kicadScripts
A collection of scripts to automate PCB rendering and exporting gerbers.
Work inspired form the following projects:
*I found PcbDraw after I started writting my own tool to do the same function. (I couldn't get lxml to install on windows.)
Usage
Create Pretty PNGs
python plot_board.py <PathToYourAwesomeProject.kicad_pcb>
Create a GerberZip
python plot_gerbers.py <PathToYourAwesomeProject.kicad_pcb>
Files are placed within a plot directory in the folder of the .kicad_pcb file
Features
plot_board.py
- Uses Kicad python bindings to render board layers as SVG
- Recolours SVGs
- Stacks SVGs with user defined colour/opacity
- Creates a drill layer
- Mirrors the backside of the PCB.
- Render to PNG with Inkscape CLI
- Supports multiple colours! (edit colour definition at top of file)
plot_gerbers.py
- creates all the gerber/drill files.
- Renames with Protel Extensions
gtl,gts,gto,gml... - Puts all files into a single zip
- Renames Zip:
<Project><Date>_<Time>.zipfor easy tracking of versions.
Examples
Improvements
- Generally Cleanup/Improve code
- Plot front and back Images next to each other on the same image.
- Correctly plot SolderMask ONLY over PCB. (currently masked by board outline bounding box.)
- Generate a bare board layer to better render areas without soldermask
- Add more commandline options. (colour choices, output DPI, )