CERN Shares Entire KiCad Library Collection as Gift to Engineers
▼ Summary
– CERN has released its KiCad component libraries as open source, created by the PCB layout team for the particle accelerator.
– The libraries are currently available only for KiCad version 9.x, with official 10.x compatibility expected in the future.
– The libraries contain a large variety of parts and are hosted in a GitLab repository.
– The libraries failed to install on KiCad 10.0 due to a missing JSON file, though manual installation might be possible.
Deep beneath the Swiss-French border, Europe’s top physicists are busy probing the fundamental nature of reality,but they also spend plenty of time designing circuit boards. The PCB layout team at CERN works with an enormous range of electronic components, and for every one of them, they create a corresponding KiCad library entry. Now, the organization has released those libraries as open source, giving engineers and hobbyists everywhere access to the same high-quality part models.
The complete collection is hosted in a GitLab repository and is currently available only for KiCad version 9.x. When we tried loading it into KiCad 10.0, the software balked, citing a missing JSON file. With a bit more tinkering, we suspect it could be made to work, and official support for version 10.x is reportedly in development.
Browsing the repository reveals an impressive breadth of parts, from common passives to specialized connectors and ICs. It’s easy to imagine this becoming a standard library install for many KiCad users, with CERN’s footprints appearing in countless future projects.
Thanks to [Daniel] for the tip.
(Source: Hackaday)
