The more I see of KiCad, the more I like. Do you find things you can not do in KiCad that you can do in eagle?

Yes looking forward to trying the new version out. As a Linux OS user I was hunting around for LTspice alternatives to try out flyback modelling and then discovered that KiCad has this all integrated with NGspice.

https://www.kicad.org/discover/spice/

Searching on Element14 I see there's no tutorials on this... hint hint.

There's not much to work with.

https://forum.kicad.info/t/who-is-actually-using-kicad-for-spice-simulation/42210/5

For what it is worth, the last time I used Eagle was in 2015. I've done about 50 PCBs since then. Granted, most of them were small breakout boards. However, since then, I have not found a single case where there was something I needed (or wanted) to do in KiCad that was only possible in Eagle.

It IS the case that there might be a workflow in Eagle that isn't possible/ideal in KiCad. But in every case I know of, it is just the difference in how the programs are implemented. i.e. "Why can't you do this in KiCad?" is usually answered with "... because it is better to do it this way [in KiCad.]"

Also, if something is missing, the dev team will be extremely active in tracking and prioritizing feature requests. Unlike Eagle, each major release of KiCad makes a large step in usability. 

 shabaz neet. have you found any major differences from 7?  ~~ Cris 

Hi Gene,

I totally agree with that assessment from James. I think we both did the same thing, moved from EAGLE to KiCad and probably never looked back. The last version of EAGLE I used was v7 (and I used EAGLE extensively between releases 4-7), and I believe, the only function that EAGLE could do and KiCad still cannot, is that curved shapes are more flexible in EAGLE; you can truncate curves when making fancy board edges for instance. Other than that, I can't think of any significant feature parity issue. (Note: if very intricate board edges are needed, there are workarounds, for instance, using Inkscape, or FreeCAD, or even using Python).

Note that some of the core EAGLE features are fast to execute, because EAGLE makes extensive use of non-Windows mouse and windows shortcuts, a bit like the old dedicated CAD workstations did, back when MSDOS/Windows was incapable of being used for high-end CAD.

I make fewer errors with KiCad compared to EAGLE, for a couple of reasons:

(1) It supports modern arbitrarily shaped pads properly, unlike the hacks that are needed with EAGLE, which generate errors that need to be manually ignored!

(2) it supports 3D view (so I can actually see things from both sides from all angles including how components will physically fit onto the board) which EAGLE never supported (I think it does now, but now it's subscription-only). 

There are other smaller reasons for making less errors too, such as each net is labeled on PCB traces (which only later subscription versions of EAGLE supported).

Althoiugh some things take more keypresses to do with KiCad, it's very intuitive, so one can learn fast. I learned from scratch, and made my first PCB with it within 5 days, and there were no errors (apart from a connection I made to 5V instead of 3.3V, which was my mistake, and was easy to fix with a cut trace):

There are great speed improvements with laying out PCBs, so that allows you to experiment more with little time-wasting. For instance, I can move parts around, and then when laying out traces, KiCad will semi-auto-route the trace to avoid others, in real-time as I move the mouse. It's a massive time-saver.

And, a key benefit as James too mentions, is that bugs and feature requests are taken seriously and usually acted on, if it makes sense. I've raised a few bugs and feature requests, and have had a good experience.

Incidentally, even if the software crashes, it maintains a backup! Hence, I'm quite confident in trying out a 8.0.0 release rather than waiting for .1 or .2. I've never lost any edits so far using KiCad versions 6.0 or 7.0 or any dot-version.

Hi Cris,

In terms of user interface, nothing much has changed, the same keypresses etc work. They've added some extra features without removing any shortcuts/button presses I believe. For instance, a new panel can be opened up, which allows you to quickly edit ther attributes of anything that is selected, which is great for editing the values of one or more items quickly on the circuit or PCB layout or during footprint creation. I was looking forward to that feature.

I've not used it much (been ill for the past couple of days : ( better now!). but will know more very soon hopefully!

Interestingly, KiCad now supports complete EAGLE libraries!

It supported EAGLE project import in the past (  Working with KiCad 7: Importing EAGLE files  ), but if you've built up custom component libraries over the years, they can be directly imported into KiCad now too.

Here's how.

Symbols:

In the Symbol Editor, click on Preferences->Manage Symbol Libraries

Now simply click on the folder button, and choose your EAGLE .lbr file!

After a few seconds (or longer if you've got hundreds of symbols like me) the library will appear just as any other KiCad library, in the left side view.

Here I've expanded on a multi-unit component, it's imported in perfectly as far as I can tell! I would probably replace the outline with a shaded box to match the KiCad style of component representation, and optionally change the signal types from 'bidirectional' to something else for better error-checking, but otherwise I see no need to modify anything here.

Footprints

This is very similar to the procedure for Symbols. In the Footprint Editor, click on Preferences->Manage Footrpint Libraries and then look for the folder icon, but this time click on the drop-down shape next to it (I don't know why it's different but it's minor), and then select EAGLE. It's very impressive how many different CAD packages are supported in this list.

Once you've selected your EAGE .lbr file again, it will import in all the footprints. Looks pretty good!

One thing to note, is that it won't import in the milling layer if you've used that for footprints. If there was a complex footprint I'd want to implement it from scratch in KiCad, since KiCad has much better custom pad shapes capability.

Note: Personally I think it's better to re-create especially the footprints at least, since the 'KiCad way' is far better than the EAGLE way for all complex footprints. Plus, it's good to learn how to do it all in KiCad, rather than relying on old EAGLE libraries. But nice to know that there is is import capability.

baldengineer  posted a top-8 of new features on his youtube channel. I endorse that message .

Thanks for sharing Jan Cumps!