EEVblog Electronics Community Forum

Electronics => PCB/EDA/CAD => KiCad => Topic started by: paulca on February 25, 2018, 02:52:07 pm

Title: Duplicate / Identical layout blocks?
Post by: paulca on February 25, 2018, 02:52:07 pm

I have probably too many projects on the list at the moment, but...

I'm making a 3 stereo input audio mixer.  I have a hierarchical sheet containing 3 LineInputStage schematics.

I found I could get them all refer to the same underlying sheet and can still be annotated globally.  I haven't tried wiring them up yet though.

Anyway, my question.

Is there currently any sensible way to manage these groups in PCBNew?  When I import the netlist it correctly places all three sets of components on the board.  However it would be "nice" if I could create a layout for one of them, then duplicate it to complete the other two.

Googling reveals this was not available in past versions but it's harder to find if it exists in newer versions.

Title: Re: Duplicate / Identical layout blocks?
Post by: langwadt on February 25, 2018, 04:03:49 pm

Quote from: paulca on February 25, 2018, 02:52:07 pm

I have probably too many projects on the list at the moment, but...

I'm making a 3 stereo input audio mixer.  I have a hierarchical sheet containing 3 LineInputStage schematics.

I found I could get them all refer to the same underlying sheet and can still be annotated globally.  I haven't tried wiring them up yet though.

Anyway, my question.

Is there currently any sensible way to manage these groups in PCBNew?  When I import the netlist it correctly places all three sets of components on the board.  However it would be "nice" if I could create a layout for one of them, then duplicate it to complete the other two.

Googling reveals this was not available in past versions but it's harder to find if it exists in newer versions.

https://github.com/tlantela/KiCAD_layout_cloner/blob/master/layout_cloner.py
it takes a bit of manual text editing but it does work

Title: Re: Duplicate / Identical layout blocks?
Post by: paulca on February 25, 2018, 06:31:07 pm

Thanks.  A quick read of the code and I can see how it works.

The limiting factor is that it won't support updates.  Once generated via the script any update would need done to each manually, or... delete and reduplicate.

But it is a working solution, thanks.

Title: Re: Duplicate / Identical layout blocks?
Post by: MitjaN on February 26, 2018, 12:34:29 pm

If you use nightlies you can try https://github.com/MitjaNemec/Kicad_action_plugins.

Either way, there is a list of third party solutions available at: https://github.com/xesscorp/kicad-3rd-party-tools

Also posting on https://forum.kicad.info/ might get you additional solutions, whch can be more to your liking.