OpenPCB

OpenPCB is focused on open-source automated circuit board generation from user specification to Gerber/KiCad files with fully open-sourced tools. It provides a framework for generating physical hardware layouts directly from Python code, replacing manual placement and routing with algorithmic synthesis.

Quick Phase 1 setup

1. Install KiCad (recommended 7 or 8). On macOS you can use the official installer from https://kicad.org or Homebrew:

brew install --cask kicad

2. Install SKiDL (optional for later phases):

pip3 install skidl

3. Run the Phase 1 script (it will try to use pcbnew if available; otherwise it writes a fallback hello.kicad_pcb using local footprints):

PYTHONPATH=$PWD python3 scripts/phase1_hello.py

4. Open hello.kicad_pcb in KiCad (File -> Open) to confirm the two footprints are present.

If you don't have KiCad installed yet, the script will still produce hello.kicad_pcb from the local footprint files in data/footprints/ so you can inspect the result after installing KiCad.

Tutorial: LED Flashlight (SKiDL → OpenPCB)

Quick steps to try the end-to-end demo locally:

1. Install SKiDL (system Python):

pip install skidl

2. Generate netlist (system Python):

python3 skidl/led_flashlight.py
# -> writes led_flashlight.net

3. Run the importer with KiCad's Python so pcbnew is available:

PYTHONPATH=$PWD kicadpy scripts/import_netlist.py led_flashlight.net
# -> writes led_flashlight.kicad_pcb

4. Open led_flashlight.kicad_pcb in KiCad and verify the Battery, R1 and D1 placements.

Notes:

• The importer provided here is intentionally minimal for the tutorial and expects the three parts B1, R1 and D1. We'll generalize this in Phase 2.
• If your SKiDL libraries use different symbol names, adjust skidl/led_flashlight.py accordingly.