Quick-Tips

In mid-2021, I saw a demonstration of features for the upcoming KiCad 6. A statement caught me off guard: “the new copy/paste feature uses the system’s clipboard.” Then I watched as one of the developers copied from one KiCad instance into another. Immediately, that capability hit me as a game-changer. Not because the world’s oldest shortcut keys now work as we all expect, but because of the flexibility the method introduces! Actual text gets copied to the clipboard. For example, you can paste that into a text editor, make some changes, and then paste the new version of “code” back into KiCad.

In KiCad 6 (and 5), the F8 key runs a special command. It automates annotating a schematic, generating a netlist, and loading it into PCBnew. Also the “Edit Symbol Fields” is a better tool for updating footprints than the actual “Assign Footprints” dialog! This video is the first one of a series of quick tips.