• Prerequisites
• Content
  • Installing KiCad
  • Importing Components into KiCad
  • Using Components in KiCad
  • Schematic Tips

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KiCad is a electrical CAD software with both schematic and PCB capability. As a general rule, it is not used very often in industry, but for our purposes it is functional, bthereeing the best free electrical software out. It's main advantage is that it is effective and free, capable of doing all we need it to do (describe electrical systems and output gerber and drill files for PCB creation). You can also see a visual demonstration here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/12cfIS6J14FzGBSDxnJZdtPBbDrg4W0i6

Go to the following website to download KiCad based on your operating system, and run the .exe file that it downloads to install it: https://www.kicad.org/download/

From there, run KiCad and open a new project using the file button at the top left of the screen.

While KiCad does have a wealth of preexisting components already present in it's library, if designing your own schematic, you will almost certainly need to import additional parts (hence this discussion).

1. The first step is find the seller website of the part you are looking for. An example website is shown below: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/LM358AN-NOPB/54928

From there, find where EDA/CAD models are located (with the example above, it should be directly under the datasheet link).

2. Click that link and then select the download format. To my knowledge, the snapMagic vs Ultralibrarian does not make much difference in the download, so use either of them. From there, select KiCad v6+, and then hit download.

Note that at the exact location of these buttons and some of the options may be different dependent on the vendor (and some might not have any of these options at all, especially if they are already a PCB, as with some CAN modules).

3. Extract the zip file (if one was used).

4. Once the extraction was complete, open the project schematic file. Once there, open symbol editor (which is adjacent to the mirror functions). Do note that the others that are adjacent, symbol library browser and footprint editor do NOT enable you to import a schematic symbol.

5. Scroll to the library you want to add the component to and make sure it is selected. Generally this library will be a custom one you have made for imported components owing to how the base component libraries are not editable in KiCad.

6. At the top left of your screen, select the import button and move to select the extracted schematic file. After you save you should be able to import it into your project or globally (depending on what you initially selected.

There are several types of items on the schematic in KiCad. These include wires/buses, power symbols, input/output arrows and actual components.

1. Power Symbols are ground, analog ground, power supplies, etc. These can be found under the add symbol button.

2. Wires/buses are the simplest, they just connect everything else. It should be noted that buses are basically a bunch of wires tied together for the same purpose, generally digital inputs/outputs of the same system. Wires can be selected at the top right of the screen under power symbols.

3. Input/output arrows (or in this case global nets is what KiCad calls it) help direct you to signals that are not on the page itself. They are on the right side of the screen. Note that the arrow pointing to the wire is an input, whereas pointing away from the wire is an output.

4. Actual components are what makes the circuit what it is, it's core. To add components, I suggest using symbol library adjacent to symbol editor. After scrolling to what you component you want to import, double click the symbol name and place it as needed on the schematic.

5. Once your schematic is complete, you might consider making it a PCB (KiCad PCB Design, PCB Intro and Tips).

1. Use different analog and digital grounds.

2. If there are too many components in your schematic, consider having a high level schematic, and several lower level schematics on a different page to make it easier to handle. You can use input/output arrows to indicate this.

3. Add no connect flags in schematics when needed.