Import boards from altium

Yes, I see it. Thanks for noticing!

1 Like

Fix pushed __________

Will we have time for a stable 7,0,7?

I think 7.0.7 is already frozen, new bugfixes will go to 7.0.8 later.

This one went in as it was a regression from 7.0.6

what about defining layers on multilayer boards? when converting, some of the layers are reassigned … to be more precise, the importer does not understand them and adds them to the user one … is it possible to correct the definition at all?

Please create an issue on GitLab for this, with your board (or another example board) attached.

Is this generally considered a bug? Because there are no such layers in the kicad and in any case it transfers it to the user
did you notice a message during conversion that layer 70 or 71 will be moved to another one?

I’m not sure exactly what it is that you want, but it sounds like a it’s a feature request. Feature requests should also be reported in Gitlab as issues.

Describe in your feature request how it’s currently working, what the problem is, and how you would like it to work instead. Attach sample files and images to make it clear and reproduceable.

It is very difficult to describe the normal work of the importer when there is no one but me who does not need it

Different people have different expectations of such importers.

Not too long ago (5 to 7 years) KiCad was mostly fit for DIY projects and the hobby market. For a lot of hobbyists, it is great if they for example find some project on the internet, can import it and then spend half a day to repair it.

In the last few years KiCad is becoming a more “professional” package. If the KiCad project wants to attract companies to switch from some other program to KiCad, then such a company may want to convert thousands of projects. Either in batch, or “as needed”.

The second case is a whole other view, and while KiCad does have the intention to grow into this “professional” market (whatever your definition of “professional” is), overall KiCad has limited resources and as an open source project it’s is made by volunteers in their spare time. “KiCad” just can not dedicate resources on for example a handful of full time developers for half a year to implement some feature. To give an idea of the difference, the whole KiCad project probably runs on less than EUR100k per year, while competitors can have EUR150M of yearly revenue. That is a difference of 3 orders of magnitude.

So limitations on things such as importers are known, and complaining about their quality helps no one. Testing an importer and filing bug reports for bugs not yet reported is useful. And if such an importer is very important to you, you can consider diving into KiCad’s codebase yourself to improve it, or sponsor someone else to do it for you.

1 Like

The key phrase is important for you… For me personally, it is unimportant, I have been working in altium for 10 years and still work… In my free time I study other packages… looking at this topic, no one needs it except me, then the question is why ?) per month 0 posts
If this function is important for users, then there would be messages, and so they are not displayed? Why fund something you don’t need? Even if they bring me a project in kicad, I will perfectly convert it to altium without dancing with a tambourine
The second point that I wanted to clarify funding limited resources is an excuse look at successful free packages how they work and how they develop how the importer and other functions of easyeda freecad work there libreoffice …

I need a version of the Altium importer, I need a Solidworks PCB importer . . . I say “I” I really mean the company I work for. We have lots of products laid out in Solidworks and it’s end of life. We need 2 seats and Altium would be the obvious choice but the cost . . . :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

I did a little work with @craftyjon to get an Importer working in the nightlies (I supplied some test files and did a little testing) and can now import Solidworks PCB schematics and PCBs, are they perfect ? no but it’s a great start and an option for us in the future.

2 Likes

EasyEDA is not a fair comparison, you pay for it in other ways, it’s not “free” . . . it’s paid for by customers placing orders for PCBs with JLCPCB so it has a funding stream.

Edit: and it seems that FreeCAD won’t import Solidworks files . . .

1 Like

why freeze with so many known bugs?

There are no known critical regressions. If you find one, please report it.

Not critical, not a regression. Edit, apparently it was a regression from a recent commit, so it got fixed.

Bug free is impossible. 7.0.7rc1 already includes many fixes that affect a significant number of users.
7.0.7rc2 should include this Altium regression.
Import from commercial ECAD is under-tested because few users and developers have these.
Further bugs that are not critical or regressions can wait for 7.0.8, which I would expect around September

I’m sorry, but the largest number of developers use Altium … at least in my country)