I have not seen any newer questions on the subject. I work as an E&I tech and I have been avidly waiting for an industrial/commercial electrical library but have yet to see any made. I know KiCAD is designed to be for PCB design and I use it for that very purpose already. But, seeing how many libraries and components there are tells me it CAN be used for industrial controls design. I, myself, have already used it to create a PDF schematic of an encoder-controlled VFD system for one of our 480Vac, 3-phase machines where I work and it came out beautifully.
If there are no plans for this, I will just keep expanding on the custom libraries I am already making. I love this software and I want to see it grow into more niche electrical arenas. Industrial controls and automation would bea VERY good niche for KiCAD to get into IMO.
I am certainly not one who is involved in planning libraries or future revisions of KiCad. But fundamentally, KiCad is an Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software package. As such it’s primary aim is to help create schematic diagrams, and to use that schematic diagram to guide the design of a printed circuit board. (That is sort of a mission statement.) The symbols in the symbol libraries generally correspond to electronic components which are mounted onto a pcb.
The schematic diagram now also can be ported into Spice simulation. I have not used our NgSpice yet but it is an added capability.
I am not sure whether an industrial control fits into that “mission statement”? I think of an industrial control as being more of an end product rather than an electronic component. I think it might help if you pointed us to one or two examples of what you mean by “industrial controls”?
EAGLE has/had that feature that I never used.
But looking at the schematics of my CNC mill, or my CNC lathes at work, it is a completely different world.
I doubt that KiCAD will go that way.
I appreciate the feedback. My primary concern is symbols related to components on a 3-phase electrical control cabinet. Such as 3-pole contactors (just big beefy relays), more variations of normally open/closed switch types such as pushbutton, push-pull, etc. I have found that incremental encoder symbols are in the default libraries which I found a very nice discovery.
Generally, I use KiCAD in this manner to layout individual systems that all come together to form a complete whole. So, for instance I may use the drawing functionality and text labels to make an enclosure layout of major components within the enclosure, the next drawing will be the primary mains power and related breakers, fuses, buses, contactors, etc. Then the next would be low voltage controls such as 24VDC, 120VAC, and/or 240VAC control sources like PSUs, transformers, etc.
I know KiCAD was never intended for such things but I find it works so darn well for it. So, my next question would be, if I were to create a library dedicated to industrial control system common components and their terminal structure/pinouts, strictly to be used to make visual representations of an industrial control system, would there be a possibility of such a library being made available by default provided I gave examples of exactly what they are for?
Perhaps if I shared the schematic PDF that I created for my job as an example of how I use it so it makes more sense?
I think the issue will be that the vast majority of users don’t need it so it will be extra download volume that’s unnecessary. You’ll also have to follow the KLC. But the library maintainers can speak for themselves.
But nothing’s stopping you providing it from a GitHub repo or from a content plugin. There’s precedent for that in the Alternate KiCad Library and the Elektor style symbols library.
Oh most definitely I agree that most wouldn’t have a need for such libraries. But from my 6 years experience in automation and controls engineering, the volume of engineers wanting an open source version of this software that I have discovered is actually huge.
I like the idea of a git repo as a optional source for my own libraries. I may actually try that out. I appreciate the feedback. Here is a small example of how I use KiCAD for my job. Apologies for it being unfinished (missing wire labels at relay and switch termination points).
For these sort of diagrams, I usually use Qelectrotech - a FOSS electrical diagramming software. I appreciate that it is another program to learn but it seems better suited to documenting electrical/hydraulic/pneumatic installations than KiCad. It does already have a lot of symbols and functionality.
It will handle multiline conductors and produce spreadsheet outputs and BOMs. It is useful for documenting wiring harnesses (although I also like WireViz for this too).
That’s how I’m used to read diagramms like these. The example presented by “Inventor” is nore like a new invention of an already existing standard. At least a standard here in Europe.
I can read your example and find bugs in controls. Complex controls like CNC machinery.
If you publish your library on Github or GitLab with an appropriate license (maybe see if you are comfortable using the same license as the official KiCad libraries) I’m sure someone would help with packaging it for the PCM if you don’t want to do that yourself. It would also make it so that others could contribute to the library. I think this would be a faster route than trying to get a whole new category of symbols added to the official library (which, to date, is focused on PCB design more than industrial controls, although I don’t speak for them and don’t know if they would be open to expanding in the future)
