KiCad Template

KiCad 8 project template with document export automation

For KiCad Version: 8.99.0-77eaa75db1, release build

Browse the files on KiCanvas - by Stargirl Flowers

Directory Structure

directory	content
source	KiCad project directories
production	fabrication files (Gerber, BOM, placement)
exports	schematic and layout plots, board 3D model and renderings
datasheets	component datasheets
assets	board setups, component 3D models, logos
scripts	BOM export plugins, miscellaneous helper scripts for file conversion
hooks	git hooks, for example for automatic documentation export

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Usage

TL;DR

Click to create a new repository and clone it to your machine.

Customizing the Template (optional)

If your project consists of multiple designs, which all should adhere to the same design rules, you can modify the template first, before creating projects based on it. You can read more about this in the Customizing the Project section, since the template is essentially also just a project.

Afterwards commit the changes to your template.

git add source/template/
git commit -m "customized template"

Creating a Project

Enter the repository, copy the template, rename the source files and change the project name in the files.

PROJECT_NAME="my-cool-project"

cp --recursive source/template/ source/"${PROJECT_NAME}"/
rename "template" "${PROJECT_NAME}" source/"${PROJECT_NAME}"/*
sed -i -e "s/template/${PROJECT_NAME}/g" source/"${PROJECT_NAME}"/"${PROJECT_NAME}".* Makefile

Customizing the Project (optional)

Start KiCad and open the project you just created.

The template makes use of Text Variables. You can edit these in the Schematic or PCB Editor. Go to File > Schematic Setup > Project > Text Variables or File > Board Setup > Text & Graphics > Text Variables respectively. In there you can change properties like project ID, revision, author and company name. These then automatically get updated throughout all file and changes for example the info box in the corner of each document.

You can also import predefined board setups. In the PCB Editor go to File > Board Setup and click Import Settings from Another Board in the lower left corner. You can import from on of the board setups that are part of this repository or any other project of yours. Select which parts to import. Selecting all should be ok in most cases.

Create Initial Commit for Your Project

It's a good idea to commit all relevant changes to the project, starting with an initial commit .

git add source/${PROJECT_NAME}/
git commit -m "Initial commit for ${PROJECT_NAME}"

TL;DR

PROJECT_NAME="my-cool-project"

git clone https://github.com/cyber-murmel/kicad-template.git "${PROJECT_NAME}"
cd "${PROJECT_NAME}"

cp --recursive source/template/ source/"${PROJECT_NAME}"/
rename "template" "${PROJECT_NAME}" source/"${PROJECT_NAME}"/*
sed -i -e "s/template/${PROJECT_NAME}/g" source/"${PROJECT_NAME}"/"${PROJECT_NAME}".* Makefile

git add source/${PROJECT_NAME}/
git commit -m "Initial commit for ${PROJECT_NAME}"

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Automation

This repository contains a Makefile that automates PDF and Gerber export.

Requirements

Apart from KiCad 7 this requires some additional software.

The Makefile calls a Python script that makes use of sexptdata to parse KiCad files. Install Poetry and run poetry shell followed by poetry install in the root of this repositoryto set up a virtual environment with the required package(s). To re-enter this environment, simply run poetry shell in the root of this repository.

For PDF export you additonally need to install Poppler. Gerber export requires zip.

Nix(OS)

If you are using the Nix package manager, you can enter a development environment with KiCad and all other software by running nix-shell in the root of this repository.

Export

To export all PDFs and production files, simply run

make

PDFs and production files are exported automatically when you git commit, if you have Git Hooks set up.

Installing Git Hooks (optional)

The hooks directory contains client-side git hooks. Currently only the pre-commit hook is used to automatically export plots.

To enable the hooks locally, run the following in the root of the repository.

git config core.hooksPath ./hooks

KiCad Version

Version information of the KiCad used to generate the files.

[nix-shell:~/repos/kicad-template]$ kicad-cli version --format about
Application: kicad-cli x86_64 on x86_64

Version: 8.99.0-77eaa75db1, release build

Libraries:
	wxWidgets 3.2.4
	FreeType 2.13.2
	HarfBuzz 8.3.0
	FontConfig 2.15.0
	libcurl/8.6.0 OpenSSL/3.0.13 zlib/1.3.1 brotli/1.1.0 zstd/1.5.5 libidn2/2.3.7 libpsl/0.21.5 libssh2/1.11.0 nghttp2/1.60.0

Platform: NixOS 23.11 (Tapir), 64 bit, Little endian, wxBase, , wayland

Build Info:
	Date: Jan  1 1980 00:00:00
	wxWidgets: 3.2.4 (wchar_t,wx containers) GTK+ 0.0
	Boost: 1.81.0
	OCC: 7.6.2
	Curl: 8.6.0
	ngspice: 42
	Compiler: GCC 13.2.0 with C++ ABI 1018

Build settings:
	KICAD_USE_EGL=ON