this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025
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Have they ever fixed the usability issues? I tried it like 5 years ago and it was pretty terrible. Not as bad as gEDA or Eagle but still, worse than DesignSpark PCB for example, and the people that wrote that thought warping your mouse was a reasonable thing to do.
Eventually I found Horizon EDA which is basically the Kicad engine with a mostly fixed UX (it still has some quirks). But that's pretty much a one man project so it would be nice if Kicad actually improved.
I've been using it as my only EDA the last three years or so, and I can tell you it is much better than it was eleven-ish years go, and each major version has been better than the last. I have some plugins that have been broken for a couple major versions if I recall, which kind of sucks. Some functions still aren't offered - thus the plugins. I make extensive use of the 3D models, and often export to FreeCAD for enclosure design. FreeCAD's UX is worse than KiCAD's UX.
Freecad 1.0+ is a significant improvement on the ux front but the ui and workflow still need work
I agree, I tried FreeCAD a couple of years ago and it was unusable. I tried 1.0 and it was actually decent. Not amazing but definitely usable.