kicad-fab-export

A scriptable CLI tool for generating JLCPCB manufacturing files directly from a KiCad PCB file.

It is designed for automated workflows and deterministic, CI-friendly PCB exports.

Overview

kicad-fab-export takes a KiCad PCB file (.kicad_pcb) as the single source of truth and generates JLCPCB-compatible manufacturing outputs:

• bom.csv — Bill of Materials
• cpl.csv — Pick and Place (Centroid file)
• gerbers.zip — Gerber fabrication archive

It does not require schematic files or project files.

Key Design Principles

• PCB file is the source of truth
• No dependency on .kicad_sch or .kicad_pro
• Fully scriptable and deterministic
• Strict validation (fail fast on inconsistencies)
• Designed for automation pipelines

Component Model

Each footprint placed on the PCB is treated as a potential component.

A footprint is included in outputs only if it has the attribute:

• lcsc → LCSC part number (required)

Optional attributes:

• lcscRot → Additional rotation offset applied in CPL generation

Footprints without lcsc are ignored.

Footprint Resolution

kicad-fab-export resolves footprint geometry by loading .kicad_mod files from provided footprint directories.

It doesn't try to resolve these automatically because they are a bit inconsistent from system to system. You probably want to do something like:

kicad-fab-export board.kicad_pcb \
  -F /usr/share/kicad/footprints/ \
  -o ./out

It does however check the project for a fp-lib-table file and reads project specific library paths from there.

Arguments

pcb   KiCad PCB file (.kicad_pcb)

Options

-o, --output <dir>          Output directory
-F, --footprint-dir <path>  Footprint directory (can be used multiple times)
-h, --help                  Show help

Output

All outputs are written to the specified output directory:

bom.csv
cpl.csv
gerbers.zip

bom.csv

• One row per PCB footprint instance
• No grouping or aggregation
• Only footprints with lcsc attribute are included

cpl.csv

• Pick and place file
• Includes centroid positions derived from footprint geometry
• Applies rotation correction using lcscRot if present

gerbers.zip

• Standard Gerber export archive suitable for JLCPCB manufacturing

Error Handling

kicad-fab-export uses strict validation and will fail immediately on any inconsistency.

Errors include:

• Missing footprint .kicad_mod files
• Missing or invalid footprint geometry
• Invalid footprint library resolution
• Malformed PCB data
• Duplicate or inconsistent component data

No partial output is produced on failure.

Example

kicad-fab-export myboard.kicad_pcb -F ./libs -o ./out

Output:

out/
  bom.csv
  cpl.csv
  gerbers.zip

Philosophy

kicad-fab-export is intentionally minimal and deterministic:

• No schematic parsing
• No netlist dependency
• No global KiCad environment dependency
• No grouping or BOM optimization (by design)