I have used Kicad in many projects. Schematic capture is very good. For PCB kicad with freerouting.net is good combination. But now I am doing a complex design which will have 6+ layers with BGAs+DDR2. I am using kicad, please let me know if some one has done design of similar complexity with any open source EDA tool. Also I would like to know of major limitations, which might require special attention.
you might know some/all of it. for any tool, we prefer following:
(i) Confirm the footprints. Not many are available easily and we usually prefer 2 independent checks for the footprints (ii) Also with DDR2, if you intended to exceed 300MHz while it is OK to not do a High Speed analysis for short length traces it is preferable if you are deviating from any of the specified datasheet methods. Length matching is again something which is not very well supported if you have very many data lines.
The placement for DDR2 terminations is critical. placing 0603 and 4 mil traces is something I find challenging in even commercial tools. it is a mix of tool handling and experience.
-Akshay
Thanks And Regards Balwinder Singh