KiCad Workshop
Sessions
- Saturday, November 3, 2012
- September 2013
- August 2015
Target
People who know the basics of PCBs, but have not necessarily done PCB design. Must be able to read a schematic and understand most of these concepts: traces, vias, ground planes, through hole, surface mount, pads, solder mask.
Eventbrite blurb
Tired of giant solder globs on protoboards? Can't afford an EAGLE license? Designing boards larger than 4 by 4 meters? KiCad may be for you. KiCad is the leading free and open source EDA suite for schematic capture and circuit board design. We will provide a gentle introduction to KiCad in an afternoon.
The class will cover schematic capture, custom schematic symbols and libraries, board layout and custom footprint design. We will also go through how to actually have your circuit boards produced. You don't need experience with PCB design, but you must understand the basics of circuit boards and be able to read a schematic. You should know what most of these words mean: trace, via, ground plane, through hole, surface mount, pad, solder mask.
Syllabus
First Schematic
- Installing KiCad on Ubuntu
- Projects
- Adding components
- Adding wires
- Junctions
- Graphical interpretation of connections in KiCad
Library management
- It's terrible
- Everything sucks
- Just keep everything in one library
Schematic Symbols
- New symbol in new library
- Adding a library to the project
- Pins
- Graphics
Board Design
- Footprint assignment
- Netlists
- Placing components
- Traces and vias
- Ground planes (zones)
- Custom trace and via sizes and design rules
- Electrical rules check
- Back annotation
- Autorouting
- Net classes
Manufacturing PCBs
- Generating Gerbers
- gerbv
- OSH Park
- Smart-Prototyping
Custom Footprints
- Coordinate system and orientation
- Pads and holes
- Geometry
- Silkscreen graphics
- Footprint library management
PCB Design Considerations
- Trace width
- Component and footprint selection
- Corners
- Crossing traces
- Capacitance
- Rules of thumb
Advanced Topics
Will be covered only if there is time
- Multiple components per package
- 3D models
- Hierarchical schematic sheets
