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DRMgr Plugin

This PCBNEW plugin lets you save and restore the board settings for a PCB. This is useful for storing the design rules of a particular PCB fab and then applying them to an existing or new project.

  • Free software: MIT license

Features

  • Save current PCBNEW board settings into a file.
  • Apply board settings from a file into a current PCBNEW session.
  • Select portions of the board settings for storage or retrieval.

Installation

Just copy DRMgr.py file to one of the following directories:

  • Windows: kicad/share/kicad/scripting/plugins.
  • Linux: kicad/scripting/plugins.

You will also have to install the KinJector Python package using these instructions.

Usage

The plugin is started by pressing the Tools => External Plugins... => DRMgr button. This brings up a dialog window with three buttons:

  • Open: Opens a file containing board settings and applies them to the current board.
  • Save: Stores the settings for the current board into a file.
  • Cancel: Oh, just forget it!

There are also checkboxes to enable the portions of the board settings that are saved or restored:

  • Layers: List of enabled/visible PCB layers along with number of wiring layers and PCB thickness.
  • Design Rules: The minimum track/via/microvia dimensions and some miscellaneous flags.
  • Tracks & Vias: Dimensions for pre-defined tracks and vias.
  • Solder Mask/Paste: Dimensions and clearances for solder mask and paste.
  • Net Class Definitions: Width/clearance/via/microvia/ dimensions for classes of nets.
  • Net Class Assignments: Assignments of nets to net classes.
  • Plot Settings: Parameters and options controlling the output of Gerber or other plotting files.
  • Drill Settings: Parameters and options controlling the output of drill files (not currently working).

Applying Design Rules

Pressing the Open button brings up the following window:

Selecting a design rule file (having the default suffix of .kidr) and then clicking the Open button will apply the settings in the file to the board currently open in PCBNEW. The state of the dialog checkboxes will determine which sections of the file will be applied to the board.

Saving Design Rules

Pressing the Save button brings up the following window:

Selecting a design rule file or typing a file name and then clicking the Save button will load the file with all the settings for the board currently open in PCBNEW. The state of the dialog checkboxes will determine which portions of the board settings will be stored in the file.

Editing Design Rules

The dialog checkboxes will determine which board settings are saved in the design rule file. If you do not want to apply some of these settings (e.g., layer visibility flags or net class assignments), just uncheck the appropriate boxes.

If you want finer control of which settings are saved or restored, you can open the file and delete those portions of the hierarchy you don't need.

If you want more detailed control of the design rule values, it's usually easier to open the file in PCBNEW, make changes in the File => Board Setup... dialog, and then save the altered board settings into the original file or a new file.

Caveats

Due to deficiencies in the PCBNEW Python API, DRMgr is currently unable to store or update design rules for the following board features:

  • Text and graphic dimensions for all layers,
  • Widths, gaps, and via gaps for pre-defined differential pairs.

Credits

Development Lead

Contributors

History

1.0.0 (2021-09-17)

  • Decided this tool was mature to the point it could be called 1.0.0.

0.1.0 (2019-06-08)

  • First release.