Talk:KiCad

Notability question

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=kicad&btnG=Search
Results 1 - 10 of about 205,000 for kicad.

-> www.kicadlib.org/
-> tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-users/
-> xtronics.com/reference/kicad.html (Kicad Notes and how tos)
-> kicad.rohrbacher.net/quicklib.php (KICAD quick lib gen)
-> http://code.rancidbacon.com/LearningAboutKiCad (Learning About KiCad)
-> furter links to kikad related websites (about 50-60): http://www.kicadlib.org/Kicad_related_links.html

furthermore, kicad is already maintained in various linux distributions package trees, debian, ubuntu, many more.
see http://packages.ubuntu.com/gutsy/source/kicad or the debian package tree.

employee of cadsoft? :D

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.245.161.90 (talk • contribs), 21 September 2007 18:27 (UTC)

If some of those are significant independent coverage of the topic, add references to the article, as the notability tag suggests, and then say you've done so on the AfD discussion, and maybe you'll make a difference. Dicklyon 18:35, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Authorship

I'd suggest changing "developed by Jean-Pierre Charras" for "Initially developed by Jean-Pierre Charras", since now there's a certain amount of developers collaborating into it and I think it would be meaningful to mention. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.218.10.96 (talk) 09:19, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Program name "KiCad", not "KiCAD"

In the program GUI itself and on their web page, they call it "KiCad" (capital K, capital C), not "KiCAD" (capital K, C, A, D). The page should be renamed. I don't know how to do this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.172.126.10 (talk) 10:33, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: uncontested move. DrKay (talk) 09:27, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

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KiCAD → KiCad – In the program GUI itself and on their web page, they call it "KiCad" (capital K, capital C), not "KiCAD" (capital K, C, A, D). KiCAD is a different (commercial) application. The page should be renamed. (KiCad is in use now as it redirects to this page.) Ajv39 (talk) 18:18, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Links

I believe that in the case of KiCad, and perhaps other open source software, links that are currently flagged-up for 'reduction' or conversion into footnotes would be best left as they are. Indeed such links provide an essential and valuable facility to the practical reader.

I would add that while such removal, reduction or conversion of links into footnotes may seem to improve the readability of articles in Wikipedia, within articles that pertain to on-going projects such as KiCad, such editorial action is detrimental to the usefulness of the article. --— Preceding unsigned comment added by Zorgrian (talk • contribs) 24 jun 2014 10:25‎ (UTC)

The needs of the reader

Wikipedia is now seen authoritative by many readers; this is especially true for projects such as KiCad. Where a list of links that pertain to an on-going open source project such as KiCad provide much needed reference to additional support, libraries of files or other needed help, I believe that it is better to maintain a list of such links. Indeed, this article should mention that KiCad is part of a community of sub-projects that are directly responsible for it's continued success.--zorg (talk) 10:25, 24 June 2014 (UTC)

Footnotes

As per the above, while in many articles mediawiki footnotes increase the readability of articles by 'de-cluttering' the body of content, it is also true that the idea of homogenizing all Wikipedia articles to conform to one editorial standard may not be in the best interest of Wikipedia or it's readers. Specifically, in the case of this article, the conversion of the list of links into footnotes would make the article less readable, since these links are very much needed; a footnote version of these is much harder to access and therefore less authoritative. --— Preceding unsigned comment added by Zorgrian (talk • contribs) 24 jun 2014 10:25‎ (UTC)

Quality

I think this page is a start class article now, if no one is opposed in a month or two I will label it as such.

I reorganized much of this page and tried to add more information in many places, but I left a lot of areas pretty sparse. I think with a little bit more fleshing out and rewriting awkward sentences it could start being a pretty good article!Reportingsjr (talk) 02:00, 29 December 2015 (UTC)

Gitlab or Github?

• https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-i18n
• https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad-i18n

Which one is more "official"? --Guy Macon (talk) 22:38, 29 November 2019 (UTC)

GitLab is the official home for all the repositories according to the announcements (https://www.mail-archive.com/kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net/msg37385.html). The GitHub repositories have been archived and are read-only except for a mirror. Mcianster (talk) 22:32, 19 October 2021 (UTC)

"KiCad SVN 2508" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect KiCad SVN 2508 has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 September 19 § KiCad 2006-08-28 until a consensus is reached. 1234qwer1234qwer4 23:56, 19 September 2025 (UTC)

KiCad and Wayland Support

Per [ https://www.kicad.org/blog/2025/06/KiCad-and-Wayland-Support/ ]:

• "Current Status Is Functional but Degraded

KiCad does run on Wayland systems, but with significant limitations and known issues that substantially degrade the user experience. While you can design PCBs using KiCad on Wayland, you will encounter numerous problems that we cannot fix at the application level.

The following problems are known issues in Wayland protocols or their implementation in desktop compositors, window managers or other layers in the display stack that are beyond our ability to resolve:

• Window Management Issues

Window placement and restoration: Wayland does not currently allow controlling window position. This means that when you open KiCad, it can not remember where you last placed your windows.

Docked panel positioning: Docked panels and toolbars cannot be properly managed or restored

Multi-window coordination: Problems with managing multiple KiCad windows simultaneously

Window dragging limitations: Dragging tabs and panels between areas is broken or unreliable

• Input and Interaction Problems

Cursor/pointer warping: Essential for many CAD operations, it is conditionally available in some Wayland implementations, depending on support for optional protocol extensions

Focus management: Unpredictable window focus behavior that can interrupt workflows

Input device handling: Various issues with specialized input devices and hotkeys

• Performance and Stability Issues

OpenGL call throttling: When windows are occluded, some compositors throttle OpenGL calls, causing freezes, instead of just letting the client know the window state

High CPU/GPU usage: Resource consumption spikes that don’t occur under X11, which is a workaround for OpenGL call throttling

Graphical glitches: Rendering artifacts and display corruption

Application freezes and crashes: Instability issues specific to the Wayland environment

Clipboard functionality: Unreliable copy/paste operations between applications

• Dialog and UI Limitations

Modal dialog behavior: Issues with dialog positioning, focus, and interaction

External tool integration: Problems launching and managing external applications

• Why These Issues Persist

These problems exist because Wayland’s design omits basic functionality that desktop applications for X11, Windows and macOS have relied on for decades—things like being able to position windows or warp the mouse cursor. This functionality was omitted by design, not oversight.

The fragmentation doesn’t help either. GNOME interprets protocols one way, KDE another way, and smaller compositors yet another way. As application developers, we can’t depend on a consistent implementation of various Wayland protocols and experimental extensions. Linux is already a small section of the KiCad userbase. Further fragmentation by window manager creates an unsustainable support burden. Most frustrating is that we can’t fix these problems ourselves. The issues live in Wayland protocols, window managers, and compositors. These are not things that we, as application developers, can code around or patch.

We are not the only application facing these challenges and we hope that the Wayland ecosystem will mature and develop a more balanced, consistent approach that allows applications to function effectively. But we are not there yet."

--Guy Macon (talk) 01:17, 31 October 2025 (UTC)