KiCad

KiCad is a free EDA (Electronic Design Automation) software package that contains tools for designing electronic circuit diagrams and multilayer printed circuit boards (PCBs).

The package was developed on an open source basis, the first creator of KiCad was Jean-Pierre Charras, a French scientist interested in electrical engineering and image processing.

The package includes the following tools: schematic editor, PCB editor, application for assigning enclosures for electronic components, Gerber file viewer, application for creating graphic elements on boards, and a PCB calculator. All elements of the package are managed by the KiCad application.

The package is based on the wxWidgets library, which enables KiCad to run on many operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, Free BSD).

For 3D design, Wings 3D modeler is used, which must be installed separately.

The package includes extensive item libraries and prints (called footprints) for schematics and PCBs.

There is a library manager with search functionality and the ability to edit them. Many PCB footprints have 3D models.

All library items are saved in plain text ASCII files, so libraries can be created in many different ways.

Projects can be archived and unpacked directly with KiCad, ZIP files supported.