Translate schematics between OrCAD Capture and KiCad
Bidirectional EDF ⇄ kicad_sch conversion. Free, experimental, and
still being tested against real-world files.
Hi all, I am a fan of KiCad but most of my work is currently on Cadence
OrCAD Capture, which exports EDF files. My goal was to create a tool
which can translate electrical schematics from this format to
kicad_sch and vice versa, to try to get the best from both
tools. The work is, I would say, at 90% and I need your contribution to
test and improve it.
Feature available on this page: conversion EDF → kicad_sch
and kicad_sch → EDF. Please try it and send comments to
support@kicadtranslator.com.
The page allows translation of files up to 20 MB, with a short wait required between conversions. You can tick the option to leave the file on my temporary archive (kept no more than a week) for further analysis — in this case you'll receive a ticket number, which lets both of us identify the file under analysis.
In the near future I plan to allow obfuscating the schematic — replacing fields like value, footprint, etc. with strings like the UUIDs KiCad already uses internally — so I can access the schematic's structure without seeing information that reveals what the circuit actually does. coming soon
This tool was built using Claude and vibe coding.
Before you upload
- This is experimental — verify results before relying on them for real work.
- Well-tested: single and multi-page hierarchical schematics, buses, power symbols, common pin types.
- EDF →
kicad_sch: upload one EDF file — it already contains the whole design, so a multi-page schematic comes back as a .zip with one sheet per page automatically. kicad_sch→ EDF: for a hierarchical design, select all sheet files at once, or upload a .zip. If a referenced sheet file is missing, that part of the output is simply left empty rather than failing the whole conversion.- Every conversion is logged (file size, success/fail, direction) to help improve the tool. Your file itself is only kept if you opt in.