Sad state of affairs in eCAD software
As many of you know, Autodesk killed Eagle and I had to switch my CAD tool. I heard many good things about KiCAD and so I tried it. I was just exploring the tool poking around things. My findings are pretty frustrating.
The Most Egregious Problems
1. UI Bloat — Panels Everywhere
About half the screen on a Full HD laptop is consumed by panels. There are two toolbars, two side panels, a properties panel, and a separate properties *dialog* that opens on double-click and duplicates the panel entirely. Nobody asked for two ways to view the same properties. WHY!?
2. The Context Menu Is a Wall of Text
Right-clicking a component produces a menu with 30+ items including Cut, Copy, Paste, Select All, Zoom, and Grid settings — none of which are contextual to the component. There are also multiple nested submenus. Finding anything quickly is nearly impossible.
3. You Can Edit Individual Pads Outside the Footprint Editor
KiCad allows you to select and modify individual pads directly on the board — changing their shape, size, or type (e.g. turning a through-hole into an SMD pad). There is no warning. This silently diverges your board from the library footprint and will likely be overwritten on the next library update. It's a trap for beginners and a potential sabotage vector for open-source projects. This is not freedom, this is pure evil and should not exist
4. The "Lock" Indicator Looks Like an Exposed Mask Opening
Two completely different states — a locked object and a solder mask opening — are visually indistinguishable. This is not a UI preference issue. This is a functional bug. It can probably be fixed in settings somehow, but why on earth the default state is so wrong.
5. Unpredictable Object Selection
Clicking on a component may select the component, or it may select the copper pour polygon underneath it. There is a selection filter, but it's buried inside the "Appearance" panel — which is also where you manage net visibility and layer sets, because why not. It is just not pleasant and slow to use.
6. The Selection Filter Is a Grid of Checkboxes
To select only one type of object, you must uncheck eight other checkboxes one by one. There is no multi-select in the filter list itself. Two columns of checkboxes, because one wasn't confusing enough.
7. Teardrops With Nine Settings Per Pad
Teardrops are a cosmetic feature whose practical justification (mechanical stress relief) applies almost exclusively to aerospace and military applications — which don't use KiCad. They were popularized by a YouTube video. They have nine configuration parameters. Per pad. This received prominent coverage in release notes.
8. Track Width Cannot Be Typed During Routing
When routing a track, you cannot type a width into a text field. You must choose from a predefined dropdown list, or configure net classes in advance. This is a pretty frequently performed action in PCB layout and you just can't specify your width.
9. Layer Set Switching Is Linear and Slow
Layer sets are switched with Ctrl+Tab. There are 8 default layer sets that cannot be deleted. On a 2-layer board you have at minimum 8 items to cycle through. Shift+Tab, which would logically go backwards, is instead assigned to "saved viewport positions" — a feature that is hardly ever used.
10. The Main Toolbar Is a Museum of Useless Buttons
Present on the main toolbar: three cursor styles (including one rotated 45°), four display modes for tracks/vias/polygons (including a "noodle mode" that outlines tracks instead of filling them), a toggle for curved vs straight ratsnest lines (why?!), polar coordinate display, and a barcode generator. Missing from the toolbar: a text field to enter track width.
11. Pad Properties Have Two Screens of Scrolling
A pad has properties including: back-drilling mode, surface finish, teardrop settings (9 of them), thermal relief overrides, and a solder mask checkbox whose effect is invisible in the PCB editor but visible in the 3D viewer. A pad is a copper shape with a hole. It does not need back-drilling settings.
12. GLTF Export Generates Geometry Instead of Textures
KiCad exports silkscreen, solder mask, and copper as 3D geometry even in GLTF format — which natively supports textures. A small board takes minutes to open in any external viewer. The internal 3D viewer handles this efficiently, making it a necessary walled garden rather than a feature.
13. Zone (Polygon) Has a "Name" Field
Separate from the net name. You can name your GND polygon anyhow if you wish. Nobody has ever needed to name a polygon independently of its net. Why it even exists?!
14. Hatched Fill With 8 Parameters
Two fill styles are available: solid and hatched. Hatched fill with configurable angle, line width, gap, and rounding is available for those who wish their ground plane to look like a notebook. This is not a manufacturing option. Nobody uses it. Why so many settings!?
15. Ctrl+B Removes Fill AND Triggers Ratsnest Recalculation
There are two ways to "hide" polygon fills: Ctrl+B (which actually removes the fill and shows ratsnest errors as if connections are missing) and toolbar buttons (which hide fills visually). These look similar and behave completely differently. This is a trap.
16. DNP Has Three Separate Checkboxes
"Do Not Populate", "Exclude from BOM", and "Exclude from manufacturing files" are three separate attributes. If a component is DNP, it should logically be excluded from both. The user must check three boxes to express one decision.
17. The "Ruler" (Dimensions) Tool
Places annotated dimensions on the board. In the era of STEP file exchange with mechanical engineers, nobody reads dimension annotations on a PCB. The tool exists, takes toolbar space, and solves a problem from 1987.
18. Built-in Barcode Generator
A native tool, not a plugin, for generating QR codes and barcodes on copper. Five formats with four error correction levels. Are we designing the PCB or runing a supermarket?!
There is though one think I actually find useful and like - background image. It is very useful in specific reverse engineering cases. Though such cases are rare, so you won't be ENJOYING this feature too much...
KiCad suffers from a specific disease common to open-source projects without strong product ownership: features are easy to add and nearly impossible to remove. Every contributor adds their panel, their checkbox, their toolbar button. Nobody asks whether it belongs there. Nobody removes anything.
The result is a tool with a functional routing core buried under layers of redundant panels, useless display modes, nine-parameter teardrops, and a barcode generator — while basic things like typing a track width remain inexplicably absent.
It is the best free PCB editor available. That is both its greatest achievement and its biggest problem.
