Designed and written by Jean-Pierre Charras, a researcher at LIS (Laboratoire des Images et des Signaux) and a teacher in IUTde Saint Martin d'Hères.(France), in the field of electrical engineering and image processing. Kicad is a set of four softwares and a project manager:
Eeschema :Schematic entry.
Pcbnew :Board editor.
Gerbview :GERBER viewer (photoplotter documents).
Cvpcb :footprint selector for components used in the circuit design.
Kicad: project manager.
With the project manager, Kicad, you can choose or create a project and launch Eeschema, Pcbnew, ....
This electronic workbench is free of charges and is open source (GPL). It is useful for everybody working in electronic design (schematic diagrams and Printed Board up to 16 layers).
This software (using WXWIDGETS) is MULTI-PLATFORM. It is running under LINUX and Windows (XP or 2000), for which updates are regularly provided.
Currently, the precompiled version of Linux has been tested using Mandrake 9.2 or 10.0 (works with 10.1).
Sometime the softwares are also been tested under other O.S., especially FreeBSD and Solaris.
Libraries:
Both Eeschema and Pcbnew have a library manager and editor for components and footprints.
You can create, edit, delete or exchange easily library items.
Documentation files can be associated to components and footprints, and key words, allowing a fast search by function.
Very large Libraries (created over many years) are available, for schematic components and footprints (usual and smd).
Most of printed board modules (footprint) are created with their 3D shapes.
Other softwares used with kicad:
There are free and open source softwares under GNU license:
Wings3D: 3D modeler for creating or editing 3D shapes of Pcbnew footprints (www.wings3d.com).
Documentation:
On line Help (HTML format), and documentation source (more than 200 pages written with Open Office) are contained in the package.
Design quality:
Professional quality.
Why I have written this:
Few years ago, I was learning C++ language. At this time, for me, writing a simple CAO software seamed a good programming exercise. (Now, I know C++ language...). The software growed over the years, for becoming a CAD package, complete and with a professional standard.
Due to source awailability, it is both a technological tool for CAD and a research tool for designing algorithms for automatic place and route.
Programming and compilation tools:
All are GLP'ed.
PCB123™ is everything you need to design and order your prototype printed circuit boards. Organizations such as MIT and Purdue University, research institutions such as Sandia National Labs and the US Navel Research Lab, and businesses including Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and General Electric use PCB123 Design Software.
That's right, Electric is open source! You can download Electric from the web for free.
There is no better way to get to know a CAD system than to use it for a while. Now you can use it at no charge! If you like it, keep it! If you don't, you've lost nothing.
Why are we doing this? Because we believe that software should not be proprietary, and we want everyone to be able to use Electric.
Free CAD Software > The ExpressPCB CAD software is very easy to learn and use. For the first time, designing circuit boards is simple for the beginner and efficient for the professional. Best of all, its FREE. http://www.expresspcb.com/ExpressPCBHtm/Free_cad_software.htm