KiCad (PCB Layout)

In this tutorial, we will continue the previous tutorial where we were discussed about how to design a schematic of the circuit.

1. Open kicad and then go to tools> run pcbnew. You will find a new black coloured window which is nothing but a PCB editor or layout editor tool. Now we have to read the netlist which we were created in the previous tutorial, for importing the components in this PCB layout designer. So go to tools and then click on netlist a small window will open in which you have to click on read button after that close the window. In the PCB editor window, you will find the whole components that we were used in the previous tutorial or footprint that we have assigned to our components in the previous tutorial.

2. Now we have to arrange all the components according to our board size or need. You will find that all components are connected to each other by threads. These threads are generated by kicad to show the connections which we created in schematic designing part. Here we can use some keyboard shortcut like if you want to move any text or footprint then simply hover the mouse on it and press "M" now you can move component easily. If you want to edit its properties then simply press ‘E’ and for rotate press ’R’.

3. Now after arranging all components start tracing with the help of track and via tool which you will find the right side of the window and also you can select working layer like front copper or back copper from the toolbar as shown in the below image. Remember you can’t place track between two terminals which are not connected by a thread to each other. While tracing the tracks if you want to change the working layer then simply press ‘v’ it instantly switches the tracing layer and if you press again then it returns to previous working layer. This is very helpful when you are going to place a jumper or if you are unable to find out the clearance for your track.

4. If you want to change the default track width then you have to go design rules>design rules and you will find here various settings like track width, via dia, clearance, etc. you can change them according to your PCB needs. Using design rules you can also set up the working layers like your PCB is going to use 2 layers or more.

5. After tracing is done now we have to define the outer edge of the PCB. This step is very important because it will provide the dimension of the PCB as well as it is also necessary for generating the 3D view of PCB. For that select Edge Cuts from the right sidebar (Layers) where you selected the PCB working layer and select pointer as "graphical line and polygons" as shown in the below image. Now simply draw the rectangle which encloses your components, remember don’t draw the line over track and also don’t leave too much space otherwise your PCB will look bulky and not optimized.

6. After enclosing a few things are remaining before we can jump to the Gerber file generating step. If you want to fill the unused space by copper you have to use the tool ‘add filled zones’. For adding simply select the pointer from the right side as shown in the image then draw a rectangle which encloses your entire PCB (including edge cuts mark). When you start drawing rectangle a small window will open which asks you to select the layer and a pad which is going to be sorted with fill zone, commonly ground pad is preferred. After that hover your mouse on the rectangle and click right button then select fill zone, you will get the layout as shown in the below image.

Similarly, you can also add a fill zone to another side layer.

7. After the all above operations now, you can see 3D view of your PCB and for that go to view and then 3D viewer.

Gerber File:

1. Gerber is very important file because using this file you can order your PCB to any PCB manufacturing company. For generating these files we are going to use plot tool and for that go to file>plot. In plot window select type as Gerber as shown in the below image. Now select all the layers for which you want to generate Gerber file like if your PCB uses 2 layers F.Cu. and B.Cu. then select these layers. Also select the layer like front silk and back silk if you have used. Now click on plot that will generate Gerber file for layers, but not for drill.

2. For generating drill file click on the "generate drill file" and after that select the drill file format as Gerber then click on "drill file" and "map file" which will generate their respective files. These files can be found in their respective project directory.

OUTPUT 3D:

 In the next tutorials, we will learn how to create own custom schematic symbol.
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KiCad (Schematic Designing)

          Kicad is a free software for electronic design automation (EDA). It is an advanced software for designing PCBs and you can design multilayer PCBs free of cost even up to 32 layers and it uses an integrated environment for designing PCB Layouts or schematics. Kicad was developed by Jean-Pierre. This software provides various tools like Bill of Materials, Gerber file ad, 3d prototype viewer, etc. kicad also provides the facility of adding custom components by designing your own schematics and footprint. So without wasting our time let’s start our first tutorial in which we are going to learn how to design your schematics in kicad.


1. Open your kicad software which will look like as below given screenshot. After that go to file and create a new project. you can give project name as you want. At the end of the process, kicad asks you “Do you want to create a new empty directory of the project?” and choose yes, because it is a good practice to put all project files in a specific directory and it also prevents the missing file problems.

2. Now in the PCB designing process, first of all, we have to create a schematics of the project or in a simple language, we have to represent our whole circuit in symbolic form. For that we have to access the schematic editor and we can do it in three ways.

a.      By sidebar

b.      By upper bar

c.      By Tool menu

3. Now double click on filename.sch from sidebar and after that, a new window will open which is known as electronic schematic editor (Eeschema), and here we will draw our schematic circuit. For placing the component choose place component tool from the sidebar as shown in the screenshot.

4. Start placing components after selecting the tool. It will ask you to choose the component which is going to be placed. Select your component as shown in the below screenshot.

5. After placing all components you have to connect them according to the circuit design and for that choose wire tool from the sidebar and then click on the first pin which you want to connect after that click on the next pin where we want to terminate wire connection. Similarly do all connections.

6. After all connections, our schematic design is done now we have to go through some steps for converting this schematic circuit into PCB layout. And for that first of all we have to annotate the schematic and for that go-to tool menu and click on annotate schematic and simply click on annotate (we will discuss options in different tutorials). Annotating is a procedure where we assign a unique name to our used components serial wise like first IC “U1” and second IC as “U2” and so on. Kicad can do all this work by itself using the annotating schematic tool.

7. After annotation, we are ready to assign footprints to our schematic symbols used in our design. In footprint assigning procedure we simply assign the device package type we are going to use in PCB. This step is very important because here you tell to kicad that we are going to use which type of components. For example, let consider you used 555 ic in your schematic but when you are going to create layout then how software treat 555 ic, is it SMD or THT package? And this type of problem is resolved by assigning footprint to schematic symbols.

8. For assigning footprint go-to tools and then assign component footprint. Now here a window will open with a list of used components, click on the component and after that open the footprint library which is situated on the left side of the component list. You will find the all possible footprint at the right side of the component list choose the footprint by double-clicking on it and the system will assign that footprint to the component which you selected. If you want to view how footprint actually looks like then simply select footprint and then click on "view selected footprint" tool as shown in the screenshot. Similarly assign footprint to all components.

9.  After assigning footprint we have to generate netlist and this will be our last step in creating the schematic design. netlist generation is an important step because it generates all the connections that we have done in the schematic circuit for layout design. For generating netlist we will use a netlist generating tool and for that go to tools and then go to generate netlist file after that simply click on generate it will ask you for the place where you want to save netlist file and save it in respective directory. After this save the schematic and we are ready to go for layout design which we will discuss in the next tutorial.

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NEXT: KiCad (PCB Layout)