GoatCAD

GoatCAD

A fast, modern workbench for electronic design.

Design schematics, boards, and footprints in a unified IDE. Free and open-source. Fully compatible with KiCad file formats.

Version 0.1.0Release notes

GoatCAD with a four-layer board open in the PCB editor — board, schematic and footprint tabs in one window, board stats, routing defaults and the layer stack on the right.The same window on the schematic tab — a display-port sheet open in the schematic editor, project tree and sheet hierarchy on the left.The same window on the footprint tab — an ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 module open in the footprint editor with its pads, antenna keep-out zone and layer list.

Schematics, layout, and footprints — one IDE.

GoatCAD design follows modern editors with tabs, a project tree, and keyboard-first hotkeys. Jumping from a schematic edit to placing components is a tab switch, not an app switch. Speed is a core design principle, from the controls to the renderer, to keep your engineering work in flow.

Native compatibility with KiCad projects.

GoatCAD uses KiCads well-tested file format natively. Open a project straight from disk, edit it, save it, and open it in KiCad tomorrow. Round-trips preserve the file: the parts GoatCAD doesn't touch stay exactly as it found them.

  • .kicad_schSchematic
  • .kicad_pcbBoard layout
  • .kicad_modFootprint
  • .kicad_symSymbol library

Free, cross-platform, and open source.

AGPL-3.0 and free forever, with one codebase that runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. No tiers, no trials, nothing held back.

AGPL-3.0

Open source