KiCad 8.0 interoperability with other EDA tools. Next conquering object may be Allegro/OrCad?

[huskier]

I am sorry to bother some of you because of the LLM’s response text, and I’ve deleted it completely from the above thread.

The updated table for KiCad 8.0 interoperability with other EDA tools. I put here for clarity.

[RaptorUK]

@huskier

The updated table for KiCad 8.0 interoperability with other EDA tools. I put here for clarity.

Which of these where there is a Green dot have you personally tried and had full Green 100% success with ?

[huskier]

@RaptorUK

Which of these where there is a Green dot have you personally tried and had full Green 100% success with ?

I personally only have tried successfully to import Altium Designer’s schematic. For others, the information is most directly from the KiCadV8’s importing dialogs, and part (Solidworks PCB’s schematic, symbol and footprint) from Wayne Stambaugh’s slide.

[RaptorUK]

I’ve imported from Solidworks PCB and wouldn’t characterise that import as green, don’t get me wrong, it’s a huge help and a great technical achievement to do it without any help from Altium.

I’ve only done one board so far and that took a lot of work to get it to a point where it was ready for production (after making some mods) . . . but thanks to KiCad we were able to do it.

If I ever get some spare time I plan to pull some more Solidworks boards into KiCad so I can give further feedback/bug reports.

[chris9]

here in Germany one usual competitor for eagle and KiCad was/is “TARGET”. I used early versions myself before switching to LINUX.

I dont know if TARGET is an interesting target to draw new KiCad users as it is a local product ?

I also don t know anything about the file format and I have no win anymore but they offered a reduced freeware and maybe someone who knows more about SW-development than me (that means nearly everybody) will give it a try to analyze ?

[davidsrsb]

I suggest creating a trivial Target (I have heard of them) project and posting the files and screenshots of the schematic and PCB here. This should be enough to see if the files are readable. Look for save and export options that are more portable

[ChrisJC]

Sorry for being dense here, but I am looking for an answer to ‘Can Altium import a schematic from KiCAD 8’ ?

It looks from the table above that KiCAD 8 can import from Altium, but what about the other way around?

Thanks,

Chris.

[eelik]

ChrisJC, does this answer your question?

Can I export or convert a KiCad project to another EDA format (Altium, Mentor, Zuken, OrCAD etc.)?

No, KiCad doesn’t natively export to other formats for other EDA software packages, at least for the time being. There are at least two practical reasons for that. First, most commercial EDA file formats are closed, i.e. secret. It’s very difficult and time consuming to reverse engineer such a format. (This is a problem for all kinds of software, not just KiCad or EDA.) Second, the development resources must be focused into areas which are the most important for KiCad project. The resources …

[ChrisJC]

Not quite. I wouldn’t expect KiCAD to export to a different format, but I believe that Altium will import KiCAD 6.0 schematics (but not 7.0 or 8.0). I’m not sure who provided that import facility, either KiCAD community or Altium?

So it’s still a table of ‘what other CAD tools can import KiCAD schematics’ that I’m looking for I think…

Does that make sense?

Thanks,

Chris.

[eelik]

Well, the FAQ article answers the question. The KiCad project or developers don’t have resources (or willingness, for that matter, I guess) to create and give a KiCad importer to another EDA package. Maybe if they would pay really good money. The KiCad format importers in Altium etc. are made by those EDA companies, they have nothing to do with the KiCad project.

[davidsrsb]

Altium users pay for support from the Altium developers. It is reasonable for them to ask Altium when a KiCad 8 importer will be released

[jmk]

A commercial way of viewing the situation:

If Kicad want to attract customers from Altium, Kicad supply the tool to get those customers.
If Altium want to attract customers from Kicad, Altium supply the tool to get those customers.

[maui]

The issue for $$$ companies is format interoperability… If this is allowed, they get out of business

[jmk]

Of course!
Could you imagine Altium offering to help Kicad develop Kicad’s Altium importer.

[Tomasz_Barwinski]

For now Altium could’t import Kicad 7-8 project, only Kicad 6, so I can’t move from Kicad to Alium in simple way

[Claudio.Lorini]

@Tomasz_Barwinski

I can’t move from Kicad to Altium

Who with a sound mind would do that, anyway?

[huskier]

I’ve just tested that EasyEDA Pro (V2.1.51) could import KiCadV8’s project with some flaws, while EasyEDA Pro (V2.1.51) could import KiCadV7’s project looks more better than the imported V8’s project. There is no specific version indication for the importing option of EasyEDA Pro (V2.1.51). It is OK just for viewing, however, it is another story for serious rework or on-going work.

[pointhi]

@jmk

Of course!
Could you imagine Altium offering to help Kicad develop Kicad’s Altium importer.

That would be nice. There are open questions which are hard to answer. e.g.

• Why do property lists sometimes miss bytes and how does Altium handle those corrupted files
• What is the algorithm which decides the stream names in Altium Circuit Maker, Altium CircuitStudio, Solidworks PCB
• Why did I never got a response when I applied for the student version of Altium Designer

[maui]

@pointhi

Why did I never got a response when I applied for the student version of Altium Designer