KiCad – making the switch from Eagle #KiCad #Eagle #PCB

There are a large number of circuit board designers currently using Autodesk Eagle. The AUDIODiWHY blog states:

But starting in 2026 Autodesk wants $749 USD a year for a Fusion 360 integrated version–and I confirmed with their sales team: my existing $100/year Eagle/Fusion 360 license is going away.

Time to say goodbye to Eagle.

Say Hello to KiCad.

The post goes over initial reactions to switching over to KiCad.

$749?  nope. KiCAD is free. Download it here.

Unlike Eagle, each project must be in it’s own folder

Footprints:

After using Eagle EDA for over 20 years I still find creating and managing custom or modified devices confusing, frustrating, and teeth-gnashingly counter-intuitive.

KiCAD is a HUGE improvement–symbols and footprints have their own libraries and each is managed separately. The user has to make sure pins and pads are laid out correctly, but that’s the case in Eagle as well.

Its schematic capture ability (well documented here) is really easy!

The PCB creation documentation (here) has a lot of detail, but I found the basics to be pretty easy once I learned some shortcuts.

Check out the complete take in the post here.


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