kicad-parts-placer

https://maskset.net/kicad-parts-placer.html

• Exact batch placement of components in a layout
• Groups the components allowing them to be moved and positioned as a group, easily ensuring exact alignment
• Useful for:
  • Creating bed of nails tester
  • Positioning mechanically important parts
  • Maintaining a form factor across different designs
• Essentially the same as this Altium feature

Example Use: Pogo pin & test pad placement

The project at https://github.com/snhobbs/kicad-parts-placer/tree/master/example/example-placement shows an example use. This takes a centroid file from an existing design which is edited for input.

A schematic is drawn up with matching reference designators:

The schematic is exported to a PCB which will look like this:

Running the script on this board with this command exports the following board with the components exactly aligned ready for layout. The group can be treated as a footprint, placed where ever is useful. During layout you only have to deal with a single coordinate as the position within the group is locked.

kicad-parts-placer --pcb example-placement.kicad_pcb --config centroid-all-pos.csv --out example-placement_placed.kicad_pcb --drill_center

Uses

+ Critical component placement: Exact placement of mounting holes, sensors, connectors, etc
+ Maintaining a form factor: Use the spreadsheet representation to either start a new project of a certain form factor or to ensure no parts have moved during layout
+ Reusing a bed-of-nails: Place the board outline and test pads the exact same way between versions to ensure the same jig can be used.

Notes

• Place parts in pcb layout from a configuration table.
• Allows writing a config script which fully defines the parts
• Connections are made either by updating from a schematic or passing a netlist
• Use example of schematic to pcb placement
• All parts are grouped together, locking their relative placement
• Internal configuration is a dataframe with ref des, label/value, footprint, position x, position y. Notes fields can be added for documentation generation.
• A separate config object can be that could pull in a board outline, stackup, etc describing the board.
• Position, rotation, & ref des are available in the centroid file, that avoids requiring the source board be kicad.

Installation

PyPi

All you need to run is:

pip install kicad-parts-placer

Source

To install from source:

git clone https://github.com/snhobbs/kicad-parts-placer
cd kicad-parts-placer
pip install .

KiCAD Plugin

This is also available as a KiCAD plugin in the PCM.

References

• Manual kicad location extraction: https://tinylabs.io/openfixture-kicad-export/
• KiCAD schematic to pcb position: https://github.com/ian-ross/kicad-plugins