First Design with Kicad

I am starting a design with Kicad in order to learn it.  The Kicad web 
site has a list of Tutorials, but the first one, "Official KiCad 
tutorial" doesn't load.  Anyone know what is wrong with it?

bazaar.launchpad.net/~kicad-developers/kicad/doc/view/head:/doc/help/en/Getting_Started_in_KiCad.pdf

I am reading a tutorial from Teho Labs.  So far, so good.  Does anyone 
have any suggestions on what is harder or what might be stumbling blocks?

I noticed that when I tried the menu item "New from Template" it points 
by default to a location in the install directory under "Program 
Files...".  That is a no-no under Windows.  Will this be an issue or 
will no data be put there unless I do it?  I will be writing to a 
separate directory in my user space I expect.

-- 

Rick

On Sat, 14 Jun 2014 22:03:11 -0400, rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> wrote:

>I am starting a design with Kicad in order to learn it.  The Kicad web 
>site has a list of Tutorials, but the first one, "Official KiCad 
>tutorial" doesn't load.  Anyone know what is wrong with it?

There are a few that could claim to be the official site. The tutorial
links from
<http://www.kicad-pcb.org/display/KICAD/KiCad+EDA+Software+Suite> seem
to work okay.
>
>bazaar.launchpad.net/~kicad-developers/kicad/doc/view/head:/doc/help/en/Getting_Started_in_KiCad.pdf
>
>I am reading a tutorial from Teho Labs.  So far, so good.  Does anyone 
>have any suggestions on what is harder or what might be stumbling blocks?

The original libraries more or less grew from Jean-Pierre's personal
components and so can be a little quirky. When you add new parts to
the schematic or PCB libraries, recommend putting them in personal
libraries.

Some folks dislike the CVPCB step that marries schematic items to
footprints for use by the layout editor. I'm fine with it and
footprints can be assigned directly from the schematic if that suits.

>I noticed that when I tried the menu item "New from Template" it points 
>by default to a location in the install directory under "Program 
>Files...".  That is a no-no under Windows.  Will this be an issue or 
>will no data be put there unless I do it?  I will be writing to a 
>separate directory in my user space I expect.

I've never bothered with templates. I just start a default new project
and then use the "page settings" to define the paper size and text for
the title blocks.

> I am starting a design with Kicad in order to learn it.
...
> Does anyone have any suggestions
...
> ?

Yet another KiCad tutorial is available at

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Kicad

The FAQ
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Kicad/FAQ
mentions another tutorial or two.

Wikibooks is a wiki, so please edit it and make it better.

On 6/16/2014 9:01 AM, Rich Webb wrote:
> On Sat, 14 Jun 2014 22:03:11 -0400, rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I am starting a design with Kicad in order to learn it.  The Kicad web
>> site has a list of Tutorials, but the first one, "Official KiCad
>> tutorial" doesn't load.  Anyone know what is wrong with it?
>
> There are a few that could claim to be the official site. The tutorial
> links from
> <http://www.kicad-pcb.org/display/KICAD/KiCad+EDA+Software+Suite> seem
> to work okay.

Not working for me.  I get 502 bad gateway error.  Every page at that 
site I try.  I was able view pages there a few days ago.


>> bazaar.launchpad.net/~kicad-developers/kicad/doc/view/head:/doc/help/en/Getting_Started_in_KiCad.pdf
>>
>> I am reading a tutorial from Teho Labs.  So far, so good.  Does anyone
>> have any suggestions on what is harder or what might be stumbling blocks?
>
> The original libraries more or less grew from Jean-Pierre's personal
> components and so can be a little quirky. When you add new parts to
> the schematic or PCB libraries, recommend putting them in personal
> libraries.
>
> Some folks dislike the CVPCB step that marries schematic items to
> footprints for use by the layout editor. I'm fine with it and
> footprints can be assigned directly from the schematic if that suits.
>
>> I noticed that when I tried the menu item "New from Template" it points
>> by default to a location in the install directory under "Program
>> Files...".  That is a no-no under Windows.  Will this be an issue or
>> will no data be put there unless I do it?  I will be writing to a
>> separate directory in my user space I expect.
>
> I've never bothered with templates. I just start a default new project
> and then use the "page settings" to define the paper size and text for
> the title blocks.

I often use a tool and then don't use it again for months.  So I need as 
much handled for me without requiring memorization of steps as possible. 
  I'm used to using FreePCB and Orcad, but Orcad is commercial and 
FreePCB seems rather stagnant at this point.  I saw a video showing 
trace pushing in KiCad which would be nice to use on tight boards.

-- 

Rick

On Wed, 25 Jun 2014 18:00:11 -0400, rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 6/16/2014 9:01 AM, Rich Webb wrote:
>> On Sat, 14 Jun 2014 22:03:11 -0400, rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I am starting a design with Kicad in order to learn it.  The Kicad web
>>> site has a list of Tutorials, but the first one, "Official KiCad
>>> tutorial" doesn't load.  Anyone know what is wrong with it?
>>
>> There are a few that could claim to be the official site. The tutorial
>> links from
>> <http://www.kicad-pcb.org/display/KICAD/KiCad+EDA+Software+Suite> seem
>> to work okay.
>
>Not working for me.  I get 502 bad gateway error.  Every page at that 
>site I try.  I was able view pages there a few days ago.

It's a volunteer-hosted site (open source, what can you do?) that has
had issues like that in the past. Seems okay this morning from here,
though.

There is a wiki at http://wiki.xtronics.com/index.php/Kicad and also a
discussion group over at
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kicad-users/info which is,
unfortunately, hosted on Yahoo. The "neo" group interface on Yahoo is
awful.

>I often use a tool and then don't use it again for months.  So I need as 
>much handled for me without requiring memorization of steps as possible.

It's reasonably intuitive as compared to, say, EAGLE.  ;-)
The help files are pretty comprehensive.
 
>  I'm used to using FreePCB and Orcad, but Orcad is commercial and 
>FreePCB seems rather stagnant at this point.  I saw a video showing 
>trace pushing in KiCad which would be nice to use on tight boards.

You'll need to grab one of the recent builds for push routing; I'm
running 4680 which does have "push & shove" (under Edit | Interactive
Router) so I assume all of the later ones have it as well.

There are pre-compiled builds at http://escalalibre.com/edwt/ and I
assume there will be another official stable build this summer.

Also, be aware that the much loved Freerouting.net has succumbed to a
takedown notice. IP dispute with the author's former employer.