An Intro to KiCad – Part 1: How PCBs Are Made | DigiKey

I am a MechEng by background and taught myself how to design PCBs. Disclaimer I am not a pro but have put a couple of boards into production and have worked closely with pros. > Do professionals do a lot of breadboarding? Depends on the complexity but yes there is often a fair bit of breadboarding, usually differnt parts of the circuit in isolation. So first step is (if you haven't already) to get familiar with the basics of electronics and the best place to start with that is The Art of Electronics1 I would then recommmend checking out DigiKey's guide to KiCAD 2 which gives you everything you need to get started with a good software package that is user by pros. It has it's quirks but a…

Digikey actually makes really nice YouTube tutorials on how to use KiCAD: link to this video When I had to design a board I used that.

I'd second that unless you really just want to make a PCB from a simple breadboard design with simple parts once and never do it again. But the few hours learning Kicad will be much more rewarding. Here's one of many tutorials: link to this video