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G-Code Laser Stencil Generator for KiCAD PCBs

KiCAD Pcbnew plugin to generat laser cutter G-Code files for solder paste stencils

Screenshot

Generated G-Code files:

  • <NAME>_F_Edge.gcode: Front side stencil border (laser off): for adjusting the position of the stencil
  • <NAME>_F.gcode: Front side stencil containing border markings and footprint cuttings
  • <NAME>_B_Edge.gcode: Back side stencil border
  • <NAME>_B.gcode: Back side stencil cutting

The plugin is based on the awesome iBom plugin code.

Installation

KiCad 5.1.x

Copy the whole laser-stencil folder (including all files and sub-folders) into your KiCAD plugin directory.

  • Windows

    • %APPDATA%\kicad\scripting\plugins
    • (e.g. C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\kicad\scripting\plugins)

  • Linux

    • ~/.kicad/scripting/plugins or
    • ~/.kicad_plugins

  • MacOS

    • ~/Library/Application Support/kicad/scripting/plugins
    • or on newer versions: ~/Library/Preferences/kicad/scripting/plugins

Restart of Pcbnew.

The plugin icon should appear in the tool bar.

KiCad 6

Plugin directory canged! If you open Pcb Editor and "Tool" menu > "External Plugins" > "Open Plugin Directory", you will see where KiCad is searching for plugins. Please copy the laser-stencil folder to this dir.

For Linux, installation should be like:

git clone https://github.com/ma-ha/kicad-laser-stencil-plugin.git
cd kicad-laser-stencil-plugin
cp -r laser-stencil ~/.local/share/kicad/6.0/scripting/plugins

On Windows install works for me like this:

  • Clone or Download this repository as Zip file and extract it
  • Copy the folder laser-stencil with Ctrl-C
  • In Explorer navigate to the KiCad installation folder, e.g. C:/Program Files/KiCad/6.0
  • Navigate to share/kicad/scripting/plugins
  • Paste the laser-stencil folder into the plugins folder with Ctrl-V
  • In the PCB Editor open the "Tools" Menu, there the "External Plugins" and click "Refresh Plugins"

Config

Not all configuration parameters are in the dialog. To change these defaults, open the dialog, click "Save current settings" and edit the "stencil-config.ini" text file in the plugin folder.

These settings are available only via config file:

  • laser_x_width (defauly=0.08)
  • laser_y_width (default=0.08)
  • laser_border_speed (default=200)

To reset settings, just delete the respective config lines or the whole file.

TODO

  • support other than "rect" and "roundrect" pads
  • make "roundrect" with rounded corners, not simply rectangular
  • clean up non used code
  • test on other than Ubuntu (sorry, no Win or Mac here)

Feedback welcome

Please feel free to create a GitHub "issue" for feature requests, issues or questions.

License

MIT License, Copyright (c) 2021 ma-ha