@hayden, does not work for this test PCB (tmp.7z (4.5 KB)) , could you try at your PC?
Such plugin would be a saver for me!! 
Application: KiCad (64-bit)
Version: (5.99.0-12941-g5475303ec2), release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.1.5
libcurl/7.78.0-DEV Schannel zlib/1.2.11
Platform: Windows 10 (build 19042), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
Date: Oct 24 2021 12:00:23
wxWidgets: 3.1.5 (wchar_t,wx containers)
Boost: 1.76.0
OCC: 7.5.0
Curl: 7.78.0-DEV
ngspice: 35
Compiler: Visual C++ 1929 without C++ ABI
Build settings:
KICAD_USE_OCC=ON
KICAD_SPICE=ON
I just bumped into a manual panelization tutorial for KiCad posted on a PCB manufacturer website:
And a simple search brings up a bunch of other panelization tools for KiCad, including some links to Hackaday:
https://html.duckduckgo.com/html?q=KiCad+panelization
Panelization is not high on the priority list of the lead KiCad developers. All current methods I know of are ad-hoc and cumbersome workarounds.
One problem with the current methods is that the netlists of the different instances get merged. Another (and probably even more important) issue is that there usually is no easy method to update the PCB’s in a panel once the panel has been made. Another problem with these simple approaches is that the references get duplicated, and this does not work well with pick and place machines, and more automation is one of the main reasons for a panelization tool in the first place.
Other methods for panelization are 3rd- party (commercial) progams that work with gerber files, or you can have your PCB manufacturer generate the panel for you.
If a real integrated panelization tool in KiCad is important to you, you can upvote it here:
The original version of this plugin does not currently support kicad5.99. The one I used is modified from the original version and has some bugs
Could you share modified version (v6 compatible)? I would need to modify it myself anyway, and also, I panelize only very simple boards, so bugs can be spotted visuall at yearly stage.
Thank you very much! I confirm, panelization plugin from your zip works with 5.99 (and spotted a bug - no tab is added). I will definitely play with this plugin - essential time saver for me. Thank you very much for promoting it here!
@DrabGips, this is your first message, you just joined and didn’t read the forum before posting. You just copied from an earlier post and pasted it as your message. This makes me wonder if you are a spammer or a real KiCad user. Could you identify yourself?
I am almost finished modifying this plugin for my needs in v6, only rectangular PCBs. I have one question:
is there a python command for converting rectangle to lines, as GUI has (I think this was introduced in v6, so I am afraid this command does not exist inside python… :/)
I think paulvdh’s analysis is quite right. For fabricators ‘flattened’ files, where all the instances of the single PCBs are lumped together as a single big PCB, are very cumbersome to work with. For most, if not all, the best solution is to send the single PCB, and very clear instructions how to panelize, e.g. a clean drawing. If there is one thing CAM software is very good it, it is panelization.
Many of us use cheapest possible PCB sources, I don’t want to spend my cents and time for explaining what I wish to achieve to an eangineer at the fabhouse. This plugin will be a huge time saver, unless there will be a need to rotate boards to save space (this is hardly done without a proper gui). I am not arguing to paulvdh, if one has money for these tools or additional price.
I already do panelization when ordering soldering stencils, I put several boards into a single panel to get soldering stencil for several of my projects. Because this requires just one layer (solderpaste), this does not take much time, just embed several boards, flip/rotate if necessary and export stencil. No need fiducials or whatever. But for different PCBs this is hardly done in pcbnew, sometimes I use 3rdy party panelization tool (which is super buggy sometimes: http://blog.thisisnotrocketscience.nl/projects/pcb-panelizer/)
But is making a drawing more work?
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