Altium vs KiCad

[JamesJ]

@trancecat

With impedance profiles it is possible to go from layer to layer and Altium will change trace width and even via type to match the target impedance profile.

You can do something very similar if you assign each net with an impedance requirement to a specific netclass. You can then set DRC rules like this:

(version 1)

(rule CLASS1_F
	(condition "A.hasNetclass('CLASS1')")
	(layer "F.Cu")
	(constraint track_width (opt 50mil))
)

(rule CLASS1_In1
	(condition "A.hasNetclass('CLASS1')")
	(layer "In1.Cu")
	(constraint track_width (opt 60mil))
)

(rule CLASS1_In2
	(condition "A.hasNetclass('CLASS1')")
	(layer "In2.Cu")
	(constraint track_width (opt 70mil))
)

(rule CLASS1_B
	(condition "A.hasNetclass('CLASS1')")
	(layer "B.Cu")
	(constraint track_width (opt 80mil))
)

And configure the router to ‘Use netclass width’, and disable ‘Track width from existing track’ (the drop-down and button shown here):

The router will then pick up the required track width every time you start a new segment. The same should work for vias, but I haven’t tried that in a while.