Hacking KiCad (app)

Colin_Tang · January 7, 2020, 3:49am

new here. i’m trying to build something with some of the functionalities of KiCad (specifically, an app X that will be able to import .kicad_pcb files, provide a GUI, and also allow for free manipulation of trace segments)

i’m trying to understand the source code of kicad (trying to find the “main”, what’s actually executed first)

advice would be much appreciated. thanks!

jos · January 7, 2020, 3:57am

This will help in combination with lots of reading.

hermit · January 7, 2020, 4:18am

You might try the developers list for this kind of question. There are some developers here but…

qu1ck · January 7, 2020, 5:51am

This is the “main”

github.com

KiCad/kicad-source-mirror/blob/master/kicad/kicad.cpp#L300


        wxLogError( wxT( "Unhandled exception class: %s  what: %s" ),
            GetChars( FROM_UTF8( typeid(e).name() )),
            GetChars( FROM_UTF8( e.what() ) ) );
    }
    catch( const IO_ERROR& ioe )
    {
        wxLogError( GetChars( ioe.What() ) );
    }
    catch(...)
    {
        wxLogError( wxT( "Unhandled exception of unknown type" ) );
    }

    return -1;
}

/**
 * Set MacOS file associations.
 *
 * @see http://wiki.wxwidgets.org/WxMac-specific_topics
 */

It doesn’t look like your run of the mill entry point, does it? To understand it read the wxWidgets docs. KiCad has one more layer of obscu… hm I mean abstraction on top of it but good news is you rarely need to bother yourself with these low lever details.
If you understand how GUI apps work with event listeners and handlers you will understand 80% of KiCad code.

system · April 6, 2020, 5:51am

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