Steve Chamberlin of Big Mess o’ Wires writes:
Four and a half years ago, I wrote a mini-review of Eagle vs. KiCad, two of the most popular software tools for hobbyists creating custom circuit boards. I concluded that while KiCad had lots of promise, it was too full of quirks and bugs to recommend, and Eagle was the better choice for most people.
This week I had an opportunity to try KiCad again. Although nothing had fundamentally changed, I found that my overall impression of the program was much more favorable. KiCad still has lots of annoying issues, but frankly so does Eagle. And with 4 1/2 years more design experience, I can now appreciate how some of what I originally saw as flaws in KiCad were actually just different design decisions, whose value I can now appreciate.
KiCad could be a killer application, if
– there is a online parts-footprint-datasheet-everything database
(Let the user build and upload parts into a central depository, some sort of voting system for broken part etc… It is already quite easy, make it an enjoyable process…)
– there is a more intuitive, minimalistic, smarter gMMI. For beginners
— editing item properties is a pain. Give it a property explorer window like modern guis have.
— it is very disturbing why it is possible to move a part without its connections.
— working with multi component ics like 74x is a pain.
— using busses is a lot of manual work. Make it smart!
Every Schematic Design/PCB Layout tool I have ever used has issues of one sort or another but I would choose KiCAD over Eagle because I don’t care for throttling the design size based on how much the package costs. I would also say that most of the things that are touted as features are not helpful to me. I don’t use autoroute or autoplace allnd parts libraries in PCB layout are not helpful beyond a basic set as I build my own libraries to have confidence that I will produce a board that is successful on the first cut.
The best thing about Kicad (or the other free gEDA package) is that the footprints are stored in text form. This makes it possible to create footprints with a text editor on one side of the screen and the part datasheet on the other. I could never go back to a GUI for footprint creation again—too slow.
I wouldn’t say there haven’t been many fundamental improvements to KICAD. The new CERN improvements have been tremendous. New graphics engine, push and shove routing. Puts it dramatically ahead of EAGLE in routing enjoyment and functionality.
I’d like to see a solid build released from a reliable source. CERN should take over and release builds.