Include Pre-Made Layout

Hi All

Does anyone know whether KiCad has the Feature to add a pre-made PCB layout in to a current design ?

Eg: include a Pre - designed PCB layout of Power supply to a ongoing PCB design which needs a power supply.

Any Suggestions ??

1). Start Pcbnew in “Stand alone” mode (Directly from your OS, not from the project manager).
2). Open the PCB of your project.
3). Pcbnew / File / Append Board.
4). Save your PCB file and exit the Stand alone version of Pcbnew.
5). Continue working with your project in the normal way.

Step 4a: ensure the annotation of the appended part agrees with the schematic
Step 4b: update the layout from schematic via the references to get them in sync with each other.

Without these two steps one will not be able to propagate future schematic changes to the pcb without loosing the appended part of the layout.

If the pre-made PCB layout is completely contained within one hierarchical schematics file (with optional sub hierarchical schematic files) you could try using Save/Restore layout: action plugin.

In the project where you have the layout already done you save the layout. And in the other project you restore the layout. Mind you the schematic file has to be the same. The plugin handles different annotations properly.

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