KiBot (formerly KiPlot)

This is the documentation for KiBot v1.8.3 for the current development read here

Important for CI/CD:

• The GitHub actions now use the full/test docker images. So now they include PanDoc and also Blender.

• If you are looking for the GitHub Actions documentation, and you already know how to use KiBot, or want a quick start, read: Usage for CI/CD

New on v1.8.3

• New Preliminary KiCad 9 support

• New outputs: ODB (ODB++), IPC2581 (IPC-2581 aka IPC-DPMX), export_3d (BREP, GLB, STL, STEP and XAO) and jobset

• Support to use the options from the KiCad internal BoM.

• New preflights: consolidate_pcbs and check_fields

• New global variable: work_layer

• Suport for OrcadPCB2, Allegro, CADSTAR, PADS, KiCad XML, Spice and Spice netlist formats

Contents:

• Introduction
• Installation
  • Installation using docker
    • A more elaborated script for docker images on Linux
  • Installation on Ubuntu or Debian
    • About Blender on Debian systems
  • Installation on Arch Linux
  • Installation using pip
  • Notes about virtualenv
  • Installation on other targets
  • Dependencies
• Configuration
  • Quick start
  • Section order
  • The header
  • The outputs section
    • Specifying the layers
    • Supported outputs
    • Consolidating BoMs
    • Using KiCad’s internal BoM options
    • Columns available for the BoM
    • Using other output as base for a new one
    • Grouping outputs
    • Adding images from an output to the PCB print
    • Creating a group in your PCB
  • The preflight section
    • Supported preflights
    • Supported deprecated preflights
    • More about pcb_replace and sch_replace
    • Filtering DRC and ERC errors
  • Default global options
    • Default output option
    • Default dir option
    • Default variant option
    • Default units option
    • Output directory option
    • Date format option
    • PCB details options
    • Filtering KiBot warnings
    • All available global options
  • Filters and variants
    • Supported filters
    • Examples for filters
    • Built-in filters
    • Supported variants
    • Changing the 3D model, simple mechanism
    • Changing the 3D model, complex mechanism
    • DNF and DNC internal keys
  • Import (include) from other config file
    • Importing outputs from another file
    • Importing other stuff from another file
    • Parameterizable imports
    • Importing internal templates
  • Doing YAML substitution or preprocessing
    • Default definitions
    • Definitions during import
    • Recursive definitions expansion
• Usage
  • Command line help
  • Supported error levels
• Usage for CI/CD
  • GitHub workflows
  • Usage of GitHub Actions
    • GitHub Actions tags
  • GitHub Cache

Notes and extra information:

• Notes about Gerber format
• Notes about the position file
  • Simple pick and place rotation correction
  • Fixing offsets in position files
  • Understanding the rotations problem
  • Fine grained rotation and/or offset adjusts
    • Using the configuration file
    • Using the schematic
  • Including through-hole components
  • Including fiducials and similar stuff
  • XYRS files
  • Internal list of rotations
  • Internal list of offsets
• Notes about 3D models
  • 3D models and docker images
  • Caching downloaded 3D models
  • Self contained projects
  • LCSC/JLCPCB/EasyEDA 3D models
  • 3D models aliases
  • How to handle addons
  • Getting a self contained PCB
• Proposed advanced KiCad usage
  • One circuit and more than one PCB implementation
  • System with more than one PCB
• KiPlot YAML
  • The basic idea
  • Basic data types
  • Compound data types
  • Indentation
  • Compact notation
  • Putting all together
  • Advanced tricks
  • KiBot specific data types
    • string_dict
• Changelog
  • [1.8.3] - 2025-03-18
    • Added
    • Fixed
    • Changed
  • [1.8.2] - 2024-10-28
    • Added
    • Fixed
    • Changed
  • [1.8.1] - 2024-09-25
    • Fixed
  • [1.8.0] - 2024-09-17
    • Added
    • Fixed:
    • Changed:
  • [1.7.0] - 2024-04-23
    • Added
    • Fixed
    • Changed
  • [1.6.5] - 2024-03-31
    • Added
    • Changed
    • Fixed
  • [1.6.4] - 2024-02-02
    • Added
    • Changed
    • Fixed
  • [1.6.3] - 2023-06-26
    • Added
    • Changed
    • Fixed
  • [1.6.2] - 2023-04-24
    • Added
    • Fixed
    • Changed:
  • [1.6.1] - 2023-03-16
    • Added
    • Fixed
  • [1.6.0] - 2023-02-06
    • Added
  • [1.5.1] - 2022-12-16
    • Fixed
  • [1.5.0] - 2022-12-16
    • Added
    • Changed
    • Fixed
  • [1.4.0] - 2022-10-12
    • Added
    • Fixed
    • Changed
  • [1.3.0] - 2022-09-08
    • Added
    • Fixed
    • Changed
  • [1.2.0] - 2022-06-15
    • Added
    • Fixed
    • Changed
  • [1.1.0] - 2022-05-24
    • Added
    • Fixed
  • [1.0.0] - 2022-05-10
    • Added
    • Changed
    • Fixed
  • [0.11.0] - 2021-04-25
    • Added
    • Changed
    • Fixed
  • [0.10.1] - 2021-02-22
    • Added
  • [0.10.0-4] - 2021-02-16
    • Fixed
  • [0.10.0-3] - 2021-02-16
    • Fixed
  • [0.10.0-2] - 2021-02-12
    • Fixed
  • [0.10.0] - 2021-02-12
    • Added
    • Changed
    • Fixed
  • [0.9.0] - 2021-01-04
    • Added
    • Changed
    • Fixed
  • [0.8.1] - 2020-12-09
    • Added
    • Fixed
  • [0.8.0] - 2020-11-06
    • Added
    • Fixed
  • [0.7.0] - 2020-09-11
    • Added
    • Fixed
  • [0.6.2] - 2020-08-25
    • Changed
    • Fixed
  • [0.6.1] - 2020-08-20
    • Added
    • Changed
    • Fixed
  • [0.6.0] - 2020-08-18
    • Added
    • Changed
  • [0.5.0] - 2020-07-11
    • Changed
    • Added
    • Fixed
  • [0.4.0] - 2020-06-17
    • Added
  • [0.3.0] - 2020-06-14
    • Added
    • Changed
    • Fixed
  • [0.2.5] - 2020-06-11
    • Added
    • Fixed
  • [0.2.4] - 2020-05-19
    • Changed
    • Fixed
  • [0.2.3] - 2020-04-23
    • Added
  • [0.2.2] - 2020-04-20
    • Fixed
  • [0.2.1] - 2020-04-18
    • Fixed
  • [0.2.0] - 2020-03-28
    • Added
    • Fixed
  • [0.1.1] - 2020-03-13
    • Added

Final notes:

• Contributing
• Credits

Indices and tables:

• Index