fp-lib-table may exist. It will be used only once to create a footprint library list; otherwise the list will be created from scratch.

The default kicad.pro file can be freely modified, if desired.

Verifiqueu que tingueu accés d’escriptura a kicad/template/kicad.pro

Run KiCad and load kicad.pro project.

Run Eeschema via KiCad manager. Modify and update the Eeschema configuration, to set the list of libraries you want to use each time you create new projects.

Run Pcbnew via KiCad manager. Modify and update the Pcbnew configuration, especially the footprint library list. Pcbnew will create or update a library list file called footprint library table. There are 2 library list files (named fp-lib-table): The first (located in the user home directory) is global for all projects and the second (located in the project directory) is optional and specific to the project.

In KiCad, one can define paths using an environment variable. A few environment variables are internally defined by KiCad, and can be used to define paths for libraries, 3D shapes, etc.

This is useful when absolute paths are not known or are subject to change (e.g. when you transfer a project to a different computer), and also when one base path is shared by many similar items. Consider the following which may be installed in varying locations:

For instance, the path to the connect.pretty footprint library, when using the KISYSMOD environment variable, would be defined as ${KISYSMOD}/connect.pretty

This option allows you to define a path using an environment variable, and add your own environment variables to define personal paths, if needed.

KiCad environment variables:

Note also the environment variable KIPRJMOD is always internally defined by KiCad, and is the current project absolute path.

For instance, ${KIPRJMOD}/connect.pretty is always the connect.pretty folder (the pretty footprint library) found inside the current project folder.

If you modify the configuration of paths, please quit and restart KiCad to avoid any issues in path handling.

You may define your favorite text editor and PDF viewer. These settings are used whenever you want to open a text or PDF file.

These settings are accessible from the Preference menu:

In order to manage a KiCad project consisting of schematic files, printed circuit board files, supplementary libraries, manufacturing files for photo-tracing, drilling and automatic component placement files, it is recommended to create a project as follows:

KiCad creates a file with a .pro extension that maintains a number of parameters for project management (such as the list of libraries used in the schematic). Default names of both main schematic file and printed circuit board file are derived from the name of the project. Thus, if a project called example.pro was created in a directory called example, the default files will be created:

KiCad is able to import files created using other software packages. Currently only Eagle 6.x or newer (XML format) is supported.

To import a foreign project, you need to select either a schematic or a board file in the import file browser dialog. Imported schematic and board files should have the same base file name (e.g. project.sch and project.brd). Once the requested files are selected, you will be asked to select a directory to store the imported files, which are going to be saved as a KiCad project.

La finestra principal de KiCad es compon d’una vista en arbre del projecte, un panell de llançament que conté els botons que s’utilitzen per executar les diverses eines de programari, i una finestra de missatges. El menú i la barra d’eines es poden utilitzar per a crear, llegir i desar els fitxers del projecte.

KiCad allows you to run all standalone software tools that come with it.

El panell de llançament està format pels 8 botons de sota que corresponen a les següents ordres (d'1 a 8, d’esquerra a dreta):

Double-clicking on the schematic file runs the schematic editor, in this case opening the file pic_programmer.sch.

Double-clicking on the board file runs the layout editor, in this case opening the file pic_programmer.kicad_pcb.

En fer clic dret en qualsevol dels fitxers a l’arbre del projecte permet la manipulació genèrica del fitxer.

KiCad top toolbar allows for some basic file operations:

The File → New Project → New Project from Template menu will open the Project Template Selector dialog:

A single click on a template’s icon will display the template information, and a further click on the OK button creates the new project. The template files will be copied to the new project location and renamed to reflect the new project’s name.

Després de seleccionar una plantilla:

KiCad looks for template files in the following paths:

The template name is the directory name where the template files are stored. The metadata directory is a subdirectory named meta containing files describing the template.

All files and directories in a template are copied to the new project path when a project is created using a template, except meta.

When a new project is created from a template, all files and directories starting with the template name will be renamed with the new project file name, excluding the file extension.

The metadata consists of one required file, and may contain optional files. All files must be created by the user using a text editor or previous KiCad project files, and placed into the required directory structure.

Here is an example showing project files for raspberrypi-gpio template:

And the metadata files:

Eeschema v5 will automatically create a global symbol table when first started. You will be given a chance to skip this and create your own global symbol table by hand. You only need to do this if don’t use KiCad symbol libraries at all. Otherwise it is easier to modify the automatically generated global symbol table.

Automatic remapping of symbols will be executed whenever a schematic is opened that has not been remapped. There are a few steps you should take ahead of time in order for the remapping to be the most effective.

When remapping symbols, KiCad proceeds in the following order to assign the library to a symbol:

Symbol names may not contain <SPACE>, ':', '/'.

Library nicknames may not contain <SPACE>, ':'.

Existing symbol names with these characters must be renamed by manually editing the relevant schematic and library files.

If you track the footprint library repository, changes made to the default global footprint library table are not tracked by KiCad. You will have to manually keep the global footprint library table up to date.