Different kinds of PCB design software’s are available in market and according the requirement different users used different software. Like I am comfortable in designing my PCB on Eagle and my vendors who fabricate the PCB does not have Eagle than what will happen? Hence to bridge the gap between the PCB designer and manufacture we use gerber file. Gerber file contain information about the PCB like what will be the pad size, drill size, name of component etc. With the help of gerber file information obtained and manufacture feed the data into their machinery to manufacture PCB. The most common format that is used today is RS-274-X. But before using always check with the board manufacture. It is a good practise to check your layout before manufacturing because once it has been fabricated you cannot correct your mistake. Or it may happen that PCB will not be of any use this will lead to wastage of time and money both.  

For the people who are doing PCB designing, hobbyist or professionals, there are so many PCB designer softwares available. Most popular among them are diptrace, orcad, eagle, kicad etc. This tutorial is mainly for those people who haven’t tried out any professional pcb designer software yet.Here is a quick guide, which will help you to get started off with kiCAD. In this tutorial we will be considering a simple astable multivibrator circuit using 555 timer IC. We will be designing a pcb for this well known simple circuit. Let me tell you upfront that I’m not an expert in pcb designing. My intension is only to explain you the necessary steps required in kicad to convert a simple circuit diagram to a gerber file, and also some tips and things to be taken care while doing the designing.