Author Topic: KiCAD to OpenSCAD for PCB case generation  (Read 3694 times)

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Offline Pineapple DanTopic starter

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KiCAD to OpenSCAD for PCB case generation
« on: January 21, 2022, 07:48:24 pm »
This is very rough and ready but it has saved me a great deal of time trying to manually place mount points for PCB cases

Basically I use the following python script to find where the mount holes are in the Kicad_pcb

Code: [Select]
MH = []
Valid_MH = ['MountingHole:MountingHole_4.3mm_M4','MountingHole:MountingHole_3.2mm_M3']

class MountHole():
    def __init__(self,raw_text):
        self.x = 0
        self.y = 0
        self.size = 3
        self.raw = raw_text

        self.parse()

    def parse(self):
        ls = self.raw.splitlines()
        for a in ls:
            if(a[:4] == "(at "):
                loc = a.split(" ")
                self.x = float(loc[1])
                self.y = float(loc[2][:-1])

    def OpenSCAD(self):
        return ("mount(" + str(self.x) + ',' + str(self.y) + "," + str(self.size) + ");")
        #print("m")
        #return "mount(" + str(self.x,'utf-8') + "," + str(self.y,'utf-8') + "," + str(self.size,'utf-8') + ")\n"

class Line():
    def __init__(self,raw):
        self.raw = raw

        #Start coords
        self.s = self.raw.find("(start")
        self.st = self.raw[self.s:]
        self.sta = self.st[:self.st.find(")")].split(" ")       
        self.startx = float(self.sta[1])
        self.starty = float(self.sta[2])

        #End coords
        self.e = self.raw.find("(end")
        self.et = self.raw[self.e:]
        self.eta = self.et[:self.et.find(")")].split(" ")       
        self.endx = float(self.eta[1])
        self.endy = float(self.eta[2])

        print(self.endx,self.endy)

       
       


class KCfile():
    def __init__(self,path):
        self.kfile = open(path,'r')
        self.mounts = []
        self.lins = []
        self.mods_text = self.getmods()

       
        self.getmounts()

    def par(self,string):
        return(string.count("(") - string.count(")"))


    def getmods(self):
        mods = []
        module_text = ""
        in_module = False
        open_bracket = 0


        for a in self.kfile.readlines():
            a = a.strip()

            if(a[:8] == "(gr_line"):
                self.lins.append(Line(a))
           
            if(a[:8] != "(module " and not in_module): continue
            in_module = True
            module_text = module_text + a + '\n'
            open_bracket += self.par(a)
       # print(a,open_bracket)
            if(open_bracket == 0):
                mods.append(module_text)
                module_text = ""
                in_module = False


        return mods

    def getmounts(self):
        mcount = 0
        for a in self.mods_text:
           mtype = a.split(" ")[1]
           if(mtype in Valid_MH):
               mcount += 1
               self.mounts.append(MountHole(a))
        print(mcount, "mount holes found")

    def OpenSCAD_mounts(self):
        minusx = 9999999999
        minusy = 9999999999
        hy = 0
       
        for a in self.mounts:
            #print(a.x)
            if(a.x < minusx): minusx = a.x
            if(a.y < minusy): minusy = a.y

        print("mirror([0,90,0])\nunion(){")

        for a in self.mounts:
            if(a.y - minusy >hy): hy=a.y - minusy

           
        for a in self.mounts:
            x = a.x-minusx
            y = a.y-minusy
            print("mount(" + str(x) + ',' + str(y  - hy) + "," + str(a.size) + ");")
            #print(a.OpenSCAD())

        print("}")

    def Gen_poly(self):
        pass

fl = KCfile('YOUR-FILENAME-HERE.kicad_pcb')
#print(fl.mods_text)
fl.OpenSCAD_mounts()
#print(fl.lins)


That script spits out a few lines like for example

Code: [Select]
mirror([0,90,0])
union(){
mount(0.0,0.0,3);
mount(65.34076,-9.57002,3);
mount(3.4696399999999983,-53.507639999999995,3);
mount(66.23075999999999,-52.560019999999994,3);
}

This I can paste into openscad and once I have my my mount() module defined somewhere ( very simple just one cylinder minus another)

Code: [Select]
module mount(x,y,size = 2.4, support = false) { // For 3mm screw
    translate([x,y,0])
    difference(){
    cylinder($mount_height,r=size);
    cylinder($mount_height + 0.01,r=(size/2));
   
       
}
}

Once u have the mount points in the right place its very easy to design a box around it, I do have a script to generate the boxes as well but I really need to clean that up before I even consider posting it anywhere. Still I hope this is useful to someone
 

Offline Doctorandus_P

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Re: KiCAD to OpenSCAD for PCB case generation
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2022, 04:58:45 am »
Are you aware of the KiCadStepUp workbench in FreeCAD?
 

Offline kripton2035

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Re: KiCAD to OpenSCAD for PCB case generation
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2022, 06:30:06 am »
+1. exporting a kicad pcb to freecad is really easy. once you tried it !
 

Offline thinkfat

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Re: KiCAD to OpenSCAD for PCB case generation
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2022, 08:51:59 am »
You don't even need StepUp for that. The standard STEP export from KiCAD is totally sufficient to get a model into FreeCAD that you can then use for checking collisions with your box etc.

However, not everyone is a FreeCAD user and having an automated way to export mounting points to OpenSCAD, which many engineers seem to like, is definitely appreciated.
Everybody likes gadgets. Until they try to make them.
 

Offline kripton2035

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Re: KiCAD to OpenSCAD for PCB case generation
« Reply #4 on: April 06, 2022, 12:00:43 pm »
However, not everyone is a FreeCAD user and having an automated way to export mounting points to OpenSCAD, which many engineers seem to like, is definitely appreciated.
absolutely !
 


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