KiCad Android 10.99aq

3D models and library updates for Android and Googlebook OS, from a new Library Files page in the setup wizard.

Libraries

• Library Files is a new page in the setup wizard. It appears once at the next start, and any time from Preferences > Run Setup Wizard:
  • Download the 3D models from KiCad's library repositories on GitLab (663 MB download, 3.2 GB installed). They are not part of the app. Boards then show their parts in the 3D viewer.
  • Update the symbol and footprint libraries and templates to the newest release of the series the app carries (10.0.x). If yours is the newest already, nothing is downloaded.
  • Install libraries from archive files: zip or tar.gz archives of KiCad's library repositories, or of a desktop KiCad's symbols, footprints, 3dmodels and template folders.
• Downloads unpack beside the installed libraries and replace them only when complete, so a failed or cancelled download leaves them as they were.

Setup wizard

• Preferences > Run Setup Wizard opens the wizard again, with the pages that can be changed later: Library Files, and Updates & Privacy with your current choices. Cancel changes nothing.
• Internet downloads (the libraries, update checks, the Plugin and Content Manager) work on Android: they failed certificate checks before.

Known issues

• Preferences > Configure Paths can't be edited on Android yet.
• While a raytraced render is running, the parts not rendered yet are black.
• Other apps' file pickers may not list a file KiCad has just written until Android indexes it.

KiCad Android 10.99ap

Raytracing and STEP export work on Android and Googlebook OS, checked against SolidCraft.

3D

• Raytracing in the 3D viewer (the toolbar's raytrace button) crashed KiCad. It now renders, re-renders when you turn the board, and File > Export Image saves the raytraced view.

Export

• File > Export > STEP/GLB/BREP/XAO/PLY/STL failed with "Process failed with exit code -1": it started a separate kicad-cli program, which Android apps can't do. The export now runs inside KiCad, and includes unsaved changes.
• Checked with a board exported to STEP and imported into SolidCraft: 95.00 × 65.00 mm outline, 1.51 mm board body, mounting holes and corner radii as in KiCad.

Dialogs

• Footprint Properties and other tall dialogs could reach under the taskbar and hide their OK and Cancel buttons. They now fit above it.

Known issues

• While a raytraced render is running, the parts not rendered yet are black.
• The 3D models aren't bundled, so a STEP export holds the board without its components unless you install the models.
• Other apps' file pickers may not list a file KiCad has just written until Android indexes it.
• Copy 3D Image to Clipboard does nothing: Android's clipboard doesn't take images.

KiCad Android 10.99ao

UI fixes for Android and Googlebook OS: hotkey names in full, tappable launcher names, and roomier panels.

Fixes

• Preferences > Hotkeys: names and keys were cut short in the middle ("Move B...rd Down", "D...n" for "Down") even in wide columns. They now show in full. The same fix applies to every list of this kind.
• Project manager: tapping a launcher's name or description now opens it, not just its icon.
• Select Copper Layer Pair: the presets list has room for a few rows instead of just its header.
• Drawing Sheet Editor: the Properties panel is wide enough to read the names and values.

Known issues

• On some setups the Drawing Sheet Editor's page stays black until you first touch it.
• kicad_screenshot (MCP) doesn't draw the dialog frames; the screen itself has them.
• Dialogs can't be resized from their edges yet.
• The BACK key sends the app to the background from the 3D viewer.
• The soft keyboard can cover the field you are typing in.

KiCad Android 10.99an

KiCad Android is now for Android and Googlebook OS. Dialogs get a frame and a title bar you can drag.

Android and Googlebook OS

• The same APK is meant for Android tablets, foldables and phones, and for Googlebook OS laptops, which run Android apps. It needs arm64 and Android 10 or newer.
• It has not been tried on a Googlebook yet. If you have one, please report how it goes.
• A new README picture shows the app on a laptop and on a tablet.

Dialogs

• Every KiCad dialog has a frame and a title bar with its title and a close button (message boxes keep Android's own look). Before, dialogs were bare rectangles, and on the dark theme their edges were hard to see.
• Drag the title bar to move a dialog, with a finger or the mouse. The title bar stays below the status bar and on the screen, so you can always grab it again.
• The × closes the dialog, the same as Escape or Cancel.
• Dialogs stay between the status bar and the navigation bar or taskbar. Tall dialogs, such as Plot and Symbol Properties, opened partly under the status bar, with their buttons cut off at the bottom. They are now made to fit.

Fixes

• Calculator: the dot in "Ω·m" showed as an empty box.
• First start: the KiCad Setup wizard had no title bar.

Known issues

• kicad_screenshot (MCP) doesn't draw the dialog frames; the screen itself has them.
• Dialogs can't be resized from their edges yet.
• The BACK key sends the app to the background from the 3D viewer.
• The presets list in Select Layer Pair is squashed.
• In Preferences > Hotkeys some names are cut short in the middle ("Move B...rd Down").

KiCad Android 10.99am

Two crashes fixed, and a round of fixes from a crash hunt on the tablet: keys in dialogs, the calculator and Gerber Viewer launchers, the 3D viewer after switching apps.

Crashes

• Context menu submenus: hovering over a submenu with a mouse or pen could crash KiCad (seen in the schematic editor). Fixed in Qt's Android plugin.
• Trees: a selection change in a tree whose items had just been rebuilt could crash KiCad. Fixed in wxWidgets.

Keyboard

• Escape closes every dialog. It did nothing in dialogs that are mostly a grid, such as Swap Layers and Select Layer Pair.
• Escape and the BACK key work in message boxes. In "Save Changes?" and the like they did nothing; now they act as Cancel (or as No, or as the only button).
• Escape cancels an edit in the Properties panel, as on desktop.

Tools

• Calculator Tools, the Gerber Viewer and the Drawing Sheet Editor open from the project manager and from the editors' Tools menu. They reported "Command could not be found".
  • The calculator fills the window.
  • File > Close works in the Gerber Viewer.
• Footprint chooser (Add Footprint in the board editor): it fills the window instead of sitting in the top-left corner over the menu bar, you can type in the filter box straight away, and hotkeys work again after it closes (Escape did not leave the Place Footprints tool).
• 3D viewer: after switching to another app and back, the board was see-through and showed the board editor behind it. Fixed.

Fixes

• Text: symbols such as Ω and µ in KiCad's own labels showed as garbage ("kâ¦" for "kΩ" in the calculator).
• Project Files tree: the icons no longer overlap the file names.
• Dialogs: resizable dialogs no longer show a stray mark near their top-left corner.
• MCP: kicad_open_editor opened the board editor for any name it didn't know. It now returns an error unless the editor is pcb or schematic.

Known issues

• Dialogs have no frame or title bar, so on the dark theme their edges are hard to see. Next on the list.
• The BACK key sends the app to the background from the 3D viewer.
• The presets list in Select Layer Pair is squashed.
• In the calculator the dot in "Ω⋅m" shows as an empty box.

KiCad Android 10.99al

The Autoroute tool can dock at the left of the board editor, and it now has a manual.

Autoroute manual: every tab and option, with screenshots, recipes (fine-pitch processor, a bus between two parts, 4-layer planes, tidying hand routing) and the MCP tools.

Docking

• Dock to Side puts the tool in the panel column at the left, the full height of the window.
  • It takes the Properties panel's place while it's shown, so the board keeps its width.
  • Undock turns it back into a dialog. The tool remembers which you used.
• The board stays locked while a run is active and until you keep or discard it.
  • Docked: the menus, toolbars and other panels are greyed out, and taps and keys on the board are ignored. You still see the routes arrive.
  • KiCad's API and the MCP board tools answer "busy", and the board editor can't be closed mid-run.

Fixes

• Crash: switching projects with the Autoroute tool still open on a result crashed KiCad. Fixed, and project switches now wait for open dialogs.
• Progress counter: it stuck once KiCadRoutingTools started ripping up nets. It now follows the router.
• Router output: it stopped updating after 400 lines; it now keeps scrolling.
• Freerouting Optimize: it skipped the optimizer on any board with unrouted connections, so optimize-only runs did nothing. It now works on what is routed.
• Layout:
  • Text wraps properly in the tool.
  • The Settings tab scrolls when docked.
  • The dialog sizes to its content.
• Screenshots: kicad_screenshot draws message boxes where Android shows them (centred).
• Three bugs reported in 10.99aj (the Reload button, stale DRC after a reload, DRC counting as an edit) could not be reproduced in 10.99ak and later.

Known issues

• kicad_screenshot can show the docked tool and the toolbars as they were before a run; the screen itself is right.
• On 2-layer boards KiCadRoutingTools uses more vias than Freerouting, and tracks can block the ground pour's thermal spokes ("starved thermal" in DRC).

KiCad Android 10.99ak

Route > Autoroute is now a full autorouting tool, with a second, much stronger router.

Two routers

• KiCadRoutingTools (new, the default): Andy Haas's grid router with rip-up and reroute, fan-out of fine-pitch parts, bus routing and plane connections. It runs on the tablet in a process of its own, with Python 3.14, numpy, scipy and shapely bundled.
• Freerouting, as before, now with pause and with routing or optimizing only the nets you choose.

On the RP2350A board (2 layers, 0.4 mm QFN-60), judged by KiCad's DRC with the board's own rules:

	Connections left	DRC errors added
Freerouting	86 of 162	11
KiCadRoutingTools, fan-out first	31 of 162	0
KiCadRoutingTools, 4 layers with GND/3V3 planes	20 of 168	0

The tool

• Route:
  • every unrouted net, or the nets you pick (a filterable list, or the board selection);
  • as a bus, side by side;
  • only between two or more parts (new: e.g. the GPIO lines between the MCU and the display, leaving the header for later);
  • on chosen layers;
  • pouring the planes and fanning out the parts first.
• Fan Out: escape tracks for dense parts. "Choose Fine-Pitch Parts" picks everything at 0.5 mm pitch or below.
• Planes: copper zones over the whole board (e.g. GND on In1.Cu, 3V3 on In2.Cu).
• Optimize: improve routed nets, hand-routed ones included, with either router.
• Settings:
  • how far below the net class sizes the router may go (exactly, board minimums, fab minimums);
  • routing grid, via cost, optimizer passes;
  • whether a run on chosen nets may move other nets' tracks (off by default).
• While it runs, the board is locked, so nothing gets drawn underneath the router. You see:
  • the steps;
  • the net being routed;
  • progress and the router's output;
  • Pause/Resume and Stop buttons.
• At the end it lists the nets still unrouted (tap one to zoom to it). The whole run is one undo step: Keep, Discard, or New Run on top of it.
• MCP: pcb_autoroute takes the same options. pcb_autoroute_status and pcb_autoroute_control (pause, resume, stop, keep, discard) follow and end the run, which shows on the tablet.

Notes

• The first run after installing unpacks the router (about 150 MB) and takes about a minute. The APK is about 60 MB bigger.
• A full route of a dense board takes minutes on the tablet (the RP2350A board: 11 minutes). Routing a few chosen nets takes seconds.
• Known issue: the run view is wide and covers part of the board.

KiCad Android 10.99aj

KiCad master (10.99) for Android tablets and foldables, build 10.99aj. This is a development build.

Install: download KiCad-Android-10.99aj.apk, then allow installs from your browser or file manager. It needs an arm64 device running Android 10 or newer. On first start, grant All files access.

Fixed

• 3D viewer: opening it a second time showed a black view until the app was restarted. Each opening now gets its own GL state.
• Schematic and board look smoother: at High Quality antialiasing, edges were cut hard in the 2x supersampled picture. Thin text on high-density screens looked grainy as a result. Edges now get smooth coverage, and straight lines stay sharp.
• Files changed by another app: an open schematic or board now reloads by itself when its file changes on disk. If you have unsaved edits, it asks first.

For AI agents (MCP)

• Simpler kicad_api calls: the open project and document are filled in when a request leaves them out. Schematic commands such as GetSchematicNetlist, SaveDocumentToString and RevertDocument work without arguments. When a command can't run, the error now says what's missing.
• kicad_screenshot: returns a picture of what KiCad shows, including the canvas and any open dialog, so an agent can check its work.
• kicad_open_project: opens another project.
• RunBoardJobExportRender: no longer renders black when the request leaves out the lights.

Known issues

• Library list when exporting: the list dialog has no title bar.
• Preferences > Configure Paths: the path grid can't be edited. For KiCad's own 3D models, set a project text variable KICAD10_3DMODEL_DIR instead (see the README).
• Dialog layout: some dialogs sit partly under the status bar at tablet scales.
• Undo button: it can stay greyed out after edits made over MCP.

The source for this APK is this repository at tag android-10.99aj, together with the upstream revisions in SOURCES.md.

This is not an official KiCad release and is not affiliated with the KiCad project.

KiCad Android 10.99ai: DRC rule editor crash fixed

KiCad master (10.99) for Android tablets and foldables, build 10.99ai. This is a development build.

Install: download KiCad-Android-10.99ai.apk, then allow installs from your browser or file manager. It needs an arm64 device running Android 10 or newer. On first start, grant All files access.

Fix

• Tools > DRC Rule Editor crashed KiCad when a rule or category was dragged in its rule tree. A drag can also happen by accident, from a tap that moves a little. The cause was a bug in wxWidgets' Qt port, where moving data between tree items freed it (wx patch 0026). Other tree views that move items are fixed too.

Also in this build

Everything from 10.99ah, including File > Import Library Package / Export Library Package for parts from SnapEDA and other sites.

Known issues

• Library list when exporting: the list dialog has no title bar.
• Preferences > Configure Paths: the path grid can't be edited and the dialog can hang. For KiCad's own 3D models, use a project text variable (see the README).
• First start: the window can open at the wrong size after the welcome wizard. Restarting the app fixes it.
• Dialog layout: some dialogs sit partly under the status bar at tablet scales.

The source for this APK is this repository at tag android-10.99ai, together with the upstream revisions in SOURCES.md.

This is not an official KiCad release and is not affiliated with the KiCad project.

KiCad Android 10.99ah: parts from SnapEDA and other sites

KiCad master (10.99) for Android tablets and foldables, build 10.99ah. This is a development build.

Install: download KiCad-Android-10.99ah.apk, then allow installs from your browser or file manager. It needs an arm64 device running Android 10 or newer. On first start, grant All files access.

New: parts from SnapEDA and other sites in one step

In the project manager:

• File > Import Library Package... Download a part's KiCad zip in the browser (SnapEDA, Ultra Librarian, SamacSys / Component Search Engine, Digi-Key, Mouser and others), then pick it from Downloads. Choose All Projects or This Project; for This Project the files are copied into the project folder, so they travel with it.
  • The symbol, footprint and 3D model are ready to place straight away.
  • The footprint's 3D model path is fixed. It usually points into the part author's own computer.
  • The symbol's footprint field points at the imported footprint.
  • Importing the same zip again updates the part.
• File > Export Library Package... saves a symbol library, the footprints its symbols use and their 3D models as one zip. You can import it on another device or into desktop KiCad. KiCad's own libraries can be exported too.
• MCP tools: both are also available to MCP clients as kicad_import_library_package and kicad_export_library_package.

Tested on the tablet with SnapEDA's ESP32-S31-WROOM-1-N16R16V: the symbol (61 pins), footprint (69 pads) and STEP model all work. See the README for a GIF of the import.

Known issues

• Library list when exporting: the list dialog has no title bar.
• Preferences > Configure Paths: the path grid can't be edited and the dialog can hang. For KiCad's own 3D models, set a project text variable KICAD10_3DMODEL_DIR instead (see the README).
• First start: the window can open at the wrong size after the welcome wizard. Restarting the app fixes it.
• Dialog layout: some dialogs sit partly under the status bar at tablet scales.

The source for this APK is this repository at tag android-10.99ah, together with the upstream revisions in SOURCES.md.

This is not an official KiCad release and is not affiliated with the KiCad project.