Kicad2gcode

This is a tool to generate gcode for a CNC 1610 from KiCad projects with the following assumptions:

You have

• a bash shell to execute this script kicad2gcode.sh
• a working installation of FlatCAM
• your KiCad projects in one directory, for example:
  • ~/kicad/project1/
  • ~/kicad/project2/
  • ~/kicad/...
• configured kicad-env-config.sh, see kicad-env-config.sh.example
• plotted and generated a gcode file from KiCad

Then you can run

./kicad2gcode.sh project1 default

so you will obtain a gcode file named all.gen.gcode within seconds, which you can send to your CNC.

Limits

• ⚠️ I added a slowstart script that slowly turns on the spindle. Directly going to 100% blows the fuse on the powersupply that was delivered with my CNC. ⚠️
• Milling is done with a 0.1mm V-shape drill bit
• Holes are drilled to -1.6mm, all with the same drill bit (TODO?)
• Cutout is done in a single pass at -1.6mm, non rectangular cutout supported

Details

Kicad Env Config

The kicad-env-config.sh is used to provide the path to FlatCAM and the base directory of your KiCad projets.

Note: only absolute paths work.

Create it from kicad-env-config.sh.

Creating intermediate Gerber files

I have Kicad configured to use millimeters and use the A4 layout in the PcbNew view:

As I was not creative enough to figure out the offset of the pcb automatically, I figured the best solution would be to move the board into the bottom left corner and remove the offset (12,198) from within the flatcam.shell script.

The you need to generate (plot) the gerber files and dill files into the directory out:

Now you can run the kicad2gcode.sh script:

This will open FlatCAM, close it after the gcode has been generated (the console responds with "Saved to:"):

Then you can open the resulting all.gen.gcode with your favorite gcode sender, in my case Candle: