Welcome to Waterloo Reality Lab's KiCad onboarding! This guide will introduce you to KiCad 7.0, an open-source software for creating electronic schematics and printed circuit boards (PCBs). Whether you're new to PCB design or transitioning from another tool, this onboarding will help you get started with KiCad.

What is KiCad?

KiCad is a comprehensive suite of tools for electronic design automation (EDA). It has a range of tools including:

• Schematic editor for circuit design
• PCB layout editor for board design
• 3D viewer for visualizing your PCB
• Gerber viewer for checking manufacturing files
• PCB calculator for various electrical calculations

KiCad unifies all of these tools in a single package, you can jump directly from schematic design to board layout, with all components and connections synchronized throughout the process.

Getting Started

To begin your journey with KiCad, follow these steps:

1. Visit KiCad.org and download the latest version for your operating system.
2. Install KiCad.
3. Launch KiCad.

You should see something like this:

In the next sections, we'll guide you through creating your first project and introduce you to the key components of the KiCad workflow.

Tool introduction