KiCadRoutingTools — what's new (March–May 2026)

[drandyhaas]

A round of fixes, GUI usability work, and a major upgrade to plane creation. Highlights below; full history in git log.

Compatibility

• KiCad 10 PCB file format is now supported (fixes Kicad 10 support request #12). The plugin installer also knows about KiCad 10.
• build_router.py no longer crashes if invoked by Python 2 (fixes a startup edge case).
• Most plugin data now comes from the live pcbnew board rather than re-parsing the .kicad_pcb file, so unsaved work is visible to the router.

Routing correctness & geometry

• Edge.Cuts handling: tracks and vias respect arcs (gr_arc), non-rectangular outlines, and interior cutouts. Arcs are linearised into polylines for accurate clearance.
• Fixed a 'dict' object has no attribute 'layers' crash on multi-pad power nets (fixes dict has no layers #15).
• Multi-point net warning on same-layer connections is now suppressed when it isn't actionable; clearer message when it is.
• Misc. routing improvements: better connectivity fixing near stubs, faster route_planes.py and route_disconnected_planes.py.

Planes tab — major upgrade

• Auto-fill new zones via pcbnew.ZONE_FILLER so created planes appear as solid copper immediately, not unfilled outlines.
• Zones look up the net by name (board.FindNet), avoiding net-code drift between the parser and the live board.
• Skip-existing-zones mode (GUI default): a same-net same-layer zone is preserved and only stitching vias are added. Other-net zones on the same layer coexist instead of erroring out.
• No more degenerate planes: fixed a bug where polygon/arc/circle Edge.Cuts produced (0,0,0,0) board bounds and an invisible zero-area zone.
• Skip pads already on the plane net: a layer-aware BFS over existing tracks/vias/through-hole pads demotes pads that already reach the plane layer to already_connected so they don't get redundant stitching vias.
• Same-net pad clearance / via-in-pad option: by default the GUI keeps vias outside same-net pads with clearance mm spacing; a checkbox restores legacy via-in-pad placement. CLI gets a matching --same-net-pad-clearance flag.

Route tab → Planes shortcut

• When GND or VCC are selected for routing and don't yet have a plane, the Route tab now offers a Yes/No dialog suggesting plane creation first. Yes navigates to the Planes tab with GND → B.Cu / VCC → F.Cu pre-filled. Per-session
  dismissal.

Connectivity cache

• After a Planes (or other tab) operation completes, the connectivity cache is now invalidated for the affected nets and zones are re-synced from the live board. "Hide connected" updates immediately, instead of waiting for a GUI restart.

Failure diagnostics across every tab

When routes or fanouts fail, the completion dialog now appends a "Suggested adjustments before retrying:" block. Suggestions are heuristic — they inspect the parameter values you ran with and flag the ones most likely to be too aggressive,
ordered by likely impact.

• Route: Max Rip-up, Track Width, Clearance, Max Iterations, Heuristic Weight, layer count, Via Size.
• Planes: Rip-blocker-nets toggle, Clearance, Via Size/Drill, Hole-to-Hole, Max Search Radius.
• Differential: Diff Pair Width/Gap, Clearance, Max Rip-up/Iterations, Min Turning Radius.
• BGA fanout: Track Width, Clearance, Via Size/Drill, Exit Margin (driven by failed_nets now returned from generate_bga_fanout).
• QFN fanout: Extension, Track Width (driven by endpoint-collision tracking now returned from generate_qfn_fanout).

GUI usability

• Planes tab: Net→Layer Assignments list capped at 3 rows; create/repair options moved into a scrollable subpanel so they stay reachable on short windows.
• New /plan-pcb-routing and /find-high-speed-nets Claude Code skills for board-level planning workflows.

Versions

• VERSION mirrors the Rust crate's major.minor
• Patch is bumped for Python-only changes
• We're currently at 0.15.3.1.