Create symbol/footprint from Eagle files

[Eric_S]

Hello,

I’m new to KiCad (and to PCB and no really experienced in electronic…). I want to make a PCB that will hold commercial boards from SparkFun or Adafruit. Right now, I’m working on the F9R board. Eagle files are provided. How can I use them to generate a set of symbol/footprint that I can use in KiCad?

Any advice is welcome.

[huskier]

Maybe you can try to import the Eagle projects firstly, and then generate the symbols/footprints from the imported projects.

[paulvdh]

One of the things you can do is ask sparkfun for a KiCad project.
If you pay USD290 for such a small & simple PCB then you should expect some service with it. At least it would let them know people are increasingly more interested in KiCad then in eagle.

And of course exactly because KiCad is ever becoming more popular, it’s quite possible somebody else has already preceded you and you can get it somewhere from the 'net.

I also had a short peek at it myself. Downloading the project was a few mouse clicks. Then I extracted it, opened Kicad and used File / Import Non-KiCad Project from the project manager, and KiCad just opens the Eagle project and converts it to KiCad. To me it looks a bit ugly, as it re-uses the schematic symbols as defined by the eagle project, but it’s pretty usable.

From the imported project it’s quite straight forward to create a custom footprint in KiCad. Pins are laid out on a 2.54mm grid, so that also makes it easier to align everything.

Most of the work will be in learning how to create footprints in KiCad. The way I would proceed from here is:

1. Create a “project specific” footprint library and add it to the project.
2. Create a footprint in that library.
3. Do some measurements on the PCB, and draw pins and outline in your newly created footprint.
4. Import your newly created footprint in the project and put it on top of the PCB to see if it fits.
5. Go back to step 3 and re-iterate until the footprint is to your liking.
6. Use your library & footprint in some other project.

So the PCB footprint is pretty much re-created from scratch, but if you have some experience with KiCad, it’s about 15 minutes of work (including verifying). For the schematic symbol I’d do something similar. Maybe you can re-use the schematic symbol for the U-blox_ZED_F9R to double up for the complete module for other projects. You can select the symbol by clicking on it, and then [Ctrl + E] to edit it in KiCad’s Symbol Editor. In KiCad the Symbol and Footprint editors double up as the library management tools. If you do this you surely have to change the pin numbering so it matches the footprint you created yourself, because the schematic symbol as it’s used in that project is of course for the SMT module itself, and not for the whole PCB.

[Eric_S]

Thanks both for your answer.

Concerning SparkFun, they are not completely unaware of KiCad : SparkFun Electronics KiCad Libraries
Unfortunately alive? · Issue #8 · sparkfun/SparkFun-KiCad-Libraries · GitHub

About the price, it is mainly driven by the price of the GNSS chip inside. Indeed, when looking at SparkFun best sellers, I may suggest them to provide KiCad footprints for GNSS boards at least.

I was also able to import the Eagle project with some error messages but nothing critical.

So, I think I will have to learn how to make my own footprints, that may take me more than 15 minutes .