KiCad Resources

(A little note: I use LMDE as my primary desktop OS. Instructions on this page should work for any Debian based Linux distro.  If you need Windows or Mac instructions, afraid I can't help for now...)

Proven on:

	11 (bullseye)
	5 (Elsie)

Installing KiCad 6

The Debian repositories default to KiCad 5... This is dumb.

BUT! KiCad 6 is in the backports & available. So you just have to tell apt to install 6.

"To be able to install versions from a official Debian Backport repository you need to extend your sources.list configuration if not yet happen. If you are running Debian Bullseye please create a file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bullseye-backports.list if you don’t have an similar entry already."

TLDR:

• sudo /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bullseye-backports.list

Then add in:

# /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bullseye-backports.list
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports main contrib non-free

Then:

• sudo apt update

(You'll see a whole bunch of warnings about packages being configured multiple times. This is harmless, but annoying.)

& now... The actual install!

For some reason, the good folks at KiCad think that installing their software without any of the supporting data is the way to go... Then they fail to make it obvious anywhere that you need to install the libraries & stuff. (Their instructions only give you the package itself.)

So...

• sudo apt install -t bullseye-backports kicad kicad-doc-en kicad-libraries kicad-packages3d

Then, to verify you have everything you need & they're all the right version:

• dpkg --list | grep kicad

Hints & Tips

Push & Shove

To move traces (& vias) around in PCBNew...

Select the trace (or just hover over it...) & hit "D". The trace (or via) will now follow your cursor around & do it's best to shove other stuff out of the way if it can.

If it shoves something you don't want moved, hit "Esc" to cancel. If you're happy with what it's done, left-click to finish.

(From Contextual Electronics)

Random Thoughts

3D

Michael701 2020/12/11 at 12:25
 KiCad. It would be nice to export the 3D view as a .stp file that could be used to place the module in  another project.
Michael701 2020/12/01 at 12:34
 nevermind. I found it under the PCB layout. Dummy me for looking in the 3D viewer module

So basically: In PCBNew, select File / Export / STEP...

Unfortunately, any components using wrl 3D models in their footprint will fail to show up in the resulting file