Good morning everyone. Firstly, sorry if my english in not so much good.
I want make clear that i like the open software and this critique pretend to be constructive and not despise the great job of this community. I’m ussing the last estable kicad version for windows.
Im newby and i’m becaming frustrated by have to deal with several things. Be newby has pros and drawbacks. The drawback is speak from the ignorance of how the software works, and the pro is that be detect how intuitive and easy/dificult is to use the software. There are points that i found improvable in order to facilitate their use.
1-Conversion bxl files of the devices provided by the manufacturers to kicad format. There are tools to convert to eagle and later to kicad but this is too much loosing time in my opinion.
2-schematic and footprint assingment: it is a really good idea have several footprints for only one component but, choose the desired footprint would be faster and easier if it is done when the component is added to the schematic. In a small design the existing footprint does not supose so much problems but in a long design is like do the schematic twice. Surfing by internet i found that more people have the same opinion.
3-Concern to the library managing. I know that speak is easier than do it but i will explain what i consider it would be the ideal for my case. I made a scheme but, how im new in the forum i can’t upload it. I will try to explain it the best i can. In a brief way, i think the library should be library should work as, e.g. dropbox in something called e.g. cloud library. When a user make a new component by itself or by the comversión from bxl, kicad should ask to the user if it want share it and upload it to the cloud library. if the answer is yes, the component is included in a cuarentene and checked by other member of the community before include it in the cloud library. If the answer is not, the device is estored localy in a private library. After de component is included in the cloud library it is accesible by any user of kicad. This operating mode requires a carefully control of versión, mainly for the foodprints. The rationale behaind this idea is 1) the complicated way to add and mantain organized the library, and 2) there are tenth or thousands of different libraries in internet and check what have each one is imposible so… i have the fealing that a lot of people is desingning the same component ADXXX at this moment or that component ADXXX is included in some of the tenths libraries found in internet. From my point of view, the power of the thousands of people desingning components around the world could be use in a better way through a centralized library. In some way is like take www.kicadlib.org a step further.
4-Something not so complicated as the explained in 3 is the next: include device one by one a lot of work. I consider that include folders with devices would be easier e.g.: suposse that i have made a file named MyKicadLib with devides converter for some source or devices made by me. It whould be enough with referenciate to c:/…/MyKicadLib to make accesible in the library all the devices contained in it.
Surfing in internet more people has a similar opinion concerning to the Library.
I hope this post contribute to improbe this fantastic software.
I speak of what is possible in the latest development version of KiCad at the moment. Some things might not apply to the old stable you are using.
Ad 1, this is the first time I have ever heard of bxl files, but seems interresting. Is this file format documented anywhere and can you provide references on where to get theese files?
Ad 2, “it is a really good idea have several footprints for only one component” yes it is as good idea IMO. Not all people can have the same opinion, developing software that fits all minds requires many man hours if it is even possible. Why do you want to do the schematic design twice? Also you can assign the footprint from the properties of a schematic module.
Ad 3, all newbies think this is a good idea, but reality is that the footprint can depend on your manufacture process and you can not nessesarely provide idealized compontents for all. But KiCad do host libries on github where it is fairly easy for people to contribute.
Ad 4, KiCad is in very active development, but currently mostly pcbnew is updated with new features. For footprints a new format called “pretty” has been devised, which is basically a folder of footprints, which can be a git repo that you can share on github or whereever you like. This should solve this point.
Ad “I hope…” Well, I don’t think this exact post would have much impact on KiCad. FYI.
just this weekend i downloaded bxl files from Analog Devices, convert then to eagle format through untralibrarian and later i used this page http://kicad.jp/Eagle2Kicad/ to get the .lib and the .mod. This is a tedious work. I havent check in detail if the conversión is well done. From a quick view looks like fine.
I guess the labraries is not something easy to manage, and each user can have different requirements. Nevertheless, have to incluthe the divices of myLibrary one by one evey new project it is work. Maybe reference to myLibraby and make accesible automaticaly the whole elements contained in it in the kicad library and not have to add one by one. This would speed up the process faster. This can be optional. If someone prefere add one one is its choice.
3)i dont konw if kicad have an option as: copy the devices used in the project in the project folder. This would facilitate the projects sharing. does it have this option?
Thanks by sugges github, i havent know it.
Yes, looks like the post doesn’t have so much impact but if i can provide some idea that someone considere it interesting and contribute to improve the software would be nice.
Regarding 3, see Platform to share parts / libraries, but I haven’t really found the time to start such a project yet. The data model isn’t that easy if you want versioning / forking etc.
this is a work in progress, but I plan to add kicad .lib and .mod support to the BXL converter once I have fully implemented the necessary parsing for symbols.
The idea with a simple path pointer to include the libs in that path is a very good idea.
I use only my own libs. When a new component is required, I search other libs for that and then copy it into one of mine. That usually keeps the selection small, fast and free of junk.
Many of my designs have multiple supplies and grounds, I can’t even use the supplied digital libs (74xxx, CDxxxx).
About 60% of my work are only schematics - I do not mind the footprint with these. 30% are transfered to somebody else with a really expensive layout editor - he got his own footprints.
I solved my problems with adding component libraries etc.
Creating a new project using an template does not work on my computer.
I think KiCad fell into one of these Microsoft traps concerning from WIN7 and up. For files written to and accessible by any user, you shall use . is partially virtually - and different for each user.
I copied <kicad.pro> to another place and renamed the original.
Then I used a simple text edito on <kicad.pro> and changed the settings to what I want. If you see the text, it’s quite obvious how to do that. Take one of your project files as a reference.
Then shovel this modified <kicad.pro> to its original path. When I now open a new project, everything I want is there. The libs I want and in the order I want them.