Built on KiCad and FreeCAD
This tool does no PCB or mechanical engineering of its own. KiCad and FreeCAD do the actual work. What this app contributes is a layer above them — reading datasheets, holding a library, connecting the two programs — and that is only worth anything because both are excellent and both are open.
If you find this app useful, the projects worth supporting are KiCad and FreeCAD.
Not affiliated
Section titled “Not affiliated”KiCad and FreeCAD are trademarks of their respective owners. This project is independent — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by either. It is not a plugin, not a fork, and not a distribution of either program. It bundles neither; you install them yourself.
How it talks to KiCad
Section titled “How it talks to KiCad”Over KiCad’s own IPC API, the Protocol Buffer interface that became stable in KiCad 9. That is why 9 is the minimum. The app connects to a running KiCad instance as a client, the same way any other API consumer would.
You have to switch that API on — it is off by default. Preferences → Plugins → Enable KiCad API.
What that connection is used for:
- Reading the footprint libraries configured on your machine, including the ~150 that ship inside KiCad itself
- Reading a board’s outline and mounting holes
- Injecting a footprint into an open board, as a real transaction that either commits or rolls back, and only after you confirm
Separately, the app shells out to kicad-cli, the command-line tool inside
your KiCad installation, for ERC and DRC and for exporting board geometry. Live
IPC has no ERC/DRC call at all — confirmed by reading the API definitions, not
assumed — so the CLI is the real path.
One real limitation
Section titled “One real limitation”KiCad’s live API can resolve the path of an open board, but has no equivalent for an open schematic — the call simply is not implemented. So DRC can target whatever board you have open, while ERC needs you to pick the schematic file yourself. That is a genuine upstream gap, not a shortcut here.
How it talks to FreeCAD
Section titled “How it talks to FreeCAD”Headlessly, via freecadcmd, for one job: generating a parametric enclosure.
The app writes a script, FreeCAD executes it without a GUI, and the result comes
back as STEP and GLB for the in-app 3D preview.
FreeCAD 0.20 or newer, and it is only needed for enclosures. Everything else works without it.
What the app never does
Section titled “What the app never does”It does not modify KiCad’s or FreeCAD’s installations, alter their libraries, install plugins into them, or change their configuration. It reads what is there, and — for the one confirmed write path — asks KiCad to make a change through KiCad’s own transaction API.
If you uninstall this app, both are exactly as they were.
Licences
Section titled “Licences”Component data obtained through this app stays under its own licence, and KiCad library terms are not this app’s terms. See Attribution and licences — particularly if you plan to publish a design that uses imported community footprints.