Plugins in PCBNEW?

Layout
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That’s exactly what I did…but I had no answer.
Anyway, watching tutorials like the one I quoted could suggest the idea that using scripts is just a “pick, place, and use” stuff…while it is not so simple, and I think this the important information that the not-skilled user (like me) should keep in mind.
I’ll try to go back and read the other thread you suggested me about “kicad internal array tools”…maybe they could be enough for my needs.
Thank you very much for all your help and suggestions.
Bye

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I got it to work in Kicad 5.0.2 on Windows 10 by putting the files in
C:\Users[your user]\AppData\Roaming\kicad\scripting
so the files are in C:\Users[your user]\AppData\Roaming\kicad\scripting\kicad_mmccoo-master
I also tried C:\Users[your user]\AppData\Roaming\kicad\scripts and after doing both the plugins still work after deleting the folders so I think the files are cached somewhere. Some sort of log of files it is accessing would be helpful, or a button to add scripts like in the other places scripts are used now.

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Thank you, Ed2!
Currently I am not still working on PCB layouting, but in future I’ll come back to this job, and try to test your hints for managing scripts.
Best regards.

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Hi all,

I never did 3rd party tool addition in KiCAD before, Please let me know the steps/procedure to add the below external plugin | 3rd party tool in PCBNEW, KiCAD.

I have gone through web, but could not find resources with clear explanation.

Thanks in advance,

Awaiting your reply.

Best regards,

Madhu.

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Are you sure this is a plugin and not an alternative fork of kicad itself? I remember the name of the dev. Was that the guy who tried to add teardrop support to kicad?

Edit: yes it is. Man that git history is well lets say not ideal. No wonder the devs rejected the original patches. Well that and the fact that it only works on the legacy canvas as far as i remember.

This means if you want to use this stuff you will need to compile that version of kicad. I noticed that there are absolute paths in the makefiles of that branch. (Introduced for example by the commit simply titled “a”.) This basically means you can only compile it if your setup exactly matches the setup of that particular developer.

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It’s a fork and not a plugin. You can compile the whole repo yourself, but the files written by that fork of KiCad will be likely incompatible with the official KiCad.

If you’re looking for teardrops, they will likely happen during the V6 development (see spec here )

Tom

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And support the discussion here

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I am looking for a plugin which help me in drawing rounded corners for my RF traces.

Please let me know if there is any other way to achieve it.

Thank you.

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I’m afraid using forks made by Heikki or Ben Kempke is currently the only way to achieve rounded corners. We plan to add this feature in the V6 development cycle.

Tom

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Thanks Ed2!
This also worked for me with KiCad 5.1.0-1 on Windows 8.
The key was to put the Python script under “C:\Users[your user]\AppData\Roaming\kicad*scripting*”.

It seems scripts need to be in a subfolder of “…Roaming\kicad” to be visible as external plugins.

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I came across to this thread even though it has been passed over a year. But I still wanted to contribute so that someone later might find it is useful.
My Kicad version is 5.1.2.
After downloaded PCBNEW plugins ( I used BOM plugins), you can copy the whole folder to …\KiCad\share\kicad\scripting\plugins
Restart KiCAD, and you can find your new plugin when you click PCBNEW->Tools->external plugins
Don’t copy the folder to
…\KiCad\bin\plugins or …\KiCad\bin\scripting\plugins
They won’t work.

1 Like
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Hi guys How can I add this plugin to KiCAD ??

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Usually when we end users talk about plugins we mean python scripts made by 3rd parties. The thing you refer to is part of KiCad internals. There are no optional C++ “plugins” in KiCad.

You can try it by open the PCB Editor in standalone mode (without opening the main KiCad application first) and using File → Import → Non-KiCad Board File.

EDIT: we don’t like reviving old threads, so please open a new one if you need more information.

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