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SPECIFICTION
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KiCad vs PSCAD

KiCad

kicad.org

PSCAD

pscad.com

Side by side

FigureKiCadPSCAD
Price fromFreeFree
Free planYesYes
Free trial—Yes
Open source——
WindowsYesYes
macOSYes—
LinuxYes—
API—Yes
Self-hostedYes—
Plans published13
Spec score · Electrical Design Software8.1 (#9)7.5 (#24)
PurposeKiCad is an open-source electronic design automation suite for schematic capture and PCB layout.PSCAD is a graphical interface to the EMTDC electromagnetic transient simulation engine for constructing circuits, running simulations, analyzing results, and managing data.

Plans

KiCad

  • KiCadFree

KiCad pricing →

PSCAD

  • PSCAD Free EditionFree
  • Educational EditionPriced on request
  • Professional EditionPriced on request

PSCAD pricing →

In their own words

KiCad

KiCad is a free, open-source electronic design automation suite for schematic capture and PCB layout. Its electrical rules checker flags schematic connection issues such as output-pin conflicts, missing drivers, and unconnected pins. For board routing, the PCB editor offers collision-highlight, shove, and walkaround modes that respect design rules. An integrated 3D viewer displays board designs with a library of 3D models and supports ray tracing. Schematic netlists can be exported as Pspice, Cadstar, PcbNew, or generic XML. KiCad can import schematic work from Altium tools, CADSTAR, EAGLE, EasyEDA, and LTSpice, as well as PCB designs from a wider range that includes Allegro, Fabmaster, P-CAD 200x ASCII, and SolidWorks. The project aims to serve professional designers while staying approachable to new users. Downloads are listed for Windows, macOS, and Linux, plus Docker; the stable Linux release is an x86-64 AppImage. Most source code uses GNU GPL version 3 or greater, and libraries use CC-BY-SA 4.0. KiCad was first released in 1992 and is managed by the KiCad Development Team.

Visit kicad.org

PSCAD

PSCAD has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

Visit pscad.com