JLC PCB Plug-in for KiCad

Features

1. Generates gerber files in correct format for production
2. Generates BOM file in correct format for production
3. Generates Pick and Place file in correct format for assembly
4. Generates IPC netlist file

Installation

Official Installation

Fabrication Toolkit is distributed with the official releases of KiCad 6+. Open the "Plugin and Content Manager" from the KiCad main menu and install the "Fabrication Toolkit" plugin from the selection list.

Manual installation

Download the latest release ZIP file. Open the "Plugin and Content Manager" from the KiCads main window and install the ZIP file via "Install from File".

Usage

Click on the Fabrication Toolkit button on the top tool box inside KiCad pcb editor (pcbnew).

Options

① Include Component Part Number in Production Files

Add an 'LCSC Part #'* field with the LCSC component part number to the symbol's fields property.

Primary Fields*:

'LCSC Part #'	'JLCPCB Part #'

The fields will be query in the order denoted above.

Fallback Fields*:

'JLC Part'	'LCSC Part'	'LCSC'	'JLC'	'MPN'	'Mpn'	'mpn'

The fields will be query in the order denoted above.

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② Ignore Footprint in Production Files

Select 'Exclude from board' or 'Exclude from BOM' in the symbol's attributes property in order to ignore the footprint from the relevant file.

Select 'Exclude from position files' or 'Exclude from BOM' in the footprint's fabrication attributes property in order to ignore the footprint from the relevant file.

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③ Offset Component Rotation

The rotation of components in KiCad Footprints does not always match the orientation in the JLC library because KiCad and JLC PCB used different variation of the same standard. Most of the rotations may be corrected by the rotations.cf definitions. To the exception cases: add an 'JLCPCB Rotation Offset' field with an counter-clockwise orientation offset in degrees to correct this.

If the JLC preview shows a footprint like this, enter a rotation offset of -90 to rotate pin 1 to the lower right corner.

Primary Fields*:

'JLCPCB Rotation Offset'

The fields will be queried in the order denoted above.

Fallback Fields*:

'JlcRotOffset'	'JLCRotOffset'

The fields will be queried in the order denoted above.

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④ Offset Component Position

The position of components in KiCad Footprints does not always match the orientation in the JLC library because KiCad and JLCPB used different variation of the same standard. To the exception cases: add an 'JLCPCB Position Offset' field with an comma seperated x,y position offset to correct it.

Primary Fields*:

'JLCPCB Position Offset'

The fields will be queried in the order denoted above.

Fallback Fields*:

'JlcPosOffset'	'JLCPosOffset'

The fields will be queried in the order denoted above.

Author

Benny Megidish