KiCad has become a professional tool that can easily replace many commercial EDA packages. However, most companies will have many years worth of designs in propietary file formats requiring a significant amount of manual effort if a migration to KiCad is desired. Ideally KiCad would be able to import from every EDA tool, but this is a time consuming task requiring help from motivated contributors.
This talk will cover the information necessary to develop an importer for KiCad, in the context of the CADSTAR importer that has been recently developed. Topics will include:
- Reverse engineering an ASCII-based file format (Using the CADSTAR Archive format as an example)
- Deep-dive into the inner workings of KiCad's PCB and Schematic importers
- Overview of the necessary steps required to develop your own importer
