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PCB Forum Need help making a fast transition to KiCad from Eagle.
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Need help making a fast transition to KiCad from Eagle.

genebren
genebren over 1 year ago

For a while now, my desktop system was getting flakey.  Lots of blue screen crashes and finally a few reboots where the BIOS claimed to be unable to find the proper OS files (after resting for a while the reboot was successful).  I backed everything up and uninstalled/deactivated any software that I thought used any disk info as a part of the license lock.  I bought a new disk (larger than the old one that was filling up) and imaged the contents of the older disk onto the newer one.  Once everything appeared to be stable, I re-formatted the old disk to be a non-bootable, data disk.

I then started reactivating by software licenses.  This is when I found out that I did not deactivate my copy of Eagle.  Reaching out to Autodesk proved to be useless as they had no record of the purchase and claimed that the serial number that I had was not legal.  I am completely out of options to get a license key for my purchased copy of Eagle, so I am starting to look at using KiCad.  I downloaded the latest version and had luck importing a project into KiCad.  Now what I am looking for are any tutorials focused on prevision user of Eagle migrating to KiCad.

I started to try build a KiCad project from scratch (one of my existing project, but not imported).  Almost immediately I ran into parts not in the KiCad library which open a large can of worms that I was not quite ready to deal with.

I don't know if this is a function of advancing age, but my ability to understand or learn new things seems to take a larger and larger effort.  Thanks in advance to any help former Eagle user might be able to send my way. 

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Top Replies

  • colporteur
    colporteur over 1 year ago +3
    I started from bare metal to learn KiCad. 30 years ago we did PCB by hand. Graph paper to draw the circuit and marker with tape to layout the board. Etch with chemicals and you had a board. I was dabbling…
  • Andrew J
    Andrew J over 1 year ago +2
    Shabaz has posted some useful material, all based on transitioning from Eagle: Working with KiCad 7: Importing EAGLE files KiCAD for non-KiCAD (e.g. ex-EAGLE) enthusiasts - a discussion Rapidly…
  • shabaz
    shabaz over 1 year ago +2
    Hi Gene, Sorry to hear about the PC issues. Obviously I'm biased! but I tried to put everything for complete beginners into the video which is in one of the links that Andrew mentioned. KiCad had…
Parents
  • shabaz
    shabaz over 1 year ago

    Hi Gene,

    Sorry to hear about the PC issues.

    Obviously I'm biased! but I tried to put everything for complete beginners into the video which is in one of the links that Andrew mentioned.

    KiCad had a significant user interface change after version 5, but the version 6 video is still relevant for the latest version 8 (v8 provides some extra usability stuff, but all the v6 stuff still works). I'm convinced that is video will contain >90% of everything needed to produce a board from scratch, and it includes part creation.

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    If you get stuck, feel free to reach out since as Andrew says, there are quite a few of us KiCad users on element14. 

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  • shabaz
    shabaz over 1 year ago

    Hi Gene,

    Sorry to hear about the PC issues.

    Obviously I'm biased! but I tried to put everything for complete beginners into the video which is in one of the links that Andrew mentioned.

    KiCad had a significant user interface change after version 5, but the version 6 video is still relevant for the latest version 8 (v8 provides some extra usability stuff, but all the v6 stuff still works). I'm convinced that is video will contain >90% of everything needed to produce a board from scratch, and it includes part creation.

    You don't have permission to edit metadata of this video.
    Edit media
    x
    image
    Upload Preview
    image

    If you get stuck, feel free to reach out since as Andrew says, there are quite a few of us KiCad users on element14. 

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  • genebren
    genebren over 1 year ago in reply to shabaz

    Wow shabaz this was extremely helpful and very well produced.  I have managed to recreate an existing eagle project in KiCad following a lot of your advice. I am in the beginning stages of routing this design, but I wanted to let you know how helpful your video was.  I am stopping for the moment as we are traveling soon and need to get some stuff ready.

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  • shabaz
    shabaz over 1 year ago in reply to genebren

    Hi Gene,

    Glad you're making progress! That's excellent that you're already at routing stage. Looking forward to hearing how that goes!

    Thanks for the feedback about the video!

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