I have been using Kicad for a while now, and was excited for the new stable release. In an effort to get my co-workers to adopt it as a usable tool for us, I decided to use it for something other than the simple 2 layer boards I have been doing, and instead, I made a clone of a pickit 3 programmer. It is a 4 layer design with all SMD components (except the programming headers). I enjoyed the project and it works great. Here is my web post documenting my process:
What pcb-design software did you use previously and what did you find are the pros and cons of kicad?
One issue I have is I find the DRC quite relaxed, i.e. it won’t find all errors automatically, you have to essentially do design rule checking manually anyway.
Our shop uses mainly EasyPC, and the reason for that is simply because the senior engineer they hired has used it exclusively, so they just went with that. It’s fine and works well, but honestly I feel like it is a little bit like using Visual Studio to write software in that it tries to be everything you could ever want when in reality you will only use 20% of that functionality normally. That just means that you are constantly wading through menus trying to get to what you actually want whereas in Kicad there is simply a more concise set of functionality and it is easier to find and therefore use - at least in my opinion. Kicad is great and I am looking forward to seeing what they add to it next, but it is not without its shortcomings either - as any software is. I think the big sticking point for a lot of folks with using Kicad is the library management. It’s getting better, but is still a little less intuitive than it could be. I know the developers are working on making changes to this, and they will be welcome changes. One of the biggest hurdles I am having to deal with in regards to getting Kicad accepted here is that we have an enormous library of symbols and footprints that we have custom developed. Having to reinvent that for use in Kicad is not a plus as far as the other engineers are concerned. Also - they are divided on the whole footprint association process of Kicad. Some of them like the flexibility and others don’t like it at all. I’m sure these are things that others are dealing with as well. Honestly - sometimes it’s just hard to get folks to accept change - especially when it isn’t mandatory for them to do so. EasyPC works for them, so why do they want to change? I can’t say that I disagree with that sentiment, but for me - I’m a big fan of programs like Kicad and will continue to use for everything that I can.