KiCadSharp 0.2.0

KiCadSharp

A .NET client for KiCad. Drive a running pcbnew over KiCad's IPC API, and read symbol and footprint libraries off disk.

dotnet add package KiCadSharp

using KiCadSharp;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

var services = new ServiceCollection();
services.AddLogging();
services.AddKiCad("my-plugin");

var kicad = services.BuildServiceProvider()
                    .GetRequiredService<IKiCadFactory>()
                    .Create("my-plugin");

var board = await kicad.GetBoard();
var footprints = await board.GetItems(KiCadObjectType.KotPcbFootprint);

Console.WriteLine($"{footprints.Count} footprints on {board.Name}");

KiCad has to be running with Preferences → Plugins → Enable IPC API ticked. No token needed — the client picks one up on the first round trip.

Before you start

This works against pcbnew. It does not work against eeschema on KiCad 10.0.6 — that build registers essentially nothing over IPC, not even GetVersion. The schematic commands land in KiCad 11. What we measured is in docs/ipc.md.

For lossless work on .kicad_sch and .kicad_pcb files, reach for SExpressions or the kicadsharp CLI below. The typed document model here covers symbol and footprint libraries well; its write path is partial, and docs/status.md says exactly where.

The packages

The CLI

dotnet tool install --global KiCadSharp.Cli

kicadsharp parse    <file>                 forms, nodes, depth
kicadsharp fmt      <file> [--in-place]    reformat through a verified round trip
kicadsharp query    <file> <path> [--all]  read a value by path
kicadsharp validate <file>                 does it parse? non-zero if not

$ kicadsharp query board.kicad_pcb kicad_pcb/general/thickness
1.6

fmt re-parses its own output and compares the trees before writing anything, so a clean run is the proof the round trip was lossless. It refuses --in-place when it would drop content.

More examples

Edit the board inside a commit

var board = await kicad.GetBoard();
var commit = await board.BeginCommit();

// ... change items ...

await board.PushCommit(commit, "move the connector");

Read a symbol library from disk

var lib = KiCadSymbolLibrary.Load("orbion.kicad_sym");

foreach (var symbol in lib.Symbols)
    Console.WriteLine($"{symbol.Id}: {symbol.Pins.Count} pins");

lib.Save("orbion.kicad_sym");

Net classes and text variables

var project = await kicad.GetProject();
var classes = await project.GetNetClasses();
var expanded = await project.ExpandTextVariables("${ORBION_PN} rev ${BOARD_REV}");

Every type and member: docs/api.md.

Platforms

net10.0 on Linux, macOS and Windows, x64 and arm64. The transport talks to nng through P/Invoke and the native library ships in the package for six RIDs. Point KICADSHARP_NNG_LIBRARY at your own build if you need something else.

Building

git clone https://github.com/danielmeza/kicad-sharp
cd kicad-sharp
dotnet test

KiCad's .proto files are vendored under protos/, pinned to a release tag — no submodule, no 1.4 GB checkout. To build against a local SExpressions checkout, see docs/building.md.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests welcome. If you're reporting something about IPC, say which KiCad version and which editor: pcbnew and eeschema behave very differently.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.