To automate creating a diff using travis-ci. A script will be run to generate two .png files, and then those png files will be compared to show differences. This must be automatic (without clicking a button in the gui) as to make it easier to project colaborators to see what changes each other is making for every commit.
I think it is a good idea, I’ve tried comparing the schematic or pcb files as text, but even small changes can lead to a whole cascade, and it is rather worthless.
The thing that matters is the actual gerber output, so it makes sense to compare that.
Kicad team have gone to great lengths to provide scripting capability - so why the heck not use it? Or are there only certain “approved” uses??
When you are at the routing stage, only changes are visual. And looking at the text comparison of two different version of a .kicad_pcb file isn’t really helpful for this.
I have finished my solution to this problem and incorporated it in this git repo.
It is a python script that takes the current kicad file, plots it as a pdf. It then takes another git commit, and plots that version as a pdf. Both pdf files are then converted to .png files and a compare command generates a diff between them.
Here is what a final product looks like. Blue is before, red is after.
I did not read this 5 year old thread, instead did a little search for “skidl” and it was not mentioned. If you’re interested in scripted PCB’s then I suggest you reasearch this further.