kinoshita-lab / keyboard-layouter

Footprint auto placement plugin for keyboard layout

Keyboard Layouter Plugin

Keyboard Layouter is a plugin for KiCad(pcbnew). This plugin places switch footprints in the location specified by JSON of Keyboard Layout Editor.

I have confirmed that it works with pcbnew version (5.1.0)-1 release build on Windows.

Install

Download keyboard_layouter.py and put it to the following directory:

• Windows: %APPDATA%/Roaming/kicad/scripting/plugins
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/kicad/scripting/plugins or ~/Library/Preferences/kicad/scripting/plugins
• Linux: ~/.kicad/scripting/plugins or ~/.kicad_plugins

Usage

Preparation

Make keyboard layout at Keyboard Layout Editor. Top left legend should be the reference number of the switch footprint. And download JSON file.

I have created keyboard-layouter-playground so that you can quickly try the Keyboard Layouter plugin. This repository has sample-json and sample netlist.

Execution

Open Pcbnew and choose "Tools" -> "External plugins" -> "Keyboard Layouter".

Select your JSON file and push "Run" button.

Limitation

Supported switch footprints are Cherry MX in kicad-footprints/Button_Switch_Keyboard.pretty only. Therefore, the size of switch that can be used is limited to the following.

• 1.00u (1 x 1)
• 1.25u (1.25 x 1)
• 1.50u (1.5 x 1)
• 1.75u (1.75 x 1)
• 2.00u (2 x 1, 1 x 2)
• 2.25u (2.25 x 1)
• 2.75u (2.75 x 1)
• 6.25u (6.25 x 1)
• ISO Enter

License

This software is released under the MIT License, see LICENSE.