I’m very excited that KiCad exists and am impressed how capable it is.
I was came across Quadcept PCB CAD tool that I hadn’t heard much about and it has some really neat features and wanted to bring it to the attention of the leads in case they are looking for ideas.
Thanks!
You can rest assured that there’s no lack of ideas. But there’s lack of manpower and time.
Hi Harjit (and anyone else interested)-
If there are specific aspects of another pcb design package that you’d like to see implementing in KiCad, please explain the specific feature (preferably with images) in a bug report at https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad .
If you do decide to do this (feature requests are a great help and a good way to contribute!), please avoid posting videos that show more than your specific feature request.
So some things I saw in the video.
Bus auto routing and impedance matching. Click to add bus connection and auto route based on adjacent previously routed bus connection.
Additive and subtractive zone creation.
Nets obey constraints of a zone, eg under a BGA trace width automatically get reduced to pass between holes etc…
Automatic bus numbering in schematic capture.
The schematic designer selects only components whens drag selecting… this makes alignment tools more immediately useful.
Doesn’t seem to have curved ratsnest…
Is planned as far as i know.
Planned for some future kicad release (Area defined DRC rules.) There is a huge DRC overhaul planned so maybe this will be part of it.
Not sure what exactly you mean here but i think kicad has these as well. (A normal zone is what i assume is your additive stuff and a keepout zone with only zones selected is your subtractive one.)
Already in kicad. Use the insert key after placing the first label. (Or explain how your feature differs from kicads feature if this is not the case)
Also buses in the schematic got a major overhaul (already in master -> will be released with version 6). KiCad can now make buses not only of numbered nets but you can define them with any signal name. Allows creating hierarchical designs similar to how it is done in system on chip design. (Define an interface with named sub-signals and connect it with one line)
Thank you for gentle and constructive responses. After some experience with KiCAD, I’ll think through which features are most beneficial VS eye candy and if they don’t exist, create features requests / upvote existing requests.
While mostly yes some of this technically does exist in KiCad or will exist… it isn’t exposed in a useful way especially with respect to zones which comparatively are clumsy to edit.
Please don’t quote deleted posts. 
It seems innocuous enough but off topic and the mods don’t want to have to look this kind of stuff up every time it appears. Post quoting it deleted because it contained a deleted post.
All shown features are known and most also covered by other commercial tools for 20-30years ago. There is one feature I saw first time working interactive. Neither interactive nor autorouting is known therefore, manuell is most time possible. The feature is known als “bottle necking”: Tracegoes through a restriced area where it becomes partially thinner for a small distance. This does not affect the overall resistance much as long as it does not contribute to the overall length and allows routing between pins normally too small for the trace specifications
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.