Designing spiral or helix [SOLVED]

Hello,
I would like to design a spiral in Kicad but I can’t find any tool to do that.
Until now I was creating the spiral in Autocad, then converted it to gerber and then export from GerberView as .pcb.
Is there any way to design it entirely in Kicad?
I’m attaching an image of an older spiral transferred to Kicad.

Thanks

as track, copper zone or one of the other non-copper layers?

As track and as soldermask.
But I would like to be able to change the radius, step and number of spirals…

@Deppy
In which way do you convert from autocad (dxf?) to gerber?

The only way would be to use a python script to draw track segments in a spiral and then paste&copy the result into a kicad_pcb file with a text editor.
There is no GUI that would allow what you want atm.
Have a read here:

Is Bitmap2component available for your needs ?
Convert your spiral into bitmap, then convert it component by Bitmap2component.

I am using a converter. Here is the link.
I am using the 30-days evaluation version.

@Deppy
thanks for the link…
I found also here a nice Lite sw for RF design with dxf to gerb export option…
https://www.sonnetsoftware.com/
https://www.sonnetsoftware.com/products/lite/

Could you suggest me where could I learn some pcb techniques to work with RF?
I mean if would be something like a workshop video or similar…
Thank you
Maurice

@Joan_Sparky
I’m not familiar with python. Although, I read the post but it’s not what I’m looking for in the moment but I’ll keep that in mind (when I’m in the mood for python).
I prefer to create arcs in footprint editor and then convert them to copper in text editor.

@kinichiro
That is a good idea but I want to avoid using Autocad for this design. Do you know any other program that creates spiral/helix with controllable radius?

@Maui
Thank you for the links. I’ll check them out.
I know nothing about pcb RF designs but I found some guidelines.

Thank you all for your help
Deppy

@Deppy
thanx for the link of maxim…

I know that at
https://hackaday.io/project/8117/logs
they organized a workshop on RF techniques:
Simple RF Circuit Design (Sunday Afternoon)
Michael Ossmann will show specific examples from his own designs including Ubertooth One, HackRF One, and YARD Stick One. Participants with prior experience designing non-RF circuits should be able to walk out of this workshop with the ability to design boards to use RF transceiver ICs.
That would be great if the workshop would be available as video, because it is also a talking about kicad RF techniques :slight_smile:

@maui
That sounds great but I think that it is not going to be recorded.

I read at the hackaday posts that has been recorded…
will see if they will publish it…

1 Like

[quote=“Deppy, post:9, topic:1745”]
I’m not familiar with python. Although, I read the post but it’s not what I’m looking for in the moment but I’ll keep that in mind (when I’m in the mood for python). I prefer to create arcs in footprint editor and then convert them to copper in text editor.[/quote]

Well, I prefer to create copper spirals as tracks in python and copy&paste them into a kicad_pcb that has got the basic setup done and then enjoy myself :wink:

Code is here:

Have fun.

5 Likes

Thank you a lot @Joan_Sparky!!! :smiley:

You’re welcome.
The code might need some polishing for CW/CCW of those spirals and maybe something that would add 1/2 segments per turn as it get’s quite corner-y in the outer turns compared to the inner ones.

1 Like

What are words, right?

Upgrades:

  • adds 4 segments per turn to the base number
  • can rotate CW or CCW

4 Likes

Hello,

@Joan_Sparky
I’m trying to import your file but it seems that I’m doing something wrong.
I am using BZR 6245 on VM winXP.
Steps I followed :
-Save helix.py (your file) in the directory Program files/Kicad/bin/scripting/plugging.
-Then restart PCBnew and re-open it.
-opened scripting console and typed “import helix”.
-open footprint editor and select “new footprint using footprint wizard” and then select “wizard script to load and run” and nothing is to be shown.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Deppy

this is not a kicad-python script, sorry… this one runs on itself (or better just with a python interpreter) and the output is to be handled manually…

  1. use the command line and let it parse the output into a txt file like so (Windows)

“helix.py > helix.txt”

  1. have a project + kicad_pcb file where you want the helix to be part of, open the kicad_pcb in a text editor

  2. copy the content of helix.txt into that kicad_pcb file… right before the last braket closes


helix.txt stuff goes here
)

  1. close pcbnew if it was open and open it again to load the modified kicad_pcb

Ok. I’ll let you know for my progress on this.
Thank you Joan.

Sadly I can’t find a way to do this step. Could you please help me?
I have installed python 2.7 in VM and tried to use helix.py in shell and cmd.
Meaning, in cmd I changed the directory in order to read your file. Also, ran python.exe through cmd but I can’t do the “helix.py > helix.txt”… I did pretty much the same in the shell.

I am sorry but I am a dummy in python.

Thank you Joan