I’m a new kicad user, and I wanted to offer some first impressions and thoughts.
First, I’m really impressed with the functionality in a free package, and the dedication of the volunteers that make it possible. You have created a to that works very well, and I was able to create my first project very easily.
Now, a little more specific information. I am an electrical engineer and have been designing FPGA boards (and some others) for around 20 years. I have used several commercial cad tools, most recently dxDesigner for expedition (I have always worked in a group with a designer that does the layout). Although things work differently in the tools I use at work, I found eeschema to be easy enough to adapt to. The biggest comments that I have are the following:
-Is there a way to select multiple symbols and either change them to a different part or to change some properties of those symbols together? I was not able to find a way, and it is something that I would use frequently.
-Is there a function to align several selected items to each other? dxDesigner had this right on the tool bar, and I missed having this to line up text on different lines, or to bring passive components into a neat line.
-For alignment, I like that mentor has lines that appear when you are placing it moving a symbol and it is closer to alignment with others. I saw done discussion of this, and would love to see it added.
-Is there a way to change the default when you drag a symbol to be what the g key does? Dragging with the nets had been the default on every other tool that I have used for a while (including the schematic editor in Intel’s Quartus), and I found myself trying to make a nice and the needing to undo since i forgot to type g first.
-Has there been any discussion of adding to the constraints to have rules for length matching? While I might not need this for any personal projects, having a way to enter there kind of constraints from the schematic editor go a long way towards simplifying high speed layout. Net classes are a good start.
I don’t have as many connect about pcbnew, since at work I don’t do my own layout. I was able to route the simple board that I created, and have it out for fabrication and assembly, so it worked for me.
Once again, thanks to the team for all the work you have done.
-James