Overview of Kicad

Kicad is a Free Sofware application to design PCBs
It covers both schematic design and PCB drawing
It has some extra features like 3D models, that we ignore for simplicity

The main schematic tool is called "eeschema"
Schematic files, called "*.sch", are ASCII texts
It relies on a library of components
There is a rich installed library of components
Many components are found online, with a free license
You can design yours, as usual
The output you most use is a netlist file

The PCB design tool is called "pcbnew"
The file is called "*.kicad_pcb", and it is an ASCII text
It relies on a library of footprints
There is a rich installed library of footprints
Many footprints are found online with a free license
You can design yours, as usual
The output you most use is a set of gerber files for production