Disclaimer. I at this point do net yet know what Kicad 9 brings.
Integration of the best and most used plugins.
I use 3. I use the JLCPCB plugin of Bouni’s
And the place footprint as well as replicate layout plugins. Extremely usefull.
I would like a quick method to add an extra field to schematic symbols. When I use one-of-kind thing, I always have to manually add a field and type JLCPCB Part#. I’d like an option to add this to every standard library elements when I insert them in my schematic (provided the component does not have the field already)
And I haven’t used KiKit before. But perhaps a built-in easy to use panelize things. Now I still manually add mousebites and screw around with the edgecuts. I am likely going to do more paneling things in the future.
Duplicate 3d models with their positioning offsets to similar footprints. If I add plugable screw terminals. I need to manually add and ajust the mating component. To save me the hassle from adding a thing to my own library, I’d like to duplicate/push the 3D model + offsets to all the same screw terminal sockets. It is no different than pushing pad properties to other pads in footprint editor.
I still have to manually do some mouse button clicks (i believe 5) to adjust all texts of basic library footprints to halve them in size. I’d like to push certain custom design rules… such as silk text sizes and such… automatically to be applied to basic library components once they are added.
Actually the trend in large software suites is to spin off functionality into plugins provided the performance penalty is not significant, for the sake of easier maintenance. Some things like teardrops is better done internally for the sake of performance.
On a more serious note; I’m happy with whatever the developers choose to create or refine. Kicad is Free Open Source software. Those who write the software, do so as an interest or hobby or because they just can’t help themselves .
I don’t criticize, complain, expect or want. I’m just happy and grateful that I can continue, as a hobby, in my retirement, a lifelong occupation, without the commercial costs.
I must say I happy too. In KiCad 7 I was frequently annoyed by too many crashes. But with 8, it hardly happened and I can essentially do whatever I want so far.
There is however this one ‘feature’ that continuous to plague me. In combination with Dropbox, these things are sorta a royal payne. So an option to turn off the use of lock files for single users like myself would be appreciated
I’m happy with how KiCad is now
I don’t know what is in V9 so may be what I write here is already done.
I’d like to see in KiCad User layer pairs (I need only one pair).
I start using KiCad from V4 and to make documentation files we ‘since always’ do for us (element rectangles with reference inside, and separate file with values inside I decided to have reference and value at Courtyard layer (to add to rectangles that are already there). KiCad V4 had nothing against it but later started to complain on it. The only alternative I find is to use Adhesive layers for it as we had never used them, but as you never know if you will not to have some feature there is no idea to block it for yourself. If we will have User layer pair I will move there with value and reference and will have Courtyard in the form satisfying KiCad.
I’d like to have block dragging.
Beginning PCB design I divide footprints into blocks and connect everything in blocks. Then I move blocks on the PCB and make connections between blocks. If I find that block should have little different position my current way is to cut it out (disconnect its connections) move a block and re-route connections.
But as I have written at the beginning - KiCad practically fulfills all my needs but I mainly design 2 layer boards and recently some 4 layers.
When I was using Protel 3 (1997 - 2017) I was using few design rules.
One example: to make thermal connections width being dependent on element belonging to class (I was dividing elements into small / medium / big classes). In KiCad I just made correct settings for each footprint in my library.
Second example: to delete default paste layer opening for thermal pad to be able to replace it by defined by me openings. As I remember I didn’t found the other way. In KiCad I have correct openings specified just in footprint definition.
I have never used even a one design rule in KiCad, but my pcbs are relatively simple.
Kicad ist not only developed by hobbyist but also by paid developers at KiPro (KiCad Services Corporation). And it is not only used by hobbyists but also by companies and organisations of any size. When migrating from any kind of EDA system like Altium, PADS, Eagle etc. to KiCad, it is very important to have a reliable roadmap for further development of the software. Keep in mind that migration includes many tasks which are very costly.
It is also a misunderstanding that FOSS means that there are no professional activities. Instead there are big ecosystems around many FOSS projects, especially Linux. Many companies use Linux based servers for business critical services, and other companies build their entire hardware products around a Linux based firmware.
For my company the planning of a migration from Altium to KiCad took several years because some important features were missing. And I wouldn’t have started the migration without joining the KiCad conference and talking to the lead developers because this means a complete shift of my business model.
Thermal simulation, using the board setup with tracks, copper thickness, via position, count, copper surface and thickness would be great. Even if done outside of Kicad (maybe in Freecad with an exported 3D).
What is that simulation picture taken from?
Multiboard support would be great, indeed!
For me a project would be the complete product that I want to build.
Having a main schematic that allows to define sections for separate PCBs that are connected by nets.
This would break down in several PCBs with individual Layer Stack (CPU 6layer, General 2layer, Power LED on IMS).
With a 3D reference point in the PCB setup dialog the 3D viewer could eventually show all PCBs as they would later be assembled in the final project. Allowing for collision checking and easy exporting of the complete electronic package.
Recently I sent 12 of my boards off to a company for PCB assembly. Note that I use mostly or entirely my own footprints. The assembly company noticed that many of my footprint pads (in the gerbers) were missing the paste layer. I think they needed that to make a solder paste stencil. The pcb itself was OK.
When I went back to fix that, the only way I could do that within KiCad was to add the layer, one pad at a time. I was unable to add the paste layer to all pads in a footprint in one operation, at least not within KiCad.
After I was mostly done, I realized I could do find>replace with a text editor to add the paste layer to all pads of a footprint. All I had to do was look at the text for a pad which HAD the paste layer to see what I needed. I then sent out new gerbers to the assembler. But…that was a hack. Why doesn’t the footprint editor allow for that?
context menu - Paste Default Pad Properties to Selected.
‘Push Pad properties to Other Pads’ could be faster but if pads at rectangular footprint don’t have different orientation but only different dimensions they all get replaced dimensions.
I prefer to have better control of what I am doing and if I work on made by me selection I know what will be done.
If I remember correctly, we started working on the specification for the current DRC engine (the underlying logic of the DRC, checkers, DSL scripting aka the rule expressions) in late 2019. I am not surprised your colleague’s email about a user interface for the DRC rules might have been missed in 2017 as it was rather difficult to discuss the UI for something that hadn’t existed yet
We would like to have a comprehensive UI for DRC rules at some point, but:
it needs to be easily maintainable (we support 3 major operating systems with their own UI/UX quirks)
it must not cause conflicts with the user’s provided textual rules
someone must find the time and motivation to design, code and test it. And then - maintain (as every new DRC check would require a new rule editor).
Thanks! Ahh OK this seems like it may work OK. I wish that someone was able to steer me that way when I was doing this…
One area of confusion is that “pad properties” includes the “pad position”. So:
If all of the pad properties are copied, then the pads will all overlay each other as they will have the same position.
If the position is not included among the copied properties, then…OK…which parameters are copied? This is not clear… I think adding one more step…to select which properties are to be copied…might be helpful.
I had tried that but as you indicated, my pads are not all the same. So this action caused more problems than it solved. It would have been great if I could de-select “pad dimensions” and also know that it would not select “location.”
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