I can't remember if I sent this already, but after using Kicad for a month, I 
can safely say that all problems have been worked out, and Kicad is the program 
I am going to use to make PCB boards with from now on.

Just to report for others who may encounter the same problems:
At first there was a problem connecting pins in eeschem, which is solved by:
1) always use (at least) 5mil for both designing parts and placing parts in 
eeschema, there appears to be problems with connecting under 5mil, and possibly 
in the metric-English conversion - you shouldn't need metric for a schematic 
anyway, and metric appears to work in pcbnew perfectly well for recognizing 
connections.

2) Net names do not always apparently get autonamed correctly, and it is best 
to add net names by hand (for example "GND", "CLK", etc.

I know people use the kicad power pins and keep them invisible many times, but 
I decided to make all my power pins visible and use my own +5V, GND, etc which 
works fine. In addition, 

For home etching, I use the "plot", with only component, and only copper to 
create 2 .ps files, using scale 1, open them in gimp which requires at least 
300dpi on the import, then place multiple copies of the circuit onto a single 
sheet, print that to a transparency and go from there.

I'm glad I found Kicad - this is really a nice program, it's as good if not 
better than Eagle, and then it is open source and free so that is all good. ;)

thanks all,
Ted

Reply via email to