Getting Started with kicadpy

Setup

The following steps will show you how to set up kicadpy.

Clone the repository in a directory of your choice

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/polymurph/kicadpy 

Copy the absolute directory path of the newly cloned kicadpy repo.

Find the PyShell_pcbnew_startup.py file inside the Kicad application directory.

[!TIP] For Windows the PyShell_pcbnew_startup.py file is normally located under ~\AppData\Roaming\kicad\8.0. For Linux it is under~/.config/kicad/8.0/PyShell_pcbnew_startup.py.

Open it up and insert the following code snippet.

import sys
# the absolute file path to the kicadpy repo
kicadpy_dir = '~/AbsPathTo/kicadpy/'
sys.path.append(kicadpy_dir)
import kicadpy as kp
sys.path.append(kp.getProjectPath())

Replace ~/AbsPathTo/kicadpy/ with the prevoius copied absolute path to kicadpy.

This code will append the kicadpy to the system paths at startup of the Kicad Console. It creates a link sothat kicadpy is callable.

Now lets test the implementation by opening up the kicad project and opening up the layout. Inside the layout editor open the console. In the output test you should see the message Info: Kicadpy is ready to be used pop up.

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How to use

interactive Scripting inside the kicad console

TODO: explain how its done. Give some examples with pictures etc.

Creating a script for the layout

Let's say you want to create a script which places 10 vias in a circular pattern around a given center point. The following steps will show you how this can be done. This example uses the following file structure as a demonstration.

YourProjectName (root)
├── .git
└── YourKicadProjectFolder
    ├── file1.kicad_pcb
    ├── file2.sch
    ├── file3.pro
    └── file4.lib

Create a python file inside the folder YourKicadProjectFolder . In this case we name it layoutScript.py. Your folder structure should look as shown below.

YourProjectName (root)
├── .git
└── YourKicadProjectFolder
    ├── file1.kicad_pcb
    ├── file2.sch
    ├── file3.pro
    ├── file4.lib
    └── layoutScript.py
    ```

This file will contain the python script for your layout.

Open the file ```layoutScript.py``` and add the following code snippet.

```python
import kicadpy as kp

kp.via.placeCircularArray(
    0,      # centerX_mm
    0,      # centerY_mm
    10,     # radius_mm
    0.2,    # drillDiameter_mm
    0.5,    # width_mm
    0,      # startAngle_DEG
    360,    # endAngle_DEG
    1)      # n_vias

kp.layoutRefresh()

Save and close the file.

Now open up the layout and open up the console. Inside the console execute the script as followed.

exec(open(r"AbsolutePathTo\YourProjectName\YourKicadProjectFolder\layoutScript.py").read())

After execution the layout should look like this.

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