Hello everyone.
I’m new to the forum and also to Kicad. I’m able to design the schematic part but I’m having trouble with the rest, namely the PCB and the Gerber file… I’m in France, in Brittany, and I’m looking for someone who could guide me either in person (I can travel within my region or even farer) or by video conference.
I guess a few hours to identify certain specific actions is sufficient. I can of course pay for this help if necessary…
Best Regards
Have you familiarized yourself with the Kicad documents here https://docs.kicad.org/
In particular: The Beginners Guide, PCB Editor & Gerber View.
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A very quick search brings up many online courses for KiCad.
kicad design course at DuckDuckGo
“Kicad like a pro” is apparently also a good book, but I have not read it myself. The people who wrote that book (now on it’s 3rd edition) also organize KiCad courses.
I have never done a course myself. I started with KiCad’s own “getting started in KiCad” guide long ago (In KiCad V3 or maybe earlier). That guide got seriously out of date and has been completely rewritten. I don’t know how good it is now. I found KiCad quite easy to learn. I only had some troubles with some gaps in KiCad’s functionality, but that was over 10 years ago, and those gaps have been plugged long ago. You can do quite a lot with self study, but buying and studying a book or course may get you results quicker. A lot of people asking questions on this forum are also (relative) beginners, and we give lots of help for free. Nearly any KiCad questions have been answered multiple times over, and searching this forum may give answers quicker then writing a post and waiting for a response. Especially for the basic questions.
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I really think, and I know I’m not allone, that KiCad can be self-taught. Only thing you have to do is accept to take a project that you might not like that much. There is a zillion of videos on youtube how to use KiCad from start to finish.
This is the first way to learn.
I personally like to start my project and pick out the parts in tutorials where I’m stuck at the moment. But this is slower and has a higher frustration level.
If you have specific questions, people here are really willing to answer the “dumbest question”. A warning ahead: Don’t ask about electronics. This forum is about using KiCad.
All the best!
Not for me.
When I tried to learn anything from video I found myself to stop it and rewind hundreds times and in not all cases it is easy to find for example what hot-keys were pressed.
I prefer just to read documentation as I believe I get that way the whole picture and not only a narrow section that someone chose for their video.
Even if you don’t remember how to use some feature if you have read about it you will know you should search for it but if it, as being not frequently used, was not mentioned in videos you watched, when you came to need it you have big chance to trying to find the way around to solve the not existing problem.
From my point of view here is recent example of such situation:
What is the chance that in video someone will show using Pad Clearance parameter, but in documentation it simply is described.
Both video and text with pictures have their uses. Videos are good for getting an overview, while you need manuals for the details. Be prepared to be flexible and use both for good results.