Great if you dont need it, but i miss it. Sometimes i have schema of 9 pages with 659 components, and is complex find and select 100 capacitors of 100nf at same time to work on the bom (same footprint, same MPN, Voltage specified, etc)
You can find anything in Kicad below tool and you can change. (same footprint, same MPN, Voltage specified, etc)
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I would like to be able to configure plugin hotkeys from the preferences menu.
The current state-of-the art is a little unreliable:
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Wishlist, some repeated from other posts above, ascending complexity:
- insert Table (instead of text box) in Schematic viewer (ex. to take in vital information from datasheets or compare alternative components easily)
- “Align > to grid” both in ee schema and even more so in PCB view
- single layer PCB (really, why does it have to start at 2 layers?)
- native GIT support
Dream feature:
some sort of interface for original component manufacturers (eg. TI, Infineon, Vishay, Cree…) to publish their products & certified datasheets, footprints, 3D files, distributor links etc. directly through a transparent database, kind of similar to what Altium has but better & convincing manufacturers to do this for their own benefit, as this creates free advertising for their products.
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this has good probability of being officially introduced soon (to be exact is already in 8.xx, and i’m already using it)
Are there any plans for the visual diff built-in? As the work is heavily visual in nature, it’d be “Must have” for me to quickly highlight and review modifications.
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I’d really like to see more support for reverse-engineering legacy PCBs. I routinely work with undocumented 2-layer boards from the 70’s and while the added support for background images in the PCB Editor was a major step forward if one just wants to create/generate corresponding Gerber files, what remains missing is the ability to form/specify netlists in the PCB Editor that can be propagated back into the Schematic Editor. AFAICS Kicad v8 has all of the necessary bits already in place, including the ability to import an externally-specified netlist. Now if the PCB Editor could be used to create that netlist … wow :-}.
Your first item is already in v9
Your second item has been available in Schematics for at least a couple of years ( I forget exactly). With PCBs there is the old problem of “What do you want to align?” The centroid, a particular pad, the courtyard, Fab. layer? There is an “align” tool for the PCB, and it may be of use to some.
To access either; make a box select around the items in question (the whole schematic if required) then Right Mouse Button and select from the menu.
I know this, now check my snapshot, and please try to use all criteria on my request.
My major wish about personal symbols and footprints libraries: simplify, simplify and again simplify! Not downgrade features, but unify the interface (which nowadays is spread over and unclear).
My wishes are small as of now.
- Native Git support and graphical diff viewer (like CADLAB.io).
- Multi-board support.
- Board variants support (like Git branches).
- Native PCB panelization support. Currently, I import a design and create array from it for making the panel. But no DRC or nothing.
- Native V-Scoring support and 3D visualization.
- Able to see individual inner copper layers in 3D viewer.
- Exporting 3D image in custom resolutions (other than the native screen resolution).
- Able to specify Via-in-Pad for vias and able to see render them correctly in the 3D viewer.
- Via explorer to highlight and see same types of vias in the PCB and change properties together (instead of the existing non-interactive method).
- Track explorer to highlight and see same type of tracks in the PCB and change properties together (instead of the existing non-interactive method).
- Click a model in the 3D viewer to highlight the part in PCB and Schematic.
- A native parts database with MPN, Manufacturer, Footprint, Alternative Part, and other details that we assign easily while preparing the BoM.
- If a parts database it too much to ask for, then at least a generic API for applying these properties via plugins or CLI.
- Able to place hierarchical sheet pins multiple times!
- Edge plating support with 3D visualization.
- Grouping in schematic editor.
- Shortcut to move to next visible layer including to non-copper layers. Key modifiers will also be nice to switch between different layer sets.
- Multiple design constraints and rules profiles in a single project and the ability to switch between them and do DRC. This will allow a single design to be readied up for multiple fab houses.
- Swap option everywhere possible.
- Ability to measure Resistance, Capacitance, Inductance and Impedance of tracks and vias based on the board stackup data.
- Routing helper tool that will predict and show the next best possible move based on the constraints data. The predicted routing can be shown as a transparent or in some highlighting. Can be extremely useful when routing differential pairs. Press Tab key to accept routing.
- Graphical via stackup modifier tool.
- A beautiful splash screen to look cool in front of non-techy friends
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- Fix 4-5 year old problems (systemic)
- Add multithreading to improve performance
- Stop changing file formats every year
- Introduce new features as they become shitty within one branch
- Don’t release new versions knowing about unresolved problems and errors
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I think this topic has turned into a hubbub of wishes that will be ineffective because they are not issue submissions at Gitlab, interspersed with whinge posts.
Well I’m pretty sure I’ll get my wish of tripling of the download price. 
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Maybe Freecad has improved since I tried years ago and gave up on it as being WAAAAY too basic to be useful. But anyway, there’s another free 3D CAD tool that already has FEM, CAM, and a ton of other stuff already integrated and working well. Maybe it’d be better to use that instead?:
Can you share some info (possibly in a separate thread) about this?
A part from this post i cannot find any recent useful thead about salome in the forum.
A simple KiCad project example of exporting to Salome and some basic analysis would be great…
The greatest problem i see about a tight integration with KC, is the missing macos support; personally is not a deal breaker but i can clearly understand the importance of that for the KC project.
Normally, a good schematic contain all indication to a good PCB routing. I think that can be usefull define some Net propierties predefined on schematic. Posibility mark one wire on some parameters like minimum track width, min cleareance with another tracks, etc.
This is already (partly) implemented.
- Put a resistor and a Fet on the schematic. Make it R1 and Q1
- Put a 0805 and SOT-23 footprint on the PCB. Also change their RefDes to R1 and Q1.
- Draw a track between the 0805 and the SOT-23 (KiCad lets you do this, because all pads have the “No Net” name.
- Select the track, press e to edit it, and just type in a net name. In the “filter” part you can also create new net names. (I used “Birkel” as net name.
- PCB Editor / Tools / Update Schematic from PCB. Make sure that updating net names is also selected.
Voila:
The method is far from perfect, but also reverse engineering functions are being improved upon. I guess one of the complications is that it may not interfere with the forward workflow in KiCad. For reverse engineering you want to create connections on the PCB, while for the forward workflow, you want to prevent faulty connections in the PCB from being created.
If you have some bright ideas of how this can be improved (preferably in small steps) then create some feature requests for this on gitlab.
Yes. Nice hubbub. There are already plenty of feature requests on gitlab (1000+ I guess) and most of this thread will already be on gitlab. But this has a lower threshold, not all people are (willing to) participate on gitlab, and maybe this thread turns up some new ideas that are worth adding to gitlab.
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Thank you for pointing out this workflow :-}. I’ll experiment with it and think harder about the topic. While my skills in KiCAD aren’t of the highest order, they are improving in at least some respects. “Round-tripping” isn’t necessary/desirable as an immediate task. At first blush it seems to me that exporting the derived schematic to a new project and then, if desired, forward-engineering from there would be a reasonable way/context in which to invoke the Schematic DRC rather than during the reverse-engineering process. I do think that forward-engineering a new PCB layout that correctly captures, in the sense of visual approximation is a good correctness check but that only needs to happen occasionally during the reverse-engineering process – at suitable well-defined check-points or simply at the end of the process. One thing that I’ve struggled with is how to capture vias properly so that I can work one side of the PCB before tackling the other. Handling partial knowledge of traces that disappear under device footprints (e.g., IC socket) and can’t be resolved without considering the emerging schematic and what would be “meaningful connections”. Your thoughts? A new thread would be fine. Or direct messaging.
Pin and gate swaps, synced between Schematic and PCB. It would make life so much easier during layout and routing. This would also be a huge thing for reverse engineering, today it’s a bit of a slow workflow going back and forth between PCB and Schematic.
API for Schematics would also be a nice one to have.
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