Blog | KiCad EDA

kicad.org, the permanent internet home of KiCad

Published 2020-10-29

Thanks to a generous donation by Digi-Key, the KiCad project is now found at the kicad.org domain. The kicad.org domain provides a stable, clear home for the KiCad project. We are extremely grateful to Digi-Key for their support of KiCad. kicad-pcb.org is now under control of an unknown entity the project has no relationship with. All previous links are unforunately broken.

Development Highlight: PCBNew Layers, DRC and Toolbar Palettes

Published 2020-10-04

Some great workflow improving changes were made to PCBNew in this Development Highlight for the future KiCad V6 😄 Layer Management Jon Evans introduced a brand new Appearance control in commit bd14f8a82. The entire Appearance control which is on the right hand side of Pcbnew has received a visual and functional overhaul In addition to the existing functionality, there is now the ability to Show all Layers, Dim non-selected layers and Hide non-selected Layers

KiCad 5.1.7 Release

Published 2020-09-30

The KiCad project is proud to announce the latest series 5 stable release. The 5.1.7 stable version contains critical bug fixes and other minor improvements since the previous release. It also includes improved footprint, symbol, and 3D model libraries, translations, and documentation.

Development Highlight: 3D Viewer Improvements

Published 2020-09-26

The 3D Viewer has seen a few incremental improvements during the course of V6 development. Not all changes to KiCad have to large by themselves to improve KiCad.

Development Highlight: CADSTAR PCB Importer

Published 2020-09-22

Roberto Fernandez Bautista had a growing desire at his workplace to migrate away from CADSTAR. After trying and finding migration paths to other EDA tools inadequate and poorly supported, he has leveraged the open source nature of KiCad to create just what he needs and contribute to the greater community :D Thanks to his hard work in MR#279,KiCad is now able to import CADSTAR PCB files! With the schematic importer coming soon.

KiCad and the Open Ventilator Project

Published 2020-05-20

The KiCad project is proud of our role as the electronic design application used by the Open Ventilator project. The Open Ventilator project is based on a release of the Medtronic PB560 ventilator mentioned in this Make article. The Open Ventilator project clearly demonstrates the potential of open hardware. The project was started by KiCad Services lead developer Seth Hillbrand early in the COVID-19 pandemic. It quickly gained more than 100 contributors from all over the world.

KiCad 5.1.6 Release

Published 2020-05-15

The KiCad project is proud to announce the latest series 5 stable release. The 5.1.6 stable version contains critical bug fixes and other minor improvements since the 5.1.5 release. It also includes improved footprint, symbol, and 3D model libraries, translations, and documentation.

Development Highlight: New Settings System

Published 2020-05-14

As a preview of a feature available in the nighty builds, a large change was made to how KiCad stores and loads settings that not only fixes a few headaches with the old system but lays the groundwork for more customization in KiCad such as color themes. This was thanks to the work of Jon Evans in MR#68

Development Highlight: New schematic and symbol library file formats are now the default

Published 2020-05-05

Since KiCad 4.0, work has been progressing to overhaul all the various project file formats that among many benefits, make them far more human friendly, easier to parse and allow easier addition of new features.

Development Highlight: Altium Pcb Importer

Published 2020-04-26

As a preview of a feature coming in the next major release, the ability to import Altium PcbDoc files is now available in the latest nightly builds. This was thanks to the work of Thomas Pointhuber in MR#60 The board import option can be found under the File > Import > Non-Kicad Board File option and changing the file type filter After which in the import file dialog you must change the file filter

kicad.org, the permanent internet home of KiCad

Development Highlight: PCBNew Layers, DRC and Toolbar Palettes

KiCad 5.1.7 Release

Development Highlight: 3D Viewer Improvements

Development Highlight: CADSTAR PCB Importer

KiCad and the Open Ventilator Project

KiCad 5.1.6 Release

Development Highlight: New Settings System

Development Highlight: New schematic and symbol library file formats are now the default

Development Highlight: Altium Pcb Importer

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