Hi, before getting started, sorry for my bad english.
I’m an electronics student living in argentina, one of my professors wants an especific circuit in a “.pcb” file.
I’ve thought that kicad already works with that type of file so i simply started designing and everything.
But at the moment of exporting the respective file, i couldn’t do it in a .pcb file, only on .brd.
It’s there any way that i could export on that type of file, or convert it?
Any help will be apreciated.
Thanks
Sounds like your professor wanted Eagle files.
I think the best thing you can do is introduce KiCad to your classmates and professor.
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CAD in general (not just electronic CAD) is plagued by the lack of proper exchange formats. This means it is typically not possible to get a file generated in one CAD program into another one (at least not such that the full feature set of the target program can be used on it and definitely not to be able to inspect design parameters).
There are however exceptions. Some tools (like KiCad) implement importers for files generated in other formats. These importers are however always going to be lossy (as the feature sets differ between systems and not everything can be directly mapped from one to another).
Which is why i am confused by the wording of the “requirement”. If a professor uses a certain tool then i suspect that they state this clearly from the get go. And not by defining the file ending but by clearly saying something like “this exercise (or course) must be done in tool X of version Y”. I would further expect that their teaching aids will all be specific to that tool as well.
And the IT department of the school (or university or whatever) will of course need to offer the tool in question for students (assuming it requires a license) or at least some form of explanation on how to get it.
If they do not specify that or do not have teaching aids specific to a tool then they are really limited to the closest the industry has to common exchange formats. So most likely PDF for the schematic and gerbers for the PCB side (both horrible options for a true verification).
I mean it would be much better if teaching would not be program specific but as you can see from the reasons mentioned above this currently not really practical. At best i would expect a subset of tools to be viable that can each import the needed feature set from each other (or there would need to be a common program that can import from all allowable tools). For example if the prof uses kicad then eagle would be a viable option for students as kicad can import eagle files (at least well enough for marking the work of students).
However note that the preferred tool would then still be the tool used by the professor and the other allowed tools would have limitations placed on them to allow for proper import.
Another option would of course be that the professor uses multiple tools but the same as above applies (there are still only a limited number of options as you can not expect a professor to work with every tool out there).
So what can @Ian_Yudewitz do now?
Depends on the exact circumstances.
Lets take the worstcase first. They already finished their work and the professor set out the hard requirement for using a different tool. In that case the only course of action really is to explain the mistake that happend (use of the wrong tool) and ask if the professor accepts kicad files (of course under the assumption of a reduced score). The professor might however require that the student converts the project over to their system. In that case one relies on some form of converter that will at best require rework of the design. At worst there does not exist one and they might need to recreate the project in the other tool.
It is all slightly better if the requirement has not been stated clearly. Then at least partial blame lies with the professor. But the power difference still means the student will be the one that needs to do the work described above.
The best case is that @Ian_Yudewitz did not yet start. In which case i suggest to imideatly switch to the tool preferred by the professor.
i did. my professor said that we should only work with apps given by class teachers…
you either find another professor or you learn it yourself, as i did myself.
sorry can’t really help with your problem though… learning myself too…
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Many professors are on cruise control. They hand out the same assignments over and over with little change.
It’s also possible that the professor doesn’t decide but assistant(s) who do work with the assignments.
In any case they are all underpaid and short of time and don’t want to accept more software than they already know.
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