Build

If you are a user and not a developer, please consider using one of the prebuilt packages of KiCad which can be found at the download page on the KiCad website. This document contains the instructions on how to build KiCad from source on the supported platforms. It is not intended as a guide for installing or building library dependencies. Please consult your platforms documentation for installing packages or the source code when building the library dependencies. Currently the supported platforms are Windows Versions 7-10, just about any version of Linux, and macOS 10.14 or newer. You may be able to build KiCad on other platforms but it is not supported. On Windows and Linux the GNU GCC is the only supported compiler and on macOS Clang is the only supported compiler.

• Getting Started

  Development Tools Before you begin building KiCad, there are a few tools required in addition to your compiler. Some of these tools are required to build from source and some are optional. CMake Build Configuration Tool CMake is the build configuration and makefile generation tool used by KiCad. It is required. Git Version Control System The official source code repository is hosted on GitLab and requires git to get the latest source.

• Linux

  Instructions for Linux using gcc

• macOS

  Instructions for macOS using cmake and clang

• Windows (MSYS2)

  Guide on building KiCad using MSYS2

• Windows (Visual Studio)

  Guide on building KiCad using Microsoft Visual Studio and vcpkg

• Build Options

  Summary of CMake build configuration options.