After a year of development, the release of the free system of automated design of printed circuit boards, KiCad 8.0.0, has been published. This marks the second significant release since the project moved under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation. KiCad 8.0.0 is available for various distributions of Linux, Windows, and MacOS. The code is written in C++ using the wxWidgets library and is distributed under the GPLv3 license.
KiCad offers tools for editing electrical circuits and printed circuit boards, 3D visualization of the board, working with the library of circuit elements, manipulations with Gerber format templates, electronic circuit simulations, PCB editing, and project management. The project also provides libraries of electronic components, footprints, and 3D models. Approximately 15% of orders received by some PCB manufacturers include schemes prepared in KiCad.
Among the changes in the new release:
- The official footprints libraries have been expanded, with more than 1,500 new symbols and 760 footprints added. The update includes 8 new libraries. A new intuitively understandable pin indication style (PIN-S) has been implemented in footprint generators, with some automatically generated SMD components already using the new style. Image
- Enhanced capabilities for importing and transferring data from other packages have been introduced. Support includes importing projects and libraries from Easyeda (JLCEDA), models from SOLIDWORKS, EAGLE symbol libraries, LTSPICE schemes, symbols and footprints from CADSTAR and Altium Designer programs. The PCB editor now allows for clearance adjustment between line segments in drawings imported from other CAD programs, simplifying the import of contours, zones, and complex shapes. The schematic and symbol editors now support importing vector graphics in DXF and SVG formats. Image
