KicadToJLC

7 June 2020

Initial release of kicadtojlc 2020.06.07

kicadtojlc is a simple way to convert Kicad's bill of materials and location information into a JLCPBC.com compatible file format.
Kicad's .pos file is used to created, creates the cmp.csv and bom.csv files needed by JLCPCB.

17 August 2020

Added top or bottom layer selection.
JLC requires all parts to be rotated by 180 degrees on the bottom layer. Kicadtojlc now asks t/b and compensates.

Application use.

1. From Kicad's PCBNew application create a .pos file.
2. From the command line, start kicadtojlc, include the .pos file as an input argument, or after starting the application.
example... ./kicadtojlc yourpcb.pos
3. Kicadtojlc will then convert the data within the xxx.pos file, to the xxx_cmp.csv and xxx_bom.csv files in the format that JLC requires.

Part footprint and rotation translator.

Kicad's internal, or user created, footprints may not match the footprints that JLC uses in their library.
Additionally the footprint rotation information may differ between the Kicad part, and the JLC pick and place machine.
Kicatojlc makes provision for a, text editable, footprint and rotation translation file.

part_translation.txt

The file simply consists of 3 columns, separated by white spaces. The kicad footprint name, the JLC footprint name, and the rotation offset. Here is a sample file...

from to rotate_offset this top line is ignored by the processors
R_0603 0603_R 0
R_0805 0805_R 0
R_1206 1206_R 0
C_0603 0603_C 0
C_0805 0805_C 0
C_1206 1206_C 0
SOT-223 SOT-223 180
SOIC-8_3.9x4.9mm_Pitch1.27mm SOIC-8_3.9X4.9X1.27P 270
SOT-23 SOT-23-3 180

Support for PCB Panellization.

While creating the bill of materials file, the software prevents panellized files from creating an error at JLCpcb.
In a panellised bill of materials we would see multiple parts with the same component designator, footprint and value. Kicadtojlc ensures the part only appears once if the footprints and values are identical.

Download

This application has been created for and used on a Linux system.
Download (19 KB) kicadtojlc compiled application 2020.06.07 in zip format

Simply run the application in Linux environment.

Source code

Download (50.8 KB) kicadtojlc 2020.08.17 source code in zip format
The source file is in C, compiled using GCC on a Ubuntu Linux system.
The makefile and folders were automatically created by the eclise IDE.
However, a simple one line gcc command can compile the one c file
gcc -o kicadtojlc kicadtojlc.c

Older versions
Download (52 KB) kicadtojlc 2020.06.07 source code in zip format

Home