The reference for moving Altium designs to KiCad.
File formats, what a standard KiCad import silently drops, how Crosspad verifies a migration domain by domain, and the vocabulary of the report you receive. Every page here is dated, sourced, and links to the policy or code that backs it.
Start here: the four reference pages.
Formats, vocabulary, controls and process — written from the code and the policies, and dated. Everything below this is the reading around them.
- Altium file formats
What each Altium file is, what is inside a .PcbDoc, the KiCad counterpart of each, and the scope Crosspad supports.
- Report glossary
Every evidence category, verdict, completion state and defined term in a Crosspad report, quoted from the policies that define them.
- Viewer shortcuts
Keyboard, mouse and touch controls of the in-browser PcbDoc viewer, mirrored from the shipped code.
- How a migration runs
From free analysis to a sealed delivery bundle: the four steps, what a credit pays for, remediation and retention.
Before you commit to a migration.
The pages that answer whether an Altium → KiCad move is safe for your project, what a standard migration is known to lose, and what it costs.
- Is it safe to migrate?
The decision guide: what a standard migration can silently drop, and what to check before trusting one.
- Compatibility matrix
A version-dated matrix of what a standard Altium → KiCad migration transfers and silently loses, sourced from KiCad's own docs and tracker.
- Known limitations
The broad overview of what a standard migration can leave behind: nets, design-rule intent, designators, copper and layers.
- Pricing
Per-project pricing: the three credit packs the checkout sells, what each order includes, and how larger archives are quoted.
The migration, by file type.
The canonical migration guide and its format pages — boards, schematics and libraries — plus the free scan that returns evidence about your own project. At launch the migration service accepts one Altium .PcbDoc board file — the binary form, or the ASCII text form, which is converted and checked against an independent count of your board before anything is migrated; the uploader turns away any other file before it leaves your machine. .SchDoc schematics, .PrjPcb projects and libraries are out of scope at launch (Commercial Beta Terms §3.1); their pages document what those migrations involve, not a migration you can order today.
- Altium → KiCad migration
The canonical guide: how Crosspad detects what a standard migration drops, repairs what is provable and flags the rest.
- PcbDoc → KiCad
Board files: copper fills, keepouts, layer mapping and the outline — what a migration keeps and what Crosspad verifies.
- SchDoc → KiCad
Schematic sheets: nets, buses and harnesses — converting a .SchDoc and verifying that the connectivity survived.
- Altium libraries → KiCad
Footprints, symbols and integrated libraries: the exotic pads, pad stacks and parameters a standard migration can drop.
- Migration scan
A free compatibility check of your own .PcbDoc that returns evidence before you pay.
Verified import issues, one family at a time.
Each family is documented in KiCad's public tracker, scoped to the versions it affects, and mapped to what Crosspad detects, repairs or flags.
- Migration issues index
The curated index of verified, version-scoped Altium → KiCad import failure families.
- Multi-channel designators
Channel suffixes collapsed into duplicate references that break the BOM and netlist.
- Copper fills
Dropped soldermask relief and mis-imported zone clearances, so a refill can silently disconnect copper.
- Legacy ASCII / pre-V6 PcbDoc
Why an older .PcbDoc can import as an empty board with no error; Crosspad converts the ASCII text form and names a pre-V6 board instead.
- Keepouts
A polygon cutout turned into an over-broad keepout, flooding a clean board with false DRC errors.
- 3D models
Dropped 3D bodies and STEP references, and how every model reference in the source is accounted for.
One object class at a time.
The technical pages: what a standard migration does to a specific class of design data, and how Crosspad accounts for it.
- Copper fills
A fill carries a net, layer and clearance, not just a shape — what a standard migration drops and how Crosspad restores it.
- Design rules
Rule names can survive while what they constrain is lost: clearances, net classes and high-speed intent.
- Multi-sheet schematics
Hierarchies flattened and references duplicated by a standard migration, and how they are reconstructed.
- Layer stackup
A layer role with no clean equivalent can be silently remapped; an odd layer name can drop the board outline.
For the file in front of you.
How to open Altium files without Altium, and where KiCad's native importer stands today.
- Guides index
All three guides in one place: opening a board, opening a schematic, and what KiCad's own importer does with them.
- Open a .PcbDoc without Altium
The real free options — Altium's web viewer, KiCad and independent viewers — and what to check before relying on a view.
- Open a .SchDoc without Altium
How to read a schematic sheet without a licence, in the browser or in KiCad.
- State of the KiCad Altium importer
A dated, sourced reference to what KiCad's native importer transfers and what its own docs and tracker say it drops.
Open a file in the browser.
The in-browser viewers. A guide tells you what to do; a tool does it — the two stopped sharing one heading.
- PcbDoc viewer
Open a board in your browser — parsed locally, nothing uploaded — and inventory what is inside the file.
- SchDoc viewer page
What the SchDoc viewer page covers: the schematic objects an inspector will read and flag, and how to open a .SchDoc without a licence today. In-browser parsing is built for boards only — there is no working schematic counterpart to the PcbDoc viewer yet.
How the evidence is produced, and the commitments behind it.
The method, the security and retention policy, the supported scope, the remediation policy, and how to reach us.
- Methodology
Independent source and target observation, semantic comparison, and the rule that nothing unverifiable is marked safe.
- Security, retention and deletion
The controls the application uses, how Customer Files are handled, and the retention schedule.
- Supported scope
What an order includes, the supported inputs at launch, and what is out of scope.
- Refund and remediation policy
Remediation-First: what happens if a first attempt fails, and when a refund is due.
- Support
How to reach Crosspad support, the response targets we commit to, and how remediation and escalation work.
- Contact
Talk to Crosspad about an archive, security, procurement or a specific board.
- Open-source notices
The open-source projects Crosspad builds on and the licences their components are distributed under.
Docs are read. Your project is the real test.
What gets you through Altium → KiCad is evidence about your own board.
The analysis is free.
Last updated 2026-09-05. KiCad facts on the linked pages are anchored to KiCad 10.0.6 (2026-08-29) and refreshed per release. This index is refreshed whenever a public page ships or moves.