Skip to main content

KiCad plugin

This page is under construction


The kicad-kbplacer is KiCad plugin for placing and routing keyboard matrix switches and diodes. It is meant to accelerate design process by removing repetitive tasks. It is not the only tool of this kind1 but it is currently amongst the most popular choices.

This page is not the guide on mechanical keyboard PCB design. Prior knowledge about using KiCad is expected. The purpose of this document is to demonstrate kicad-kbplacer capabilities, show how it can be used for some common keyboard related tasks and how to solve possible problems. 

Installation

Use KiCad's Plugin and Content Manager and search for Keyboard footprints placer. Select latest version and click install.

image.png

After installation, plugin can be started by clicking plugin icon on the toolbar of KiCad's PCB editor:

image.png

KiCad plugins are accessible only from PCB editor (pcbnew) and not in schematic editor (eeschema).


1 See also: https://github.com/zykrah/kicad-kle-placer, https://github.com/gauravmm/KLEPlacement, https://github.com/jeroen94704/klepcbgen