Import of AMSCAD/PCPRO PCB symbol and footprint in Kicad

Is there any plug in available to import amscad/pcpro pcb foot print and symbol in Kicad ?

I have not even heared of that program before, and an conversion seems unlikely.
KiCad does have quite good editors though, both for schematic symbols and PCB footprints. Besides that, there are multiple website who specialize in creating footprints such as snapeda and PCBlibraries.

I am using this dos base software since 1988 till today

So that means you’ve got 30 years invested in maintenance of your old projects and libraries.

I had a quick look at both “amscad” and “pcpro pcb”, but neither get many hits in a search engine and it’s seems to be software that has never been used by a lot of people. This also makes it unlikely that some other KiCad user has written scripts to do some kind of conversion. (There are some 80+ “side projects” around KiCad, from small utilities to conversion or backup scripts, alternative schematic entry, etc…

If your old software gen generate Gerber output, then you can back-import the PCB of a project into KiCad. It’s not perfect but you get about 80% of the PCB for 10% of the work needed for the conversion. I wrote a faq article about doing this: Reverse engineering KiCad project from Gerber files

It’s unlikely there are better importers, but KiCad does have quite reasonable libraries, the built in editors for both the schematic symbols and footprints are quite good and they have the same “working style and feel” as the rest of KiCad and this helps a lot with getting used to them. Schematic symbols are simple, it’s usually just one (or more) rectangles with some pin information (and there are external programs to help with organizing that pin information). KiCad’s footprint editor has a nice array function and a way to copy footprint information (such as size SMT/THT, etc.) between pads and is quite adequate for simple to moderately complex footprints.

If you have very complicated footprints, then the combination of FreeCAD with the “StepUp” workbench could be a viable option, but there is quite a learning curve ahead to work with FreeCAD.

1988 software is unlikely to be using very exotic footprints, those were the DIL THT days

1 Like

Hello and welcome @NFC_Radio

Have you fully explored Kicad libraries?
You will find most basic symbols in the “Device” library eg. transistors, capacitors, resistors etc.
The footprint libraries are very easy to understand.

In case you haven’t found it yet, this up to date link may help:https://docs.kicad.org/6.0/en/getting_started_in_kicad/getting_started_in_kicad.html

If you have questions about particular symbols and footprints or methods please ask. A lot has changed in thirty years with respect to programs.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.