KiCad EDA Reviews

It is Free and open source.

Easy to get started. Since it's community driven, a lot of helpful plugins/ extensions are available.

Support For Gnu-Linux based operating systems.

There is no autorouter of anykind.

Sometimes the 3D models disappear for no reason.

The subscription/purchase fee of paid EDA software's is too high for small Startups.

KiCad EDA solves this issue since it's free and open source.

Simple UI with pretty much every feature one expect.

It should provide more component library as current ones are pretty much outdated

For designing schematics and PCB design KiCAD is one the best if you are starting out

Clean interface, perfect workflows, great toolkits and customizable hotkeys. The project manager is excellent and you can even interface it with git. So if you need a software to learn and develop a hardware project, and can't afford a professional tool & employee for it, this is great. Everyone can learn it, everyone can master it.

Nothing at all really. Well it does have a somewhat limited library and 3D models associated with the parts, but that's about it, otherwise perfect software. Also it doesn't have a great export into "formats" interface, so making BOMs or Pick and place files are a bit difficult.

PCB Designs, Electronics designs. DIY parts integration. PCB designer has a netlist-assisted routing feature. It's fun to use & improve performance overall without extra cost.

All the tools like Schematics, Symbol Editor, PCB Editor, Footprint Editor, Gerber View, and Image Converter and all under one tool in an integrated environment where a change in One file (For example Schematic) automatically updates the data in other files of the project.

Putting icons and images on PCB is quite complicated, as we need to make a footprint of the icon or the image first and then update the same in the library and then only it can be used on a PCB layout.

I used KiCad to design a PCB of size 100mm x 100mm useful for converting the AC to DC. The benefit of using the KiCad is the footprint can be directly loaded through a Library Loader.

The best thing about KiCAD is that even though it is open source but still offers great functionalities. A very powerful tool for students who are trying to learn PCB designing.

Some libraries are difficult to import. For example, footprints of certain components are difficult to find. Also, it is not machine-independent. When I tried to open our project on another computer I faced issues.

I made my BTech minor project. Designed a custom PCB from scratch. Schematics, Routing, 3D modeling everything was quite easy to perform and I was able to create a quite impressive project.

Mostly I like schematic drawing & symbol making using schematic layout editor & symbol library editor in Kicad.

Reviewing the PCB in 3D is not much impressive & user-friendly.

If you are a beginner I strongly recommend kicad. You will be having plenty of shortcuts for making schematics & PCB. All kinds of PCBs up to 4 to 6 layers can be done very accurately using kicad. Kicad worked for me very well.

I used to enter the schematic and then designing the PCB using kicad. It's Linux-based software so it's very lite to run on Computer. Accessing the tool are very easy & handy in Kicad schematic layout editor.

It's light weight as compared to other available softwares. Easy to learn. 3d visualization of PCB layout is my favorite part in this software.

Need some optimization in assigning footprints for pcb layout.

Designing of PCBs for my projects with mid range hardware (PC). The software is so lightweights that and so well designed that it never crashed or stuck for me.

KiCad is excellent for beginners as well as professionals, because it is very easy to use, cross platform, and free for everyone.

Unlike trial software or freeware, it provides all the main tools and functionality you would expect, even for advance projects.

One of the features I like best is that it can instantly animate your PCB in 3D, and you can easily import libraries or create your own.

KiCad is great, but still has some room for improvements. Currently it does not have autorouting built-in, so you need third-party software for this. A few other features could be improved, but otherwise works perfectly for me.

I use KiCad both for work and for personal use, due to its versatility, efficiency and ease of use.

Initially I chose this software for work because after trying different other applications KiCad was the easiest to use. Starting as a beginner it helped me learn fast which in turn accelerated my performance. Also I work in a small company, so it was necessary to find something affordable.

In addition I am a strong supporter of Free and Open Source software, and at home I only use Linux, so KiCad's cross platform compatibility was ideal.

I like KiCad because it's free and there a ton of tutorials on the internet that can help you start your journey in a couple of hours.

I would like it to be more industry-oriented other than it is targeted toward less experienced personals.

In all businesses, time is money and KiCad EDA saves a lot of time, at least for me.

I have been using Kicad for more than 10 years.

So far, it is one of the best tools I have ever use, also compared with advanced tools as Altium.

I like it is easy to use, install, and maintain. I like it requires a small number of computing resources to work.

Since the team from CERN was involved in the development, a lot of new features were added as library components updated automatically from GitHub or auto-routing. Also in a Linux environment, it is super easy to use, upgrade, and integrate with git and other tools.

As a funny fact, I remember in the very very beginning of kicad more than 10 years ago, there were no undo option available, so you have to save every second, and if you made a mistake you had to close the program and open it again. This was solved around 2009, and it was a great improvement!

It has small bugs, for example:

- when your local and global nets have the same name. It connects altogether.

- when you turn off a layer, for example, footprint back, it does not turn off the bottom copper layer, so you have to turn it manually. This option was working fine in the past, but then it was changed.

- I do not like there is not a middle option between turning on or turning off the radsnet. I would like to have on only the radnest of the component I am moving in a single time.

- Sometimes the app crashes and closes. But luckily it has an autosave feature so I haven't lost any piece of work so far.

The good news is all these small issues were fixed by the community, or it is going to be fixed soon.

I recommend kicad, and the good thing is the more users are using it, the better the product becomes.

I am not involved in the development either the improvement of any feature in kicad.