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Comment by hokumguru | Hacker News Reader

As an absolute beginner learning how to design PCBs and simple circuits for hobby projects - I have to say while KiCAD is getting there, it really still has a learning-curve of a sheer cliff. The interface and workflow seem arbitrary and unnecessary complex for what should be a relatively straightforward process. I realize this tool is far more powerful than I'll ever need but it really does feel like I'm in way over my head most times. While it "Just" needs some UI improvements, those are non trivial for me.

Electrical engineers are willing to put up with so much more it seems.

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>Electrical engineers are willing to put up with so much more it seems.

In general, IMHO. EAGLE, a golden-standard proprietary EDA tool, while still being quite a bit ahead of KiCad on the UX front, features no fewer pitfalls and completely unintuitive controls.

YMMV. I started learning on Eagle and switched to Kicad. It's correct that library handling and pcbnew/eeschema interaction is a little weird, but just for laying out things I always found Eagle's user interface to be obtuse and idiosyncratic, whereas Kicad was quite natural in comparison.

The elephant in the room is back annotation. No one who has used EAGLE professionally will (or at least should) ever be happy with a package that doesn't keep the PCB and schematic synchronized automatically without user assistance or interaction.

I've heard the KiCAD people are working towards this goal. If they pull it off, it'll be a game-changer. I'm definitely rooting for them.

I had a similar experience, but I’m skeptical that it’s because KiCAD is wildly “better”. In the interim, I’d learned more (this is “just” a hobby) and the second tool tried benefited from that learning and Chris G’s excellent “getting to Blinky” video series because YouTube was now really a thing.

Describing KiCAD’s UI as “quite natural” could only be true with the “in comparison” qualifier, IMO.

I still do not understand how EAGLE attained its 'golden-standard' status. Out of the cheap or OSS EDA tools (DipTrace, g-EDA, KiCAD, Eagle)* I thought it had the most difficult learning curve. My best assumption is that it is riding on historical momentum.

* Although not really in the list, last year Cadence was selling OrCAD for something like $430. Hopefully we get more < $500 USD offerings.

I possess a license of this OrCAD, it is exremely limiting (in terms of Constrains at least). KiCAD is even more feature rich in this case, and free. :-)

> golden standard?

In what way? I've never heard of anyone doing "serious" (like sense FPGA routing etc.) In eagle

For simple projects, EasyEDA is basic but simple to use and free. Nice feature is that sending your boards to JLCPCB is a click away as well as ordering some parts from LCSC as they are all the same company and many components are already defined.

Although, like any other EDA, you really need to check the footprints or make your own.

Not all EDA software is like that. I had a similar "sheer cliff" experience to you with Kicad. If you aren't already an EDA expert don't even bother.

I suggest trying DesignSpark PCB. It's not open source, and Windows-only (though I suspect it would run perfectly under Wine). But unlike Eagle, Kicad, gEDA, etc. it has a vaguely sane interface (it's still has a weird zoom though) and beginners can actually use it to design real PCBs.

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