Demonstration of using KiCad with the Auto router to quickly design a Printed Circuit Board
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
- This video first shows how to download the applications needed to get KiCad Version 6.0.5 to work with the Auto Router. A Windows 10 computer is used. A schematic of an 8031 microcontroller is provided. From the schematic, a printed circuit board is generated. The printed circuit board is further laid-out. Mounting holds are added and the silkscreen printing is added. The Auto Router is used to provide the copper trace paths. A reverse ground plane is added. The Gerber plot files are then generated which can be sent to a PCB manufacturer to provide the actual real circuit board.
Thanks a lot. Went from schematic to finished PCB in about an hour. I wish the official docs were this simple.
After installing the software skip to 19:33 for the actual autorouter stuff
great video! i can finally auto route in kicad!
very helpful! i learnt how to double-click and clicking on "next" button.
Creative video, thanks :)
thank you very much👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Does this method still work since KiCad 7 came out? (12 Feb 2023) ... I read somewhere that v7 has some semi-automatic routing feature but didn't try it yet.
Is it possible to configure autorouter to route everything but not power and ground pins? Or is it possible to manually toute power and ground in Kicad first than import to autorouter to finish the job? Great tutorial. Cheers! S
If you unselect the power supply and GND in the netlist with the autorouter, you can wire only the signal line.
Hi. What a great video. Thank you. How do you locate the exact location of the mounting holes? How do you measure them to the outside edges of the board? Please advise.
I use the grid that KiCAD provides to locate the mounting holes. The edges of the board are defined in the edge layer and are also relative to the grid markings.
@@frankrudley8992 Thank you. The PCB vendor looks for a numerical dimension to drill the holes? Or the vector graphics (dxf) show the visual location? Please advise.
How can I force the auto router to only put the tracks on the back copper? Thanks for the tutorial sir.
When opening a file in Freerouting, head to the "Parameter" tab on the top of your screen, and select "Autoroute". Then you'll see your routing options, and you can uncheck any layer under the "Active" column. Note that you can also force Freerouting to not use any vias when autorouting, which can cut some cost on the production.
@@matthiasnicoloso Thank you very much. I will try this out.
Do you share the project you demo on this video for download?
I do have a Website at www.rudley.com/ where you can download the project. This was item 2 on the Website.
in which software that freerouting is runned
Hi - Freerouting is a Java program. It will run by itself as long as Java is installed on your PC.
Nice. SMT ? Gave ya a sub.
My java file is not opening,you have any solution?
Hi Frank great job! do you know how to change the tracks width in Freerouting or cannot be possible, thanks for your reply
Ciao
Roberto
Yes - Go to the Utilities pull-down. There is a sub-menu called Net Classes. You can change the default trace size. You can also tag traces say for "power" and "signal" and make two different common trace sizes. But what I usually do is go with the default traces size, and then modify it using KiCAD.
@@frankrudley8992 thanks a lot for your reply 😉
I pronoun it as "Key- Cad"
Are you sure,I thought it was pronounced "kick-a-kid"
What a lot of fannying about!
But you get what you pay for...
I find Eaglecad way easier.