Work in progress: Native Altium Importer

steves · August 9, 2020, 10:43pm

I attempted to test this feature using the latest nightly but for some reason I do not see the list box that shows the file types in the bottom right corner. So, I cannot select a PCBDOC Altium file. I have attached a screenshot.

The version info is:

Application: Pcbnew

Version: (5.99.0-2621-g42b8aaa8f), release build

Libraries:
	wxWidgets 3.0.4
	libcurl/7.54.0 LibreSSL/2.6.5 zlib/1.2.11 nghttp2/1.24.1

Platform: macOS Mojave Version 10.14.6 (Build 18G5033), 64 bit, Little endian, wxMac

Build Info:
	Date: Aug  9 2020 04:32:51
	wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,STL containers,compatible with 2.8)
	Boost: 1.73.0
	OCE: 6.9.1
	Curl: 7.54.0
	ngspice: 31
	Compiler: Clang 10.0.1 with C++ ABI 1002

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

imcinerney · August 10, 2020, 12:04am

I am pretty sure that on OSX the filter selector to choose the Altium file types is visible if you click "options. "

steves · August 10, 2020, 1:36pm

@imcinerney Thank you, that did the trick!

steves · August 10, 2020, 4:34pm

I attempted to load the Altium board here:

but it failed with a couple errors:

Vias6 stream was not parsed correctly

and

10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Arc on Altium layer 74 has no KiCad equivalent. Put it on Eco1_User instead
10:33:19: Pad ' ' of Footprint P5 uses a complex pad stack (kind 1), which is not supported yet
10:33:19: Pad ' ' of Footprint P5 uses a complex pad stack (kind 1), which is not supported yet

steveg1 · September 2, 2020, 12:40pm

My altium convertor at [https://github.com/stevegrn/AtoK] extracts STEP models from PCBDOC files.

steveg1 · September 2, 2020, 12:47pm

My altium convertor utility at [https://github.com/stevegrn/AtoK] converts this file ok

steves · September 7, 2020, 4:23am

Thanks for mentioning that. I will have a look.

steveg1 · September 7, 2020, 1:22pm

You’re welcome to get whatever you may out of it.

maui · September 17, 2020, 1:12pm

@pointhi
is there a way to convert ASCII Altium PcbDoc file to KiCAD?

pointhi · September 17, 2020, 1:20pm

not yet, at least with my importer

maui · September 17, 2020, 2:09pm

Is there anyone having Altium that could do the conversion?

maui · September 18, 2020, 4:32pm

Conversion done via PM… Many Thanks

gnuarm · October 16, 2020, 1:58am

Are you saying Altium can export KiCAD files??? By “files” I mean schematics. We don’t have a current Altium layout, but I suppose we do have Altium libraries for many of the parts. Can we convert this to KiCAD? Will the libraries become something usable?

pointhi · October 16, 2020, 7:31am

For now, KiCad can import board files using the nightly version. I resumed development of the schematic importer, but it is far from finished: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/merge_requests/472

At least I haven’t planned to add Altium library support for v6.

eelik · October 16, 2020, 7:32am

No way Altium would add KiCad export! I think the latest messages meant a roundabout conversion from “ASCII Altium PcbDoc file” to another Altium format to be imported by KiCad.

The good news is that the schematic importer is already in the official master branch of KiCad, but it’s appareantly not ready for all uses yet. See https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/merge_requests/472.

I haven’t seen any discussion about converting libraries. At the moment you have to open one instance of each symbol or footprint in the corresponding library editor and use “Save As” to create your own librares. (EDIT: open them from the schematic or the layout.)

eelik · October 16, 2020, 7:32am

Dang, pointhi was too fast…

pointhi · October 16, 2020, 7:39am

To get some idea about the current State. This is how it should look like in Altium:

This is the state, how the schematic import would look in the current nightlies. You see, completly unusable:

This is the state you would get after the merge-request. Power symbols, Text and so is still missing, but it finally looks like a schematic:

der.ule · October 16, 2020, 7:53am

thanks pointhi for your efforts, something great you have going on there! keep it up!

pedro · October 17, 2020, 10:54am

Hi,
I’ve been using v5.99 from ppa/ubuntu for a while now.
I would like to test the Altium importer, but I can’t find this option in the menu.

Do I need to download a specific version and compile?

Qbort · October 17, 2020, 1:28pm

@pedro At the moment the importer is hidden to normal users due to being incomplete. If you want to give it a try anyway, you will have to create a new advanced configuration variable. You’ll need to create a new file kicad_advanced in the KiCad configuration folder, if you don’t have it already. Then (as pointhi mentioned in his merge request):

Set PluginAltiumSch=1 in ~/.config/kicad/5.99/kicad_advanced for now.