Kicad PCB review software

The Kicad PCB software is a group of programs for schematics and PCBs that is available for LINUX and Windows operating systems .
The main window of Kicad is a project manager that facilitates the use of the various
programs required to draw schematics and layout PCBs .
Main sub-programs of the Kicad pcb layout software are :
• Eeschema: is a part of the software used for schematic edit.
• Pcbnew: is the PCB editor.
• Cvpcb: enables the association of schematic components with physical modules
(packages) for placement on the PCB( with the Cvpcb you will assign footprint of each component from electronic schematic )
• Gerbview: is other part of software that is used to visualize Gerber files.
The installation and configuration of the Kicad PCB software is very simple , you need just to follow the instructions of the installation package .
If you want to create a new project you need to follow these steps :
1 . Click on the New Project Descr icon (or Projects /New Project Descr) from the window manager .
2 . Create folder with name of your project an than type again the file name of the project and save the project with .pro extension .
Now you can continue editing your project with the schematic editor , just clicking on the EESCHEMA editor icon.
In the right side of the schematic editor window you will see some icons that will help you to edit circuit diagram ( place components , comments and wire the circuit) .
In the left side of the schematic editor you will see some icons that helps you if you want to modify some settings like units, grid , etc.
Most important buttons from the right side of the Schematic editor are ( from left to right respective from top to bottom in the eeschema editor window ) :

Cursor select , hierarchy push/pop , place the component , place the power port , place the wire , place the bus , place the wire to the bus entry , place the bus to bus entry , place the not connect flag , place the net name , place the global label , place the junction , place hierarchical label , place the hierarchical sheet , place the pin sheet , place the hierarchical pin to sheet , place the graphic line or polygon , place the graphic text , delete items .
To understand better how you can make a printed circuit board using this pcb layout software we prepared a small video tutorial .

So if you need a free to use pcb software , this pcb design software is a good choice . Also if you don’t find all components you need for your projects , you can simply create any component you want . What I don’t like at this pcb layout software is that if you zoom out the schematic you can not see clear the text of the components (value , descriptions , etc ).