Guides — open, import and verify Altium files.
You have a file you cannot open, or an import you are not sure you can trust. These three guides answer both, without asking you to buy an Altium seat: what opens the file today, what KiCad's own importer does with it, and what to check before you rely on the result.
Three questions, three answers.
Each guide is dated, and every version-scoped claim about KiCad's importer carries the issue in KiCad's own tracker that backs it.
“Someone sent me a .PcbDoc and I do not have Altium.”
How to open a .PcbDoc without AltiumThe real free options — Altium's own web viewer, KiCad's native import, independent client-side viewers and Crosspad's in-browser inspector — compared straight, plus what to check before you rely on a view.
“Same problem, but it is a schematic sheet.”
How to open a .SchDoc without AltiumRenaming the file does not open it, and you do not need a licence either. Three free ways to read a schematic sheet — in a browser, in KiCad, or in Altium's own viewer — and what each one costs you.
“KiCad imports Altium files. How far does that get me?”
State of the KiCad Altium importerA dated, sourced reference to what KiCad's native importer transfers today and what its own documentation and public tracker say it drops — the honest baseline any migration is measured against.
Opening the file and trusting the result are two problems.
A guide gets the board or the sheet on screen. Whether the design survives a move to KiCad is a different question, and it is answered by evidence about your own file — not by a viewer, and not by a page.
Guides are read. Your board is the real test.
Run the free analysis on your own .PcbDoc and read the verdict against your project, not against a guide.
The analysis is free.
Last updated 2026-09-06. KiCad facts on the linked guides are anchored to KiCad 10.0.6 (2026-08-29) and refreshed per release.