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vasi

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Joined: 23/03/2007
Location: Romania
Posts: 1697

Posted: 03:09pm 14 Oct 2011

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For those working with KiCAD and developing some Arduino shields,
here are the components:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6430 Edited by vasi 2011-10-16

Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton
Elvish name: Mablung Miriel
Beyound Arduino Lang

wizard

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Joined: 29/07/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 38

Posted: 05:36pm 14 Oct 2011

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Hi Vasi,

So I have a dumb question.

Is there any easy way to convert PCB components from
KICAD to PCB?

It seems like the "ought to" be an easy way to convert
between schematic and pcb packages?

Wiz

vasi

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Joined: 23/03/2007
Location: Romania
Posts: 1697

Posted: 10:29am 15 Oct 2011

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Hi Wiz,

wizard said
Is there any easy way to convert PCB components from
KICAD to PCB?
[/quote]
Between KiCAD and gEDA PCB? Inside KiCAD tools, the pcb utility is named "pcbnew".

wizard said
It seems like the "ought to" be an easy way to convert
between schematic and pcb packages?
Wiz

If you refer at gschem (from gEDA tools) and PCB pair (each one was developed separately, different teams without care for each other), there is a command line utility but you need to know before, what to do.

If you refer at KiCAD tools, there is a converter(assigner or something), everything is made in a GUI interface, with the possibility to see the footprint before assigning to a schematic component. You just need to see the tutorial which come with KiCAD, is a small and good one. Comparing to gEDA tools, KiCAD way is an easy one - you can get use to it. Comparing with Eagle, is odd. I can work with gEDA tools without problems but is too much "UNIX like" for beginners.

An interesting difference between "gEDA PCB" and "KiCAD pcbnew" is that in the first one, you can design a PCB without the need of a netlist. In KiCAD pcbnew you can't join traces to pads without a netlist - is considered a protection measure and a helping hand. I like both ways so I use both packages (when I can't use Eagle from various reasons).

If you refer to converting components from a package (KiCAD) to another (gEDA PCB), both use text files for defining components... Fritzing is able to import from both of them I think...

Vasi

Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton
Elvish name: Mablung Miriel
Beyound Arduino Lang

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