10.5. How to use KiCad with PyOPUS

KiCad is a software package for drawing circuit schematics and designing PCBs. It can be used as a schematic editor for PyOPUS. This tutorial is not a generic KiCad tutorial on drawing schematics. You should first learn to use the KiCad schematic editor (eeschema) and then start reading this tutorial.

Currently a KiCad schematic editor plugin is available for generating SpiceOpus netlists. In the future other output formats will also be supported.

Note that in KiCad 6 schematic files have the .kicad_sch extension. This tutorial was written for KiCad 5. So if you are using KiCad 6, whenever you encounter .sch in this tutorial, note that the currect extension should be .kicad_sch. All demos are available in V5 format (.sch) and V6 format (.kicad_sch).

Before you start using KiCad you need to set it up. See Setting up KiCad.

• 10.5.1. Using the pyopus symbol library
• 10.5.2. Getting started with your first schematic
• 10.5.3. Customizing netlister behavior with component fields
• 10.5.4. Customizing netlister behavior with .json files
• 10.5.5. Customization example: netlisting MOS devices as subcircuits
• 10.5.6. Customization example: generating MOS mismatch parameters