Altium Toolkit

Altium Toolkit is the native Altium decoder in the common ECAD toolkit family. It parses Altium files into immutable CircuitJSON document envelopes and common project envelopes, and exposes the same parser, renderer, interaction, query, simulation, 3D scene, capability, error, and worker contracts as circuitjson-toolkit, gerber-toolkit, and kicad-toolkit.

The package was extracted from ECAD Forge, where it is used for browser-based Altium document parsing and deterministic render output. It is also used in PCB Styler. Its parser behavior, normalized model shape, and renderer output can be reused by other browser or Node-based tools. Parsing and all default services are local-only.

Breaking API convergence

Version 1.2.0 intentionally changes root names, parameters, return shapes, and package subpaths. The root now contains the exact 17-class shared toolkit surface, and Parser.parse() returns an ecad-toolkit.document.v1 envelope whose model is CircuitJSON. No Altium feature was deleted: all 1.1.41 exports and public members remain under altium-toolkit/extensions, alongside the 37 shared source-neutral extension helpers, with the exhaustive native mapping in the migration guide.

Version 1.2.1 keeps Three.js as an example-only development dependency. The published parser and CircuitJSON services do not install a second, unused Three.js runtime into host applications.

Version 1.3.0 updates the common runtime baseline to CircuitJSON Toolkit 1.2 and adapts effectively invisible historical 32-bit BMP previews at the common convergence boundary. The public parser and renderer now show the existing missing-image placeholder for those unusable payloads without changing the frozen native parser or healthy embedded images. See the 1.3.0 release notes.

Version 1.4.0 adopts newly decoded CircuitJSON and native extension graphs at the shared validation boundary. Their ordinary nodes retain identity and are deeply frozen without a redundant defensive graph copy. Parser parameters, document envelopes, extension fields, and return shapes remain unchanged. See the 1.4.0 release notes.

Default extensions: 'canonical' keeps compact Altium summary metadata. Request the complete native read model with extensions: 'full', preserveRaw: true, or extensions: ['altium.native-model']. Project batches resolve referenced schematic project strings consistently in canonical CircuitJSON and an explicitly retained native model; select altium.project-context only when the compact native parameter/document facts are also needed. extensions: 'none' and an empty selection return the exact common extensions: {} shape on documents and projects.

Hosts that need an Altium-only renderer for details not represented by CircuitJSON can resolve the explicit extension without changing the canonical document shape:

import { Parser } from 'altium-toolkit'
import { AltiumExtensionResolver } from 'altium-toolkit/extensions'

const document = Parser.parse(input, {
    extensions: ['altium.native-model']
})
const nativeModel = AltiumExtensionResolver.nativeModel(document)

document remains an immutable ecad-toolkit.document.v1 result; native schematic and pcb fields are never copied onto it.

SchematicSvgRenderer from altium-toolkit/extensions is the native convergence renderer. It honors recovered component-designator visibility and delegates to the provenance-pinned historical renderer without requiring a host to clone or rewrite the native model.

The common parser now projects native schematic rectangles, rounded rectangles, circles and ellipses, arcs, Beziers, polygons, text frames, tables when present, hierarchical child-sheet symbols, and ordinary text into the same CircuitJSON rows used by KiCad. Component ownership, stroke/fill style, geometry, and stable render order are retained. Embedded schematic image bytes are owned once as ToolkitAsset records with kind: 'schematic-image'; their schematic_image rows reference asset_id and retain source path, bounds, aspect policy, and order without duplicating base64 data in the model. Only native wire records become canonical electrical traces; graphical lines remain artwork even when they carry net-like metadata, and PCB source-trace relations are preserved unchanged in mixed documents.

Features

• Exact common Parser and ProjectLoader contracts with immutable CircuitJSON document envelopes, common project envelopes, progress, cancellation, archive limits, ZIP preflight inspection, and workers
• Shared CircuitJSON context, rendering, interaction, query, manufacturing, injected simulation, and right-handed Z-up 3D scene services
• One native Altium parse per canonical request; compact default extensions avoid cloning the complete native tree unless explicitly requested
• Explicit large native extensions are captured once as bounded immutable CircuitJSON document data and survive the shared worker protocol
• Machine-readable capability inventory, packed conformance harness, provenance-bound performance gates, and explicit /extensions compatibility
• Parse standalone native .SchDoc, .PcbDoc, .PCBDwf, .SchLib, .PcbLib, .PrjPcb, .PrjScr, and .IntLib files from ArrayBuffer
• Recover schematic records, PCB outlines, placements, schematic library symbols, PCB library footprints, project document references, variants, parameters, primitives, embedded schematic images, component annotations from PrimitiveParameters/Text streams, PCB pad/via stack and hole-tolerance detail, via-protection sidecars, custom pad shape links, extended mask/paste sidecars, PCB union metadata, embedded PCB 3D payload metadata, PCB component provenance, differential-pair class joins, schematic directive semantics, barcode PCB text metadata, mechanical layer pairs, pick-and-place coordinate modes, PCB dimensions, embedded-board panel placements, placement rooms, project class-generation policy, project-level design bundles, annotation mappings, effective variant views, schematic/PCB ownership sidecars, deterministic wirelist/netlist exports, library render manifests, library lookup indexes, library catalog artifacts, project hierarchy reports, schematic-library section keys, pin side streams, compressed storage assets, schematic project-parameter text resolution, PCB QA statistics, structured diagnostics, and embedded PCB/PcbLib font payloads with basic text metrics
• Project rich native schematic graphics and asset-backed images directly into the shared CircuitJSON renderer contract, including distinct hierarchical schematic_sheet_symbol rows whose child file names do not become page rows
• Preserve raw PCB primitive records through a read-only record registry so unsupported or partially decoded stream data remains inspectable; native OLE stream inventories summarize known, unknown, consumed, and opaque streams
• Build deterministic parser field-coverage matrix, raw-data preservation, parameter-record inventory, parser value-verification, normalized diagnostics, geometry-bounds, fixture-coverage, embedded-asset, library-diff, library-compatibility, library-QA lint, project-hierarchy, and static library-catalog reports, classify PCB layer ids, and convert common Altium length units for downstream QA tooling
• Emit Circuit JSON arrays from parser roots, with non-serialized renderer-compatibility fields for existing consumers
• Render semantically annotated schematic SVG, semantically annotated PCB SVG, deterministic per-layer PCB SVG exports, and grouped BOM HTML
• Build non-interactive PCB 3D scene-description data for host applications, including refined board outlines, silkscreen drill cutouts, and external model projection diagnostics
• Render a static 3D board summary
• Run entirely with local input data; no network calls are made by the parser

Install

The package is published on npm as altium-toolkit.

npm install altium-toolkit

GitHub Packages releases are published as @sunbox/altium-toolkit. Configure the GitHub Packages registry for the @sunbox scope before installing:

npm config set @sunbox:registry https://npm.pkg.github.com
npm install @sunbox/altium-toolkit

Usage

import {
    CircuitJsonDocumentContext,
    Parser,
    PcbInteractionIndex,
    PcbScene3dBuilder,
    PcbSvgRenderer,
    QueryService
} from 'altium-toolkit'

const document = await Parser.parseAsync(
    { fileName: file.name, data: arrayBuffer },
    {
        worker: 'auto',
        onProgress: ({ stage }) => console.log(stage)
    }
)
const context = CircuitJsonDocumentContext.prepare(document, {
    indexes: ['elements', 'relations', 'connectivity', 'spatial']
})

const pcbMarkup = PcbSvgRenderer.render(context, { side: 'bottom' })
const hits = PcbInteractionIndex.create(context).hitTest({ x: 10, y: 5 })
const components = QueryService.create(context).query({
    select: 'components'
})
const sceneDescription = PcbScene3dBuilder.build(context)

console.log(document.model, pcbMarkup, hits, components.items, sceneDescription)

Optional renderer CSS is available through:

import 'altium-toolkit/styles/renderers.css'

Use the retained native API deliberately when needed:

import { AltiumParser, AltiumSchLibExporter } from 'altium-toolkit/extensions'

const legacyCircuitJson = AltiumParser.parseArrayBuffer(file.name, arrayBuffer)

Documentation

• API
• Capabilities
• Migration from 1.1.41
• 1.4.0 release notes
• 1.3.0 release notes
• 1.2.1 release notes
• 1.2.0 release notes
• Model Format
• Normalized Model Schema
• Project Bundle Schema
• Netlist Schema
• Parser Diagnostics Schema
• Parser Value Verification Schema
• Geometry Bounds Schema
• Fixture Coverage Matrix Schema
• Unsupported Features Schema
• Library Compatibility Schema
• Testing
• Scope
• Library Compatibility Reports

Examples

• Read-only utility scripts: examples/inspect-board.mjs, examples/extract-bom.mjs, examples/generate-pnp.mjs, examples/net-report.mjs, examples/library-catalog.mjs, examples/validate-library.mjs, and examples/corpus-smoke.mjs
• Arduino Uno Altium example based on Mehdi KHALFALLAH's public My-Arduino-UNO-Design project. The example fetches credited source documents from raw.githubusercontent.com at runtime and does not redistribute them.

Run the local example server with:

npm start

Test

npm test
npm run check:features -- --strict
npm run check:performance
npm run check:format

The test suite uses repo-owned, obfuscated fixture shards only. Do not add native customer, vendor, or source project files to this repository.

License

This project is available under two licensing options.

1. Open-source software license

GNU General Public License v3.0 or later (GPL-3.0-or-later).

You may use, modify, and distribute this project under the GPL. If you distribute modified versions or larger works based on this project, they must comply with the GPL, including source-code availability requirements.

2. Commercial/proprietary license

For use in closed-source, proprietary, or otherwise GPL-incompatible products, a separate paid commercial license is required.

Commercial licensing contact: https://github.com/SunboX

Documentation and notices

Documentation and non-code text are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC-BY-SA-4.0) unless otherwise marked.

Copyright (C) 2026 André Fiedler.

Copyright, license, attribution, and source-origin notices must be preserved as required by the GPL, CC-BY-SA-4.0, and the notice files in this repository. See LICENSE, COMMERCIAL-LICENSE.md, and NOTICE.md.