GoatCAD
A modern ECAD workbench for KiCad designs.
Open your .kicad_pcb and .kicad_sch files directly. Edit them. Save them back. No import step, no conversion, no lock-in.
Your files, not a copy of your files.
GoatCAD reads and writes KiCad formats as its native formats. Open a project straight from disk, edit it, save it, and open it in KiCad tomorrow. Round-trips preserve the file — GoatCAD leaves the parts it doesn't touch exactly as it found them.
.kicad_proProject.kicad_schSchematic.kicad_pcbBoard layout.kicad_modFootprint.kicad_symSymbol library
No import.No conversion.No lock-in.
Built like a tool you'd use every day.
Fast because of how it draws
Strokes, pads, arcs and text render as instanced quads filled by a signed-distance-field shader — the whole board in a single draw call, with anti-aliasing that stays crisp at any zoom. Nothing tessellates on the CPU.
Schematic, board, and footprint
Pan, zoom, select and edit across all three. Hierarchical sheets resolve across a whole project, a connectivity engine derives nets from geometry, and every change goes through one undo/redo layer.
Runs where you do
macOS, Windows and Linux, from one codebase. Double-click a KiCad file and it opens in the right editor, in the right project — with real multi-window support and tabs you can drag between windows.
Open source
The ECAD space needs a modern open tool that can move quickly. Read the code, file an issue, or send a patch.