We’re looking for a few good designs to add to the official KiCad demo collection for the V6 release.
The demo collection is part of the KiCad source tree and is distributed with every KiCad installation. Our existing demos were designed a long time ago, and so they are a bit behind the times in terms of use of KiCad features as well as component selection.
We are particularly interested in designs that make use of new features in the nightly builds, such as custom design rules, arc tracks, hatched zones, new bus features, and the like. But in general, we are looking for designs that showcase KiCad in ways that the existing demos do not.
The requirements for designs to be considered are:
The design must be complete, that is, not a work-in-progress*
The original creator of the design must support its inclusion in KiCad.
*at least, the design should look complete – it does not need to be a tested/proven design in the real world
If you have a design that you think would be a good candidate, please contact me or @Seth_h directly. We may not be able to accept every submission as we only need a few new ones, but even if we don’t add your design to the demos folder, we encourage you to add it to the Made with KiCad portion of the website!
Nothing too fancy, though I have a version with some Fillet Track just for the sake of art
It may be a good way to showcase KiCad’s scriptability, since most of the schematic and the design was generated by Python scripts (which I’m happy to contribute as well)
What was your experience like with the scripting interface? I’ve been using it extensively and I’ve been thinking about creating a small usability wrapper around it until the big API bindings update (which I think is now slated for v7).
And this is very good for heat dissipation, and for mounting on bigger heatsinks, but it also has some serious limitations.
It’s only a single layer of tracks, and no via’s. The PCB’s are also difficult to solder because the heat gets sucked into the aluminimum.
What was your experience like with the scripting interface?
The scripting interface was pretty straightforward to use. Things I’m missing:
Better documentation (so I won’t have to use dir() all the time)
Not having to hit F9/F11 every time to see my changes
Some API for the interactive router? Ideally, something like: I want to go from point (pad) A to B, please find a path for me.
Scripting for Eeschema (right now I just write the .sch file directly from a script)
Nice to have (at least for this kind of project):
Some basic vector operations (like rotation or multiplying a vector by scalar)
Ability to group objects and to transform the groups. So for instance, I’d be able to create a group, add several modules/tracks/vias to it, and then translate/rotate it. That could have been a huge timer saver in this project!
If you want to take a look, I published everything on GitHub: the board schematic and layout, and the two scripts that aided me in creating them:
It’s only a single layer of tracks, and no via’s. The PCB’s are also difficult to solder because the heat gets sucked into the aluminimum.
Good point about the solderability, I haven’t thought about that. As for the layers, I actually found some mfgs produce 2-layer boards (e.g. PCBWay). So I guess it’s only a matter of paying enough
