Peter Dalmaris Kicad Review

Max.

 

I saw that this morning. Sounds good. I am less worried about routing a board than losing my library of parts. Also, from what I have read, making a library part is quite a bit different from Eagle,and overall you have less control of things. The latter is not quite so important, as I do not venture far from standard Eagle routing DRG's. However, for parts, I like control and the ability to import DXF easily and align the import with the 0,0 coordinate exactly.

 

"Making a library part": Do you mean device schematic or footprints library?
Max.

 

That might be a big difference. I am fuzzy on the details, but it was pointed out in another forum. In Eagle they are integrated. In KiCad, as I understand it, they are separate. However, I don't know why anyone would have a separate footprint for every device in Eagle. One usually has standard footprints and links to them. Moreover, in Eagle you can have variants of the footprint. I find that convenient, particularly for connectors.

 

In the standard library of KiCad you sort of have both. For example there is the schematic symbol Q_NPN_CBE where pin 1 is the collector etc. All variations are available. Then you can associate a footprint with that specific instance of the schematic symbol, TO-92, TO-92 wide (doubled lead spacing), SOT-23 etc.
There is also a BC550 schematic symbol that has a TO-92 foot print already associated with it. So you don't have to think about the pin-out. However, when I tried using that and wanted to change the TO-92 to TO-92 wide I couldn't figure out how to do that, maybe it's not possible. This is on KiCad 5.1.9.
I've never used Eagle or any other package for that matter so I don't have a frame of reference.

 

wanted to change the TO-92 to TO-92 wide I couldn't figure out how to do that, maybe it's not possible. This is on KiCad 5.1.9.

I have done custom parts both device library and footprint library, if you already have a part that is close, you just use that one, rename it and modify and save.
Max.