Is It Possible to Edit/Use [a Wintek Hiwire project with KiCad]?

[Macka]

Hi. Is it possible to edit/use an existing Wintek Hiwire project with KiCad?
Be great if I could.
Looking forward to your reply.
Regards.
John Mackenzie

******@emee.co.nz (masked by moderator, use PM instead to contact)

[jmk]

Hello and welcome @Macka

Teaser topic titles are not really a good idea.

I’d never heard of Wintek 'till now. Probably created about the same time as Protel 98.
I’ll bet the only reply you get is no. I had some old stuff retained in Protel 98. I didn’t even ask on this forum, I just learnt how to use Kicad and then copied my very old stuff from protel, that I wanted to keep, one resistor at a time, into Kicad, then deleted the very old programme.
There were really only about half a dozen worth keeping on a computer, the rest were printed out and stuffed into a folder “just in case”.

It is probably quicker to knuckle down and re-draw than endlessly search the internet “in hope of”.

[Piotr]

@jmk

I just learnt how to use Kicad and then copied my very old stuff from protel,

I was using Protel 3 (it is version just before Protel 98) till 2017.
I took the opportunity to switch from Protel to KiCad to change everything from mils to mm and to change from identifying an element by symbol name alone to identifying by symbol name + footprint name. Copying old projects that needed a new version was a nice learning experience of working in KiCad.

[marekr]

@jmk

Protel 98

Worse, it’s DOS based

[davidsrsb]

30+ years old. I doubt there are that many files surviving to be rescued.

[Docara]

Hi
STRONGLY urge you to remove your email address from a public forum.

I know it’s a PITA but just build your schematic in KiCAD. Your schematic input would necessarily be tied to actual components at first, so it should be quite quick.
Also there is a function (somewhere) that allows you to take a pic and import it into KiCAD with the purpose of you route a PCB following the existing board.

[paulvdh]

If you have gerbers, then you may be able to reverse-engineer them into a KiCad project:

Reverse engineering KiCad project from Gerber files

The goal of this reverse-engineering tutorial is to re-create a complete KiCad project from partial information assuming the only information available is a schematic in some readable, (but not EDA form, such as a .pdf or a .png picture), and a set of gerber files. The Gerber files will create a PCB with much PCB information missing, however, using this method is easier than re-designing a PCB from scratch, and can also be extended to any other program that creates Gerber files. What is “resc…

But back then, in the DOS age, there were a lot of strange Gerber dialects.
KiCad also has the ability to load a background image via: PCB Editor / Place / Add Image, and this is a useful aid during re-creation of any PCB.

For the schematic I do not see any options except a complete re-entry. But you have to have it in some human readable format, be able to run that old program in some dos (emulation) box, or, as a last resort, re-create it from the PCB itself. This last option is significantly more work.