KiCad is an open-source software tool for the creation of electronic schematic diagrams and PCB artwork. Beneath its singular surface, KiCad incorporates an elegant ensemble of the following software tools:

3 utilities are included

These tools are usually run from the project manager, but can be also run as stand-alone tools.

At the time of writing, KiCad is considered mature and can be used for the successful development and maintenance of complex electronic boards.

KiCad does not present any board-size limitation and it can handle up to 32 copper layers, 14 technical layers and 4 auxiliary layers.

KiCad can create all the files necessary for building printed boards:

Being open source (GPL licensed), KiCad represents the ideal tool for projects oriented towards the creation of electronic hardware with an open-source flavour.

KiCad is available for Linux, Windows and Apple OS X (still experimental, but is now working well).

KiCad creates and uses files with the following specific file extensions (and folders) for schematic and board editing.

Project manager file:

Schematic editor files:

Board editor files and folders:

Common files:

Special file:

Other files:

They are generated by KiCad for fabrication or documentation.

Pcbnew needs the support of OpenGL v2.1 or more.

A default configuration file named kicad.pro is supplied in kicad/template. It serves as a template for any new project.

If another default configuration file named fp-lib-table exists, it will be used only once to create a footprint library list. (or else, this list will be created from scratch)

The default file kicad.pro can be freely modified if necessary, mainly to set the list of library files loaded by Eeschema.

A few other parameters (default text size, default line thickness, mainly for Pcbnew) are stored here.

Verify that you have write access to kicad/template/kicad.pro

Run KiCad and load kicad.pro project.

Run Eeschema via KiCad. Modify and update the Eeschema configuration, and mainly the list of libraries you want to use each time you create new projects.

Run Pcbnew via KiCad. Modify and update the Pcbnew configuration, especially the footprint library list. Pcbnew will create or update a library list file called footprint library table. There are 2 library list files (named fp-lib-table). The first (located in the user home directory) is global for all projects. The second, if it exists (located in the project directory) is specific to the project.

When using KiCad, a text editor and a PDF viewer are useful. Setting them is a good idea.

These settings are accessible from the Preference menu

3 options are especially important:

In KiCad, one can define some paths using an environment variable. A few environment variables are internally defined by KiCad, and can be used to define paths (for libraries, 3D shapes, etc).

This is useful when absolute paths are not known or are subject to change. This is the case for ``official'' libraries built for KiCad:

For instance, the full path of connect.pretty footprint library is defined like this, when using the KISYSMOD environment variable to define the full path: ${KISYSMOD}/connect.pretty

Obviously, one can use a usual full path definition, if this full path is well known, and never changes.

This option allows you to define some paths from an environment variable, and add your own environment variables, to define personal paths, if needed.

Note also the environment variable

is always internally defined by KiCad, and is the current project absolute path.

For instance, ${KIPRJMOD}/connect.pretty is always the connect.pretty folder (the pretty footprint library) found inside the current project folder.

Before using a text editor to browse/edit files in the current project, you have to choose the text editor you want to use. The menu:

Preferences/SetText Editor

allows you to set the text editor to use.

You can use the default PDF viewer or choose your own PDF viewer.

Select Preferences/PDF Viewer/Favourite PDF Viewer to choose your favourite (default) PDF Viewer.

Your own (non default) viewer is chosen by using the Preferences/PDF Viewer/SetPDF Viewer menu.

On Linux, the default PDF viewer is known to be sometimes strange, so using Favourite PDF Viewer after selecting a suitable PDF viewer is mandatory.

In order to manage a KiCad project: schematic files, printed circuit board files, supplementary libraries, manufacturing files for photo-tracing, drilling and automatic component placement files, it is recommended to create a project as follows:

KiCad creates a file with a .pro extension that maintains a number of parameters for project management (such as the list of libraries used in the schematic). Default names of both main schematic file and printed circuit board file are derived from the name of the project. Thus, if a project called example.pro was created in a directory called example , the default files will be created:

The main KiCad window is composed of a project tree view, a launch pane containing buttons used to run the various software tools, and a message window. The menu and the toolbar can be used to create, read and save project files.

KiCad allows you to run all stand alone software tools that come with it.

The launch pane is made of the 8 buttons below that correspond to the following commands (1 to 8, from left to right):

KiCad top toolbar allows for some basic files operation (from left to right).

A template is a directory of files, which includes a directory of metadata.

The template system name (SYSNAME) is the directory name under which the template files are stored. The metadata directory (METADIR) contains pre-defined files which provide information about the template.

All files and directories in a template are copied to the new project path when a project is created using a template, except METADIR.

All files and directories which start with SYSNAME will have SYSNAME replaced by the new project file name, excluding the file extension.

They facilitate the easy setup of projects which have common attributes such as pre-defined board outlines, connector positions, schematic elements, design rules, etc. .