Would You Be Interested in Roadtesting KiCad EDA?

Digi-Key is a competitor of element14.

Depends who is funding - Newark or the KiCad services corp? If there's a conflict, then would happily see OshPark.

Isn't Digi-Key a competitor?

A parts shopping cart and PCB fab coupon would be the most motivating. Digi-Key can potentially provide both.

geralds said:

is KiCaD a clone of Cadsoft's EAGLE

No.

Hi,

If I can be a part of this roadtest than I will spend the board, the software I have it.

But a test equipment (e.g. Farnell No: 2723153, or 3889090) would be fine for me for testing this developed board.

I have KiCaD as well the EAGLE - Fusion360 (last few years I was one of the raodtesters of the EAGLE when it came out as version 8.0)

Actual is the version 9.6.2; but EAGLE itself will no longer supported - effective June 7, 2026; it will than called as Fusion 360 Electronics.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/future-of-autodesk-eagle-fusion-360-electronics/?mktvar002=5825936031&utm_medium=product&utm_source=ipm&utm_campaign=5825936dmfusion-360-and-eagle---unification-fy24&utm_id=5825936031

So I can fine compare the two EDA tools.

Hhmmm?  As far as I remember, but ok, I could be wrong, but, is KiCaD a clone of Cadsoft's EAGLE, isn't it? hhmmm??

Best Regards

Gerald

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Friggin amazing JC!

Can I safely assume it will work with the latest version of KiCad?

I was going to going to ask what operating system it is supported in but realize a pip load makes it O/S independent. YES!

KiCaD
kIcAd

... thanks

I agree with all that you wrote. PCB design is naturaly multi-stage process and while we are focusing on design stage (KiCad) we simply cannot remove other steps (ordering, manufacturing, assembly) from this process and no matter of activity form factor, it will always influence the KiCad review somehow except the case that someone just want to use KiCad and do not build the PCB designed in it.

I suspect Design Challenges are intensive work, whereas Project14 is a lot lighter touch to support. It's a lot of effort to ship low-cost boards, so it might be better for any applicant to just swallow the cost themselves, since it's not a lot even for 4-layer, or an alu PCB. The few times I've had to ship stuff to customers, it's always been stressful, so anything that reduces that could be attractive I reckon.

A RoadTest has the benefit that the applicant may focus more on the subject (KiCad), whereas many Design Challenges cover all sorts of other stuff over several months, like PCB assembly and construction, which, while interesting, wouldn't help someone interested in knowing about KiCad (unless there were errors in what was desired compared to what KiCad generated).

KiCad is great for hobbyists and perhaps small and medium sized businesses, but does not have the higher-end enterprise-friendly features, so I don't think it competes with Cadence and similar CAD. Altium is a weird one, since it is more for small and medium-sized orgs from what I can tell, since CircuitStudio was their half-hearted (and not well disguised) effort encourage users to full Altium through lack of CircuitStudio support and updates, which was disingenuous I feel. I'll always have a soft spot for EAGLE since I spent so much time with it, and really like it, but wouldn't go back. There are other CAD packages but it's clear that the decent manufacturers have abandoned the small user and hobbyist, presumably because they feel it's unnecessary. If anyone requires enterprise or extensive support then they simply expect them to pay for it, and they will give training (paid or free at their discretion).

All the above is just a opinion, I could be totally wrong,, so please treat with a pinch of salt.