Auto generate exports (schematics, gerbers, plots) for any KiCAD5 project. You could run it locally or on every git push with Github Actions.

usage of kicad-exports with Github Actions

name: example

on:
  push:
    paths:
    - '**.sch'
    - '**.kicad_pcb'
  pull_request:
    paths:
      - '**.sch'
      - '**.kicad_pcb'

  jobs:
    example:
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - uses: nerdyscout/kicad-exports@v2.1
        with:
        # Required - kibot config file
          config: docs.kibot.yaml
        # optional - prefix to output defined in config
          dir: docs
        # optional - schematic file
          schema: '*.sch'
        # optional - PCB design file
          board: '*.kicad_pcb'
      - name: upload results
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
        with:
          name: docs
          path: docs

The predefined configs do run a ERC and DRC in advance, if these checks fail no exports will be generated. You could write your own config file and define filters to ignore these errors therefore forcing to export the data. In this case be careful not to end up with some faulty PCB.

predefined configs

• bom.kibot.yaml generates interactive BoM, kibom.xlsx and kibom.csv in folder docs/bom/
• docs.kibot.yaml plots the PCB with user layers and schematics as *.pdf and *.svg in folder docs/
• fabrications.kibot.yaml generates all gerber data, bom.csv with all components and position.csv, used for Pick and Place maschienes, in folder gerbers/
• model.kibot.yaml does generate 3D step file in folder cad/
• plot.kibot.yaml runs pcbdraw to generate plots of bottom and top of the PCB into docs/img/
• report.kibot.yaml just runs DRC and ERC

use kicad-exports local

Installation

You need to have Docker installed.

git clone --recursive https://github.com/nerdyscout/kicad-exports /some/where/kicad-exports
cd /some/where/kicad-exports
make && make install

run

go to your KiCad project folder and run kicad-exports

cd /my/kicad/example-project
kicad-exports -d $DIR_OUT -e $SCHEMA -b $BOARD -c $CONFIG 

⚠️ running any command your git repository will be modified using kicad-git-filters.

run with predefined example config

kicad-exports -c docs.kibot.yaml 

run with own config

place config file in directory of your kicad project and use relative path.

kicad-exports -c myconfig.kibot.yaml -v -s all

running localy enables additional paramaters

• -v, --verbose is useful while developing own config files
• -s, --skip $arg skips preflight from given config file

Credits

• KiBot
• KiBoM
• IBoM
• kicad-automation-scripts
• PcbDraw
• kicad-git-filters