I wish the Kicad team had sunk all the time they put into simulation support (which I rarely use, in or out of kicad) into a proper constraint system instead.
If I need to sim, I’ll just use LTspice or TI TINA - I.e. the simulation ecosystem that includes the part model I need, with no wrangling to get that spice model to play nicely in some other spice toolchain.
For learning, the current LTSpice models and QUCS VNA profiled device imported simulation data are reasonable tools as well.
I used KiCad all the time for personal projects, and it has recently already addressed the major issues people found annoying:
1. unstable library version dependency management
2. complex design collaboration over traditional versioning tools like git (still an upstream feature last I checked, but should be available soon.)
3. freezing the specific KiCad and library path structure versions across a project, as assuming every design has a single workstation workflow is a contradictory goal
KiCad is better than most current EDA software, but that is mostly a sad reflection on the traditional tools available. =3
Comments
I wish the Kicad team had sunk all the time they put into simulation support (which I rarely use, in or out of kicad) into a proper constraint system instead.
If I need to sim, I’ll just use LTspice or TI TINA - I.e. the simulation ecosystem that includes the part model I need, with no wrangling to get that spice model to play nicely in some other spice toolchain.
Micro-cap 12 is still available, was made free, and runs in Wine64 just fine.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230214034946/http://www.spectr...
For learning, the current LTSpice models and QUCS VNA profiled device imported simulation data are reasonable tools as well.
I used KiCad all the time for personal projects, and it has recently already addressed the major issues people found annoying:
1. unstable library version dependency management
2. complex design collaboration over traditional versioning tools like git (still an upstream feature last I checked, but should be available soon.)
3. freezing the specific KiCad and library path structure versions across a project, as assuming every design has a single workstation workflow is a contradictory goal
KiCad is better than most current EDA software, but that is mostly a sad reflection on the traditional tools available. =3
Where can I learn more about this Kicad git workflow? I’ve heard a lot about it but I’d like to see it for myself.
Did you mean this page?
https://forum.kicad.info/t/tutorial-how-to-enable-git-in-kic...
Or the plugin and content manager under the tools menu for the git-gui module...
YMMV =3
I love the ngspice integration in kicad it has gotten really good since kicad 7 or 8.