The latest iteration of KiCad, a free schematic capture and printed circuit board (PCB) design tool, comes packed with features usually found only in expensive commercial CAD tools. One of these tools is the KiCad Design Rule Checker that helps you find mistakes and errors in your board layout. In this video we show you how to use the Design Rules Checker and how to classify your layout issues into three categories: Errors, Warnings, and Ignore.
 

This example is based on the Elektor book KiCad 6 Like a Pro by Dr. Peter Dalmaris.

There Is Much More Than The KiCad Design Rule Checker

KiCad 6 features a modern user interface with improved and customizable electrical and design rule checkers. A new theme editor lets you customize the way KiCad looks. The 3D viewer shows what the finished and assembled board will look like.

The book KiCad 6 Like A Pro provides a practical approach to printed circuit board (PCB) design with KiCad. Using the book, you start designing your own PCBs right away making you productive quickly. The author describes the entire workflow from schematic entry to the intricacies of finalizing the files for PCB production and offers sound guidance on the process.
 

The enhanced interactive router helps you draw single tracks and differential pairs while trace lengths can be tuned with precision. Bus handling has been improved and importing projects from and exchanging data with other CAD packages has never been easier. The large community of contributors make KiCad better every day.
 

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