Svg2Shenzhen - save inkscape drawing as kicad pcb

Dear GOSH people, i would like to share you svg2shenzhen inkscape extension i’ve been working on, im using it for doing pcb art, but maybe it might be useful for designing pcb with irregular shapes as well

Repo:

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Testing it…


Preparing the files in Inkscape. put stuff in the correct layer, F.Cu for the main copper. For Edge.Cuts i converted the object to path and straight lines. And for testing the drill i just added a circle, random size somewhere.

Here it is in Kicad! No more need to export png, text edit and all that crap of my old workflow!

Checking the drill size. At the moment all circles are converted to the same 0.8mm drill standard. but can be edited locally in Kicad.

then plotting the gerber file and make drill file from Kicad and checking the result in http://viewer.tracespace.io/


ok i didnt have a soldermask layer, so everything is covered (besides the drillhole). just deleted it in the viewer to look nice.

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Now testing with more layers…

The inverted SolderMask is working now!

and the output to kicad and gerber runs smootly!

Wow - awesome! I am definitely definitely definitely going to use this. And thank you so much for making it an inkscape extension, and not some closed source alternative!

Svg2Shenzhen 0.2.18, a major release now available

its been years since i post update on this forum, im happy that svg2shenzhen now widely used to create PCB art, badges, antennas, and was contacted by student in stanford that they use it to design ultra small vibrating component

  • Inkscape 1.0 support
  • Various UX enhancement from contributors
  • Automated build system (development)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/40543075

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I’m new to this so excuse me if I am missing something obvious, I am trying to convert some SVG files (designed for this purpose) to gerber, via kicad as per norm.
The problem I have is there’s no option to save a .pcb file from the drop down, I have module / project / PNG. Every guide or tutorial I see says to export to pcb and then load that into kicad. I have the latest version installed (2.18.7)

Thanks

Good morning @kelaifu
meanwhile there has been many people adapting the svg2shenzhen and a looot of video tutorial appeared on the web, but not noted in this thread.
some of them are summarized in @badgeek 's patreon:

breifly. you need to have kicad installed aswell.
and if you make the whole board and everything in inkscape as .svg, you export as project.
open it from kicad and press “Plot” to get the gerber file. you can already preview it from the 3dviewer.

we’ll plan an svg2shenzhen online workshop for the rC3 with @kaspar and some others, stay tuned.

if it’s urgent, PM me and we can have a short video call.

m

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