How to copy line art from one PCB to another

[Naib]

there isn’t though, that’s the problem

[eelik]

There is, just like fred4u told. Actually there’s even an easier way.

1. Open your target project and the pcb there.
2. Open the source pcb file (with the “line art”) in a standalone Pcbnew instance or in another KiCad project instance.
3. Select and copy the art (Ctrl+C).
4. Paste to the target.

Just how you would copy and paste in any other software.

[fred4u]

Anyway, such a trivial (at least from user’s point of view) operation is still quite awkward with current Kicads. This whole “standalone mode” / “project mode” approach is far from being intuitive - as the OP’s question frequents this forum.
Do you know of any major improvements to the whole copy/paste mechanism for the upcoming next big release (v6)?

[eelik]

Even in 5.1 copypaste works between Pcbnew windows. The problem of two modes is a different matter. I don’t know how copypaste could be easier because it already works just like in any software. How else would you copypaste between two different files?

The differences between v5 and v6 are that copypaste works in eeschema, too; and the system clipboard is used so that it’s possible to for example paste a part of a pcb design to a text editor.

[Naib]

ok thats odd…
I recently did exactly what the OP was after (eco1_user contains additional information) and I needed to replicate similar info to the other boards & then edit.

I tried exactly that and it didn’t work, thats why I went the copy-paste of the raw pcb file data

Now I just tried it and it behaves exactly as you stated. Oh well multiple ways as least.

[eelik]

Being able to use plain text is of course a strength of KiCad.

[fred4u]

Just checked and thanks, it works for PCBNew, was sure that I can’t close PCBNew window to retain the clipboard.
I’m happy to hear EESCHEMA is getting “civilized” with the new release.

[der.ule]

For me the intuitive way would be to export the border and then import it somewhere else, unfortunately there is export in SVG but not import and there is import of DXF but not export, so at the moment not possible.

[Naib]

yup I spotted that.

Now v6 has an interesting feature that makes this redundant as it can insert a stackup table into the pcb

[paulvdh]

@der.ule

… there is export in SVG but not import and there…

But there is:
Pcbnew / File / Plot / Plot format: DXF

I am experimenting a bit with it now, but it works strangely.
After plotting to dxf as mm instead of inches, I managed to first plot the board to DXF (which creates a file for each layer), and then Pcbnew / File / Import / Import Graphics and I imported the F_CU layer onto the silkscreen.
Result was an outline of all copper tracks, but it does work.

[Naib]

The downside of that is it is graphics not text. Take the below, which is the style I have settled on.

Copper layer thickness according to amperage

You should always be mindful of traces that need to carry current but how you capture this information is down to where you are getting your card fabricated. Fundamentally it is about cross sectional area: wider tracks = thinner copper for the same capability. SaturnPCB toolsuite has a fantastic section on current capability (note: the calculator that comes with KiCad uses IPC-2221A, which is incorrect and you need a calculator that aligns with IPC-2152 So take 17A and assuming you want to li…

[JacobChristApium]

@eelik

ere is, just like fred4u told. Actually there’s even an easier way.

1. Open your target project and the pcb there.
2. Open the source pcb file (with the “line art”) in a standalone Pcbnew instance or in another KiCad project instance.
3. Select and copy the art (Ctrl+C).
4. Paste to the target.

Just how you would copy and paste in any other software.

This is the first thing I tried., it didn’t work. I’m using 5.1.6 in Ubuntu.

Jacob

[eelik]

I did that with 5.1.7 on Windows.

[paulvdh]

@JacobChristApium

This is the first thing I tried., it didn’t work. I’m using 5.1.6 in Ubuntu.

@eelik

I did that with 5.1.7 on Windows.

Works for me too with KiCad V5.1.8 and Linux Mint.
I opened 2 PCB’s in 2 standalone instances of Pcbnew, did a copy in one and pasted in the other Pcbnew instance.

Application: Pcbnew
Version: 5.1.8-db9833491~87~ubuntu20.04.1, release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.0.4
libcurl/7.68.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1f zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.2.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.2.0) libssh/0.9.3/openssl/zlib nghttp2/1.40.0 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Linux 5.4.0-52-generic x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Build Info:
wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 3.24
Boost: 1.71.0
OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
Curl: 7.68.0
Compiler: GCC 9.3.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
USE_WX_OVERLAY=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
KICAD_SPICE=ON

[Naib]

I also did it origininally tried 5.1.6 on windows and Gentoo so it might have been a bug

[der.ule]

Paul, you are a genius!

It works like that for me, the only thing, I needed to change some values from the plot dialog to get the correct result:

[der.ule]

Mmmm, playing around with the PLOT dialog, I think I identify a bug:

If the plot format is DXF the “Default line with” cannot be edited, the way around this is to change the plot format to GERBER, change the value and then change back to DXF format, the value cannot be edited, but it stays with the last value

.

[Naib]

Found the v6 merge request

ADDED : pcbnew - stackup / characteristics table (!261) · Merge Requests ·...

[JacobChristApium]

Actually, I got copy and paste to work.

• Highlight want you want to copy (left drag)
• Then select copy from context menu (right click)
• Then choose copy point (left click)

Once you have done this then you can paste in the other kicad_pcbnew file.

If it worked like other apps then I should have been able to do this:

• Highlight want you want to copy (left drag)
• Type control-c

Once you have done this then you can paste in the other kicad_pcbnew file.