According to the 15 year old feature request in issue #1954, support for outputting the fabrication format IPC-2581 has been merged into the KiCad master branch, also known as 7.99 Nightly.
Once todays nightly builds are out, you should be able to try it out (unless you build yourself to save a couple hours…).
The fabrication output option for IPC2581 needs to be enabled by inserting a row with “Enable2581 = 1” in the kicad_advanced settings file, which on fedora linux this file is located in: ~/.config/kicad/7.99/
Why is this announced here and now?
To me it is more logical to put it in the post-V7-development-and-new-features thread, and after it has been merged into the nightlies. (And I guess it will be added there in a few days too).
The only reason I posted it is that I happened to see it and thought it might interest more people, given that it has been discussed here at length previously.
Regarding “after” it has been merged into the nightlies: Once it is in the master branch of the code, see the link in the word “merged” above, it will usually, if everything goes as expected, be available in the next automated nightly build. For fedora it will probably be in about nine hours or so; builds for other OS:es may come a little earlier or later.
But if my saying it out loud disturbs the circles for other people, I apologize.
No need to apologize, it’s just a small thing. On the other hand, these “Post Vx” threads have been going on for a few KiCad versions (There is Post-V5, Post-V6 and Post-V7) and they are a nice overview of KiCad’s progress. I expect this feature to show up in the Post-V7 thread in a few days. You have been on this forum for over three years and have probably seen these threads too.
I know that thread, but I have seen it as a place where the “official” people post, so I thought I will just mention it in general so people who are interested in it and want to try to break it can do so, and then someone can make the official mention in that thread when it is all settled.
The Post-V7 thread is for simple announcements, not discussion, so it is better to have this dedicated thread.
Wow, a 15 year old wishlist item.
This is going to be hard to test properly. The sort of project and fab using IPC-2581 is not going to risk pre-release 7.99 KiCad.
At the same time this needs thorough testing by real users.
This is great!
Likewise to hear that ODB++ could be added is equally good simply because not everything supports IPC-2581 (yet) and this is outside PCB fabrication and assembly… Ansys takes ODB++ files as part of its analysis.
Hopefully IPC-2581 gains enough traction that it is a 1st class format but we are not there yet
I’m new to KiCad and just happened to come across this. It’s great news since I use ODB++ and/or IPC-2581. I was feeling like KiCad wouldn’t work out for me, but it looks like there’s light at the end of hte tunnel. Is this now implemented in KiCad when I download it?
You can certainly play with it and appreciate any bug reports. IPC 2581 itself may have some quirks to iron out as the spec is kind of overcomplicated in some areas.