Placement and drawing tools are located in the right toolbar. When a tool is activated, it stays active until a different tool is selected or the tool is canceled with the Esc key. The selection tool is always activated when any other tool is canceled.

Some toolbar buttons have more than one tool available in a palette. These tools are indicated with a small arrow in the lower-right corner of the button:

To show the palette, you can click and hold the mouse button on the tool or click and drag the mouse. The palette will show the most recently used tool when it is closed.

When moving, dragging, and drawing board elements, the grid, pads, and other elements can have snapping points depending upon the settings in the user preferences. In complex designs, snap points can be so close together that it makes the current tool action difficult. Both grid and object snapping can be disabled while moving the mouse by using the modifier keys in the table below.

All objects have properties that are editable in a dialog. Use the hotkey E or select Properties from the right-click context menu to edit the properties of selected item(s). You can only open the properties dialog if all the items you have selected are of the same type. To edit the properties of different types of items at one time, see the section below on bulk editing tools.

In properties dialogs, any field that contains a numeric value can also accept a basic math expression that results in a numeric value. For example, a dimension may be entered as 2 * 2mm, resulting in a value of 4mm. Basic arithmetic operators as well as parentheses for defining order of operations are supported.

The properties of each individual pad of a footprint can be inspected and edited after placing the footprint on the board. In other words, it is possible to override the design of an individual footprint pad in a specific instance of the footprint on the board, if the footprint design in the library is not appropriate. For example, you may wish to remove the solder paste aperture for a pad that needs to remain unsoldered in a specific design, or you may wish to move the location of a through-hole pad for an axial-lead resistor in order to fit a specific design.

The pad properties dialog is opened through the context menu or default hotkey E when a pad is selected. Note that KiCad assumes that if you click near a pad, you are probably trying to select the entire footprint rather than a single pad. To select a single pad, make sure to click inside the pad area, or turn off the Footprints setting in the selection filter (and make sure the Pads setting is turned on) to prevent accidental selection of the entire footprint rather than a specific pad.

The General tab of the pad properties dialog shows the physical properties of the pad, including its geometry, shape, and layer settings.

Pad type: this setting controls which features are enabled for the pad:

SMD pads are electrically-connected and have no hole. In other words, they exist on a single copper layer.

Through-hole pads are electrically-connected and have a plated hole. The hole exists on every layer, and the copper pad exists on multiple layers (see Copper layers setting below).

Edge Connector pads are SMD pads that are allowed to overlap the board outline on the Edge.Cuts layer.

NPTH, Mechanical pads are non-plated through holes that do not have an electrical connection.

SMD Aperture pads are pads that have no hole and no electrical connection. These can be used to add specific designs to a technical layer, for example a paste or solder mask aperture.

The Copper layers setting controls which copper layers will have a shape associated with the pad.

For SMD pads, the options are F.Cu or B.Cu, controlling whether the pad sits on the front or the back of the board relative to the footprint’s location. In other words, if a pad is set to exist on B.Cu in its properties, and the footprint is flipped to the back of the board, that pad will now exist on F.Cu, because it also has been flipped.

For through-hole pads, it is possible to remove the pad shape from copper layers where the pad is not electrically connected to other copper (tracks or filled zones). Setting the copper layers to connected layers only will remove the pad shape from any unconnected layers, and setting to F.Cu, B.Cu, and connected layers will remove the pad shape from any internal unconnected layers. This can be useful in dense board designs to increase the routable area on internal layers.

The Technical layers checkboxes control which technical layers will have an aperture added with the pad’s shape. By default, pads have apertures on the paste and mask layers matching their copper layer.

Specify pad to die length: This setting allows a length to be associated with this pad that will be added to the routed track length by the track length tuning tools and the Net Inspector. This can be used to specify internal bondwire lengths for more accurate length matching, or in other situations where the electrical length of a net is longer than the length of the routed tracks on the board.

The aperture appearing on any technical layer will have the same shape and size as the pad shape on the copper layer(s). In the PCB manufacturing process, the manufacturer will often change the relative size of mask and paste apertures relative to the copper pad size, but since this size change is specific to a manufacturing process, most manufacturers expect the design data to be provided with the apertures set to the same size as the copper pads. For specific situations where you need to oversize or undersize a technical layer aperture in the design data, you can use the settings in the Overrides tab.

Pad clearance controls the minimum clearance between the pad and any copper shape (tracks, vias, pads, zones) on a different net. This value is normally set to 0 which will cause the pad clearance to be inherited from any clearance override set on the footprint, or the board’s design rules and netclass rules if the footprint clearance is also set to 0.

Solder mask clearance controls the size difference between the pad shape and the aperture shape on the F.Mask and B.Mask layers. A positive number means the solder mask aperture will be larger than the copper shape. This number is an inflation applied to all directions. For example, a value of 0.1mm here will cause the solder mask aperture to be inflated by 0.1mm, meaning that there will be an 0.1mm border on all sides of the pad and the solder mask opening will be 0.2mm wider than the pad when measured along a given axis.

Solder paste absolute clearance controls the size difference between the pad shape and the aperture shape on the F.Paste and B.Paste layers. Its behavior is otherwise identical to the behavior of the solder mask clearance setting.

Solder paste relative clearance allows setting a solder paste clearance value as a percentage of the pad size rather than an absolute distance value. If both relative and absolute clearances are specified, they are added together to determine the solder paste aperture size.

The Overrides tab also has controls for how the pad connects to any copper zone that overlaps it and shares its net.

Pad connection controls whether the pad will have a solid, thermal relief, or no connection to the zone. Like the other overrides, this one may be set for an individual pad or for an entire footprint. The default setting for this control is From parent footprint, and the default footprint setting is to use the connection mode specified in the zone properties.

Thermal relief spoke width controls the width of the spokes generated when the zone connection mode is Thermal Relief.

Thermal relief gap controls the length of the thermal spokes, or the gap between the pad’s shape and the filled copper area of the zone.

Custom pad shape in zone controls the behavior of the zone filler when the pad uses a custom shape rather than one of the default shapes. This can be used to achieve different results when using thermal reliefs and custom pad shapes.

Copper zones, also sometimes called copper pours or fills by other EDA tools, are solid or hatched areas of copper assigned to a particular net that automatically keep clearance from other copper objects. Zones are commonly used to fill in all free space on a board layer (or a portion of a layer) in order to create ground and power planes, carry high currents, or to provide shielding.

Zones are defined by a polygonal outline that defines the maximum extent of the filled copper area. This outline does not represent physical copper and will not appear in exported manufacturing data. The actual copper areas of the zone must be filled each time the outline, or any objects inside the outline, are modified. The filling process may be run on a single zone, or on all zones in a board (default hotkey B). Zones may be unfilled (default hotkey Ctrl+B) to improve performance and reduce visual clutter while editing large boards.

To draw a zone, click the Add Filled Zone tool () on the right toolbar, or use default hotkey Ctrl+Shift+Z. Click to choose the first point of the zone outline. The Zone Properties dialog will appear, allowing you to choose the zone net and other properties. These properties may be edited at any time, so it is not critical to choose them all correctly at first. Accept the dialog and continue placing points to define the zone outline. To finish the zone, double-click to set the last point. Zone outline points may be modified like graphic polygons, by dragging the square handles to move a corner or dragging the circular handles to move an edge. To edit the zone’s properties, use hotkey E or select Properties from the context menu.

Layer: A single zone object can create filled copper on one or more copper layers. Check the box next to each copper layer that this zone outline should fill on. The copper on each layer will be filled independently, but all layers will share the same net.

Net: Select the electrical net that the zone copper should be connected to. It is possible to create zones with no net assignment. Zones with no net will keep clearance from any copper objects on any net.

Zone name can be used to assign a specific name to a zone. This name can be used to refer to the zone in custom DRC rules.

Zone priority level determines the order in which multiple zones on a single layer are filled. The highest priority level zone on a given layer will be filled first. Lower-priority zones will keep clearance to the filled areas of higher-priority zones. Two zones on the same layer with the same priority level will overlap (short-circuit) with each other.

Constrain outline to H, V and 45 degrees controls the initial behavior of the zone outline drawing tool. When this option is enabled, the zone outline will be restricted to 45-degree angles. Note that after the zone outline has been created, this option has no effect. Outline points may be modified freely after creation.

Locked controls whether or not the zone outline object is locked. Locked objects may not be manipulated or moved, and cannot be selected unless the Locked Items option is enabled in the Selection Filter panel.

Outline display controls how the zone outline is drawn on screen. In Line mode, only the border lines of the outline are drawn. In Hatched mode, hatch lines are drawn on the inside of the outline border for a short distance, to make the zone outline more apparent. In Fully Hatched mode, hatch lines are drawn across the entire inside of the zone outline.

Corner smoothing controls the behavior of the filled copper areas at corners of the outline. Corners can be smoothed by a chamfer or fillet, or can extend all the way to the outline corner if smoothing is disabled.

Clearance controls the minimum clearance the filled areas of this zone will keep from other copper objects. Note that if two clearance values are in conflict, the larger clearance value will be used. For example, if a zone is set to use 0.2mm clearance but its netclass is set to use 0.3mm clearance, the result will be an 0.3mm clearance.

Minimum width controls the minimum size of narrow necks of copper created inside the zone. Any copper areas that would be below this minimum width are removed during the filling process.

Pad connection controls the way that the filled zone areas will connect to footprint pads on the same net. Solid connections will result in the copper completely overlapping the pads. Thermal reliefs will result in small copper spokes connecting the pad to the rest of the copper zone, increasing the thermal resistance between the pad and the rest of the zone. This can be useful for hand soldering. Reliefs for PTH will apply thermal reliefs to plated through-hole pads and use solid connections for surface mount pads. None will result in the zone not connecting to any pads on the same net.

Thermal relief gap controls the distance maintained between any pad and the copper zone when the pad connection mode is set to generate thermal reliefs.

Thermal spoke width controls the width of the "spokes", or short copper segments connecting the pad to the rest of the copper zone.

Fill type controls how the copper zone is filled: the default is solid fill, which will result in copper filling in all available space within the zone outline. The zone can also be set to fill a hatch pattern, which will fill the area with a pattern that contains less copper. This can be useful for flexible printed circuits and other specialty applications.

Orientation controls the angle of the hatch pattern lines. An orientation of 0 degrees will result in the hatch pattern using horizontal and vertical lines.

Hatch width controls the width of each line in the hatch pattern.

Hatch gap controls the distance between each line in the hatch pattern.

Smoothing effort controls the style of smoothing applied to the hatch pattern. A value of 0 will result in no smoothing, and a value of 3 will result in the finest smoothing. Higher values will result in longer processing time and larger Gerber files.

Smoothing amount is a ratio that controls the size of the smoothing chamfers or fillets that are generated when smoothing effort is set to a value other than 0. An amount of 0.0 results in no smoothing, and a value of 1.0 results in maximum smoothing (in other words, a chamfer or fillet equal to half of the hatch gap).

Remove islands controls the behavior of isolated copper areas, also called islands, after the initial zone fill. When this is set to always, isolated areas inside the zone are removed. When set to never, isolated areas are left alone, and will result in copper areas that are not connected to the rest of the net. When set to below area limit, a minimum island size can be specified, and islands below this threshold will be removed.

Graphical objects (lines, arcs, rectangles, circles, polygons, and text) can exist on any layer but cannot be assigned to a net. Rectangles, circles, and polygons can be set to be filled or outlines in their properties dialogs. The line width property will control the width of the outline even for filled shapes. Line width can be set to 0 for filled shapes to disable the outline.

Dimensions are graphical objects used to show a measurement or other marking on a board design. They may be added on any drawing layer, but are normally added to one of the User layers. KiCad currently supports four different types of dimension: aligned, orthogonal, center, and leader.

Aligned dimensions () show a measurement of distance between two points. The measurement axis is the line that connects those two points, and the dimension graphics are kept parallel to that axis.

Orthogonal dimensions () also measure the distance between two points, but the measurement axis is either the X or Y axis. In other words, these dimensions show the horizontal or vertical component of the distance between two points. When creating orthogonal dimensions, you can select which axis to use as the measurement axis based on where you place the dimension after selecting the two points to measure.

Center dimensions () create a cross mark to indicate a point or the center of a circle or arc.

Leader dimensions () create an arrow with a leader line connected to a text field. This text field can contain any text, and an optional circular or rectangular frame around the text. This type of dimension is often used to call attention to parts of the design for reference in fabrication notes.

After creating a dimension, its properties may be edited (hotkey E) to change the format of the displayed number and the style of the text and graphic lines.

KiCad features an interactive router that:

By default, the router respects the configured design rules when placing tracks: the size (width) of new tracks will be taken from the design rules and the router will respect the copper clearance set in the design rules when determining where new tracks and vias can be placed. It is possible to disable this behavior if desired by using the Highlight Collisions router mode and turning on the Allow DRC Violations option in the router settings (see below).

The router has three modes that can be selected at any time. The router mode is used for routing new tracks, but also when dragging existing tracks using the Drag (hotkey D) command. These modes are:

Which mode to use is a matter of preference. For most users, we recommend using Shove mode for the most efficient routing experience or Walk Around mode if you do not want the router to modify tracks that are not being routed. Note that Shove and Walk Around modes always create horizontal, vertical, and 45-degree (H/V/45) track segments. If you need to route tracks with angles other than H/V/45, you must use Highlight Collisions mode and enable the Free Angle Mode option in the Interactive Router Settings dialog.

There are five main routing functions: Route Single Track, Route Differential Pair, Tune length of a single track, Tune length of a differential pair, and Tune skew of a differential pair. All of these are present in both the Route menu dropdown (individually) on the top toolbar and the drawing toolbar in two overloaded icons on the drawing toolbar on the right. The use of the overloaded icons is described above. One is for the two Route functions and one is for the three Tune functions. In addition, the Route menu allows the selection of Set Layer Pair and Interactive Router Settings.

To route tracks, click the Route Tracks icon (from the drawing toolbar or from the top toolbar under Route) or use the hotkey X. Click on a starting location to select which net to route and begin routing. The net being routed will automatically be highlighted and the allowable clearance for the net will be indicated with a gray outline around the tracks being routed. The clearance outline can be disabled by changing the Clearance Outlines setting in the Display Options section of the Preferences dialog.

When the router is active, new track segments will be drawn from the routing start point to the editor cursor. These tracks are unfixed temporary objects that show what tracks will be created when you use a left-click or the Enter key to fix the route. The unfixed track segments are shown in a brighter color than the fixed track segments. When you exit the router using the Esc key or by selecting another tool, only the fixed track segments will be saved. The Finish Route action (hotkey End) will fix all tracks and exit the router.

While you are routing, you can use the Undo Last Segment command (hotkey Backspace) to unfix the tracks you most recently fixed. You can use this command repeatedly to step back through the route that you have already fixed.

In previous versions of KiCad, using the left mouse button or Enter to fix the routed segments would fix all segments up to but not including the segment ending at the mouse cursor location. In KiCad 6, this behavior is now optional, and by default, all segments including the one ending at the mouse cursor location will be fixed. The old behavior can be restored by disabling the "Fix all segments on click" option in the Interactive Router Settings dialog.

While routing, you can hold the Ctrl key to disable grid snapping, and hold the Shift key to disable snapping to objects such as pads and vias.

Most objects can be locked through their properties dialogs, by using the right-click context menu, or by using the Toggle Lock hotkey (L). Locked objects cannot be selected unless the "Locked items" checkbox is enabled in the selection filter. Attempting to move locked items will result in a warning dialog:

Selecting "Override Locks" in this dialog will allow moving the locked items. Selecting "OK" will allow you to move any unlocked items in the selection; leaving the locked items behind. Selecting "Do not show again" will remember your choice for the rest of your session.