Digi-Key Announces Common Parts Library Update for KiCad EDA Tool

19 February, 2018

“Now, electrical engineers have a choice without fear of restrictive licenses.” The recent update comes as a precursor to the final release coming in early 2018

As part of its effort to offer engineers the electronic design automation (EDA) tools and design aids, Digi-Key Electronics announced the beta release of a library consisting of nearly 1,000 common parts for use by the open source, KiCad schematic capture and printed circuit board tool. The data is available on Digi-Key’s website.

Digi-Key said it had analyzed which parts are the top 1,000 that users of KiCad would likely need and created a library that binds the schematic symbols and printed circuit board footprints together, while adding several fields including part numbers and links to datasheets. The library is distributed under the same license as KiCad’s main library, thereby making it available for anyone to use for their own designs.

“With more restrictive licensing or licenses that don’t align with some of our customers’ needs, some users are looking to find a replacement EDA tool and are flocking to KiCad which is the most popular, open source option available,” said Randall Restle, VP, Applications Engineering. “Now, electrical engineers and students have a choice without fear of restrictive licenses.” The recent update comes as a precursor to the final release coming in early 2018.

Digi-Key Electronics, headquartered in Thief River Falls, Minn., USA, is a global distributor of electronic components, offering more than 6.8 million products, with over 1.4 million in stock from over 750 brand manufacturers. Digi-Key also offers a wide variety of online resources such as EDA and design tools, datasheets, reference designs, instructional articles and videos, multimedia libraries, and much more.

More information: KiCad, EDigi-Key EDA and design tools

Posted in: Electronic Components , News