rickman wrote:

I am starting a design with Kicad in order to learn it. The Kicad web
site has a list of Tutorials, but the first one, "Official KiCad
tutorial" doesn't load. Anyone know what is wrong with it?


bazaar.launchpad.net/~kicad-developers/kicad/doc/view/head:/doc/help/en/Getting_Started_in_KiCad.pdf

I am reading a tutorial from Teho Labs. So far, so good. Does anyone
have any suggestions on what is harder or what might be stumbling blocks?

I noticed that when I tried the menu item "New from Template" it points
by default to a location in the install directory under "Program
Files...". That is a no-no under Windows. Will this be an issue or
will no data be put there unless I do it? I will be writing to a
separate directory in my user space I expect.

I had a guy send me a design he built in kicad, and I am learning the
bits I need to manufacture his board. I usually use Protel 99SE. Compared
to Protel, Kicad is pretty far below, but it is showing promise.
Some of the features are a bit klunky, and the schematics look like
Orcad from 1985, but it seems to do a lot of stuff fairly well.

I run it under Linux. I imagine you can redirect the libraries to
where you want them.

Jon