As the foremost boffins of Europe toil deep underneath the border between Switzerland and France in their never-ending quest to truly understand the fabric of the Universe, they rely on a vast amount of electronics. The PCB layout team at the particle accelerator thus work with a huge array of parts, for which of course they create KiCad libraries. Now the folks at CERN have made those libraries available as open source, so you can benefit from their work.
The libraries themselves can be found in a GitLab repository, and at the moment are offered only for KiCad version 9.x. We tried installing it in our KiCad 10.0 installation and it refused — complaining of a missing JSON file — but we’re assuming that with more time and effort we could have made it happen. We’re told official 10.x compatibility is on the way.
Browsing the repository shows what a multiplicity of parts are included, so we can see this becoming a standard install for many people and the CERN footprints turning up in many projects featured here.
Thanks [Daniel] for the tip!
Can you convert them for use in Eagle? I hate Kicad because it’s so clunky and tends to crash on large projects. At work I use Altium and for hobby projects Eagle rulez.
Normally you would expect this to be an importer function of eagle, but because eagle has been dead for 5+ years, that is unlikely to happen.
I’ve also read a lot of forum posts, and most people who switched from eagle to KiCad wished they had done this years earlier, and would not want to go back. But it is somewhat common that people need an adjustment period because KiCad works quite differently from eagle.
You call it “dead”, I call it mature, feature-complete software.
Comparing Eagle to Kicad is like comparing a BMW X5 to a Trabant.
There is no such functionality implemented in that mature, feature-complete software.
Sure, Eagle is a mature software, like the Commodore 64 is a mature platform because is feature-complete.
Sometimes I wonder who comes to this site…
Wait, which one is the “mature, feature-complete” car in that example, and which one is cutting-edge tech?
Eagle is dead. And KiCad is very good, MUCH better than Eagle ever was.
Just say that you prefer Eagle over KiCad, it’s more honest.
Eagle now lives inside Fusion 360
That’s funny. I feel like Eagle died inside of Fusion 360.
KiCad compares to Eagle like Gimp compares to PhotoShop.. :)
How is it feature complete if it can’t import these libraries?
Kicad can import Eagle libraries.
It will be dead after June 6th, when you can no longer license it. Eagle Free is already unavailable.
My problem with kicad is that you can’t (or I can’t find a way to) create JUST a schematic without first creating a project. I don’t normally need a ‘project’ with pcb and prl (whatever that is). I just need a schematic. Yeah… small issue, I know, but… it is what it is. Eagle was just easy to use. And I’ve been using kicad for over a decade, since Eagle stopped offering a free version and since I started running linux.
It’s easy to do this: just
eeschema mysch.kicad_sch. If the file doesn’t exist a dialogue box will come up asking if you want to create it; just say “Yes”, save, and now you have a stand-alone schematic that you edit again with the same command as above.I’m running the appimage version right now (having a HELL of a trouble with a VPN DNS server right now, so the appimage is my only option until I can get that resolved) and I am guessing that that command won’t work with the appimage, but…. I did not know that. That is awesome! You don’t know how many times I’ve wished I could that. Thank you!
From autodesk with love: “June 7th, 2026:β―EAGLE entitlement will no longer be available nor supported as part of Autodesk Fusion subscription. EAGLE will no longer be accessible to be downloaded & installed through your Autodesk Account. The licensing for EAGLE will no longer be active. ”
https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Autodesk-EAGLE-Announcement-Next-steps-and-FAQ.html
π€£π€£π€£π€£π€£π€£π€£π€£π€£ππππππ€£π€£π€£π€£
Actually, Eagle is the garbage here – unmaintained, no Linux compatibility, glitchy (as it should be from Autodesk).
Tried to open latest OpenEVSE to create gerbers and just quit and used Kicad.
There used to be Linux versions of Eagle. They won’t run on a modern distro though. I occasionally have to use it to open some of my old projects since KiCad can’t import the old binary Eagle files. Opening and saving them in Eagle 6 converts the format, then I can import it into KiCad.
I still remember how KiCad dropped Win XP support prematurely years ago.
I think I’ll never for get that (there’s a v8 fork for XP now, though).
https://hackaday.com/2023/02/13/kicad-7-0-0-is-here-brings-trove-of-improvements/#comment-6599010
If you’re stuck on XP, I could send you an old i5 laptop that runs linux. I updated the barrel jack to usb-c, but it works fine.
2023 is prematurely?? I can understand having a system use it that’s mission critical and difficult to replace. Like the computer on a CNC. But that shouldn’t be anything you’re using as a work computer.
I like KiCAD, because, unlike Eagle, it’s open and free. There have been too many (for me) occurrences of “low cost” tools that have suddenly gone to higher cost subscription models for my liking, and I tend to tolerate a bit of clunkiness for community support and longevity (which I consider important in tools).
Eagle is a fine product, and KiCAD is getting better every time I use it. Horses for courses, I suppose.
“Come, come, Mr. Scott. Young minds, fresh ideas. Be tolerant.”
Hi Tim!
But eagle is from autocad and thus not really free. I don’t make a lot of PCB’s myself, bu found KiCAD easy to use. Did not crash , these where 2 layer PCB’s. And if CERN used it for their PCB’s then I can! They are by far more complex then mine..
My projects haven’t been all that big so I don’t really have an opinion here and am not trying to convert you. I’m just asking because I would like to know…
How long has it been since you tried KiCAD?
I mean… anything will seem clunky if it’s not just a clone of the UI you are already used to when you have significant experience already using a competitor.
But… I remember KiCAD crashing a lot even on my small projects once upon a time. In recent years however is has come a VERY long way and is much more stable. So I wonder if your perception of it crashing really is because you are making bigger projects or if it’s just old experience from obsolete versions.
I have paid for a full license of Eagle since 2009, and became proficient at it.
When Autodesk decided to sunset it and create that disgraceful PCB editor in Fusion 360, despite me paying every year for a license for Fusion, I could not bear using it.
So I kept making small incremental changes in my projects using the most recent version of Eagle.
One day I had to make a major change which sort of granted for a redesign.
Did I spend a few days using a software I practically still pay for but is dead or did I spend a few days learning KiCAD?
I ripped the bandage and learned KiCAD.
NEVER looking back.
The sole integration with JLC PCB and the other plugins make it the future.
Eagle is a dead horse I still pay for ;)
when was the last time you tried kicad?
The TLDR of this very amusing thread, in case you don’t want to go through each individual response:
β’ Wah! Doesn’t work with Eagle! Someone convert for me!
β’ No KiCad conversion function because Eagle is dead.
β’ “You call it ‘dead’, I call it mature, feature-complete software.”
β’ “There is no such functionality implemented in that mature, feature-complete software.”
β’ Commodore 64 is also a mature, feature-complete platform.
β’ “Eagle now lives inside Fusion 360”
β’ “Thatβs funny. I feel like Eagle died inside of Fusion 360.”
I love it.
Eagle was better than KiCad… like 12 years ago, before KiCad version 4. From there on, you can argue that you have already tons of Eagle projects, are more used to it and don’t like the KiCad workflow. But objectively, KiCad has many more features, much better PCB router, much better and bigger library, actual support (even paid support if you want it through KiCad Services Corporation).
There’s nothing bad in wanting to continue using Eagle, but objectively that’s the worse option.
Using Eagle is not a good idea as it is getting shut down permanently next month. Like you may find yourself locked out of the program in its entirety and will have little choice but to use Fusion360 instead. That or just bite the bullet and jump to either KiCad or EasyEDA.
I made the jump two years to KiCad. Was a hassle transferring everything over and the program was rather quirky at the time. But I got used to it and found that while it isn’t as straightforward as Eagle was, It did gave far more precise control and has gotten WAY better than it was like 5 years ago.
That’s doesn’t apply to my cracked version ( Ν‘Β° ΝΚ Ν‘Β°)
It’ll run as long as there’s a functioning WinAPI. And if that’s gone, it’ll still run in a Windows 7 VM.
These people from CERN were already the ones responsible for the extremely big usability improvements in KiCad version 4. Back then I was able to speak once with Javier Serrano, and he told me their purpose was making KiCad as enabling to open hardware development, as gcc was for open source software development.
I’ll always be thankful to them (and all other contributors of course) for their awesome work!
…as am I. Thanks, CERN, for lots of things (including www)
The annoying thing is that kicad X+1 will immediately upgrade the file format to X+1 preventing future access from version X. This means that if you have multiple “editing stations” you have to synchronize upgrading all systems where the projects/libraries may be edited.
For them to maintain both kicad-9 and kicad-10 compatiblity is probably QUITE the hassle.
As long as you just have “multiple editing stations” for yourself, then synchronizing the updates is not such a problem. As a FOSS program, updates for KiCad are free, so there are not many reasons to keep using an older KiCad version. But it is a bit of a dilemma how quick you want to upgrade after a new “stable” KiCad release. The first 1 or 2 patches are sort of mandatory to get to a stable KiCad. Upgrading is a bit more problematic when a group of people is working on a project.
This lack of “future compatibility” is also a hindrance with trying out the nightly builds. If it was easy to revert a project to a previous KiCad version, then probably more people would use the nightly builds and create bug reports, which would speed up KiCad development, and result in better tested code at the beginning of each mayor KiCad version.
But there is now a file converter that can apparently go back as far as the KiCad V7 format:
https://forum.kicad.info/t/kicad-10-01-release-build/68571/17
https://www.nextpcb.com/kicad-version-converter
I have not tried it myself though.
Different OSs or hardware platforms could receive packages for new versions at different times.
Exactly. I would have liked to wait for 10.0.4 or 5 before upgrading, but on my Linux PC, it was upgraded without asking…. Fortunately, I still have my Windows PC with version 9.0.9
I agree, package management and updates / upgrades are far from ideal for Linux. That Linux’s package manager can update / upgrade all installed programs in one go is a HUGE advantage, but it’s not ideal. Blocking updates, or downgrading to a previous version is not easy or intuitive.
But recently KiCad has also started with distributing appimages. This makes it easy to use KiCad V9.0.9 on linux, even if you have also installed V10.0.x via your package manager.
https://downloads.kicad.org/kicad/linux/explore/stable
To be fair, loading old projects in new versions of KiCad can be somewhat hit-or-miss. I had some projects done years ago in KiCad 5 that loaded with broken symbols in KiCad 10. IIRC, I had to load them into KiCad 7 and save them in that format to get them into KiCad 10.
Fortunately, it’s easy to keep multiple versions of KiCad installed…on Windows, at least. I haven’t tried setting up multiple versions on Linux; most distros tend to only offer whatever’s current.
Why isn’t there an AI app that auto generates symbol+footprint from datasheet?
Because the work is important enough to do it properly
This could not have been said any better.
Or said another way: if it’s worth doing right, it’s worth doing it yourself.
soon.
AI will even replace the human EDA designer. Its only a matter of time…
I’m humoring you, but based on the downward-pointing trajectory from individually hand-crafted libraries to whatever SamacSys is serving up.
Surely you can make an even crappier version with an LLM that can’t parse pdf, and let users figure it out, report problems to the chatbot.
The everlasting problem with text is that it can be hard to convey sarcasm…
Because building boards costs money, and AI makes errors, not to mention that a good footprint will take DFM into account.
You only have to do it once, and if you share, you save others time. Too many variations in package names for it to work cleanly, perhaps?
Why aren’t you making one with AI ?
You would have to go and manually check it’s results anyway which would take almost as long as just making it yourself. In software if AI creates a bug then it can be a simple case of correct the line and run it again. With PCBs that isn’t really the case, if you order a board and the footprint is wrong then it often isn’t that easy a fix. I would far rather make the footprint myself and that way I know it will be right (as long as the manufacturer datasheet is right).
Or better yet, part makers could just make them easily available for KiCAD
Which they do, quite often. And nowadays pretty much always through an intermediary that provides KiCad, Eagle, Altium, Cadence, DxDesigner, various versions of Zuken and a few other options.
The last time I saw a manufacturer provide CAD symbols for just one or two common formats is probably 5 years ago.
Oddly enough, HaD has been owned by one of those intermediaries for over a decade and advertises their “component search engine” pretty heavily here…
and even if they aren’t perfect or free of error, they do the bulk of the work, adding pin typing names, filling out fields etc.
WΓΌrth Elektronik recently added Kicad libraries for many of their parts. Not just Eagle and Altium anymore.
For example the WE-PD smd power inductors have a 1st party Kicad library now.
What are ads???
Why assume there isn’t?
https://hackaday.com/2018/10/05/creating-kicad-parts-from-a-pdf-automagically/
Wonderful. I missed that!
Apparently there now is an AI fart that can generate KiCad symbols / footprints. But I’m not going to invest time to figure out whether it’s usable, or if it would even save me time. Anyway, whatever it’s output, you’d still have to verify it all before there can be any confidence.
https://forum.kicad.info/t/ai-based-footprint-generator/69085
You just gave me an idea, and it may be time to open a feature request on the KiCAD repository. Imagine a feature or plugin that allows users to submit self-made symbols and footprints to an online database where others can browse and download those files and leave a rating on the quality. A bad review would demote its search relevance (if enough of them occur perhaps?), and a bunch of good reviews would push it to the top of search results.
Yes people now offer their parts for free, but the searching, downloading, confidence level for quality, difficulty of importing and organizing all make it difficult to do manually. They could even be added or moved to the correct organizational paradigm by mods or ideally the user who submits them. Just open the library manager, browse the online freely available parts, and download the ones you want. Then you can instantly add them to your designs. Cut out all the middle men of mouser, digikey, and all the other websites that offer varying levels of quality symbols and footprints.
Something like that exists, but for copy-pasting circuits: circuitsnips dot com
Didn’t know that. Thanks!
I do agree working with Kicad needs mental rewiring after working with Eagle. However autodesk has killed all support for Eagle and merged what they felt was usable with fusion 360. However I don’t want to stick with software as a service model and no paid subscription for sure. I would rather pay for Claude and ask it to write a whole cad package if needed or Kicad seems too hard to learn.
It’s my hope upon hope that some kind benefactor will do the same thing for FreeCAD that CERN has done for KiCAD.
I’ve tried more times than is like to admit, but I just can’t seem to wrap my head around FreeCAD and it’s eleventy-seven “workbenches”….
I feel your pain, since 1.0, everything has improved by leaps and bounds although workbenches are still a thing. Now with 1.1 is has improved even more.
I spent about a week trying very hard with the older versions (v .21 and the fork) until I figured out most of what I need to work, and it all got so much easier with 1.0+. Here’s the main tip I’d give you: Stick to the Part Design workbench at first. It’s really all you need to build anything at all. The other workbenches add to that most fundamental workbench. They used to say don’t switch back and forth between workbenches, but that’s not even really an issue anymore. Just try to accomplish as much as possible in the Part Design, and if you need more powerful tools to do specific things, you switch benches to use those specific features. Don’t think of the workbenches as workbenches, just think of it as a slightly clunky UI organization scheme.
This is a serious and thoughtful gift. Thank you to everyone at CERN who put in all the work that made this possible. There are a lot of seriously happy geeks right now.
To install on macOS make sure you’ve installed brew
brew install sqlite sqliteodbc. Add libraries e.g./Users/username/Git/cern-kicad-libs/CERN_Linux.kicad_dblThank you folks at CERN! Probably the only donation requests that I keep getting something back from.