I plan on migrating to KiCad next year when Autodesk suspends support for Eagle 9.6.2, but I can’t figure out how to replicate my folder structure that I have:
I need to organize my projects by: NAME (e.g. All-in-one Warp Engines), VERSION (e.g. v4), REVISION (e.g. Rev2). Is that possible in KiCad?
I’m not sure exactly what kind of problem you expect (I have never been using Eagle). When you have each project in separate folder it is your decision how folders are organised.
I have described my KiCad folders organisation here:
My BR65_A and BR65_B are A and B revisions of BR65 PCB.
Hope this helps.
I think his point is EAGLE’s main window here was more of a file explorer, you could open as many PCB designs you want there.
KiCad does not function like that.
To duplicate your Eagle arrangement using Kicad, I believe all your folders and sub folders from your initial “Projects” up to and including “v3” & “v4” will need to be created with your Operating System.
You would then place three different Kicad projects, ie. “A-Star 328P8”, “Rev1”, & “Rev2” in the “v4” folder.
Thanks jmk, but while I can create the desired folder structure in my OS I can’t differentiate them (“v1/rev1”, for example) in the KiCad UI.
I’d like to understand what for when working on PCB you want to see all previous versions of project you are working on?
When you need to look into previous version from time to time then you can use File-Open Recent and if you were looking there recently it is on top of the list and then you get back to current project the same way. Or if you want to have continuous view of previous version than you can open it in another KiCad instance, what I have never done. But I have many times opened another schematic or PCB in stand alone schematic or PCB KiCad applications (I have their icons in Windows taskbar) at second monitor.
I have never a need to manage project history in PCB design program and hence my question: what for you want to see this history when being concentrated on design?
As others have mentioned in KiCad there’s one project/directory, which seems to be different to what Eagle does.
See this discussion for options: How to create V2 of PCB
As @marekr states, Kicad doesn’t work that way. Kicad only produces projects, not project file structures. You need to use your OS to select any project.
I’ve never used Eagle, but this appears to be a big difference to Eagle.
I’m not sure how Windows works, but in Ubuntu, when you open Kicad and use File > Open Project, you get the below result:
I need to organize my projects by: NAME (e.g. All-in-one Warp Engines), VERSION (e.g. v4), REVISION (e.g. Rev2). Is that possible in KiCad?
Yes, organizing your projects in such a way is possible. But you won’t see this structure in the kicad project manager (the project manager is not a fully fledged file browser) and sometimes you will have to prepare this directory structure with the file manager from your OS.
I would recommend this workflow (you should try, if that suits you):
In contrast to eagle you will have to use the OS file manager sometimes, but the principle folder structure can be similar to eagle (I made the transition 5 years ago, and I have a similar structure)
So, is it that in KiCad you only see the current project you’re working on? If so, that explains what I was seeing and how the solutions provided here will work just fine.
