KiCad6 – JLCPCB tools

Plugin to generate all files necessary for JLCPCB board fabrication and assembly

• Gerber files
• Excellon files
• BOM file
• CPL file

Furthermore it lets you search the JLCPCB parts database and assign parts directly to the footprints which result in them being put into the BOM file.

Installation

Add my custom repo to the Plugin and Content Manager, the URL is

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Bouni/bouni-kicad-repository/main/repository.json

This plugin will download the JLCPCB database (CSV format) located at:

https://jlcpcb.com/componentSearch/uploadComponentInfo

And will transform it into a SQlite3 database stored in:

c:\Users\[NAME]\Documents\KiCad\6.0\3rdparty\plugins\com_github_bouni_kicad-jlcpcb-tools\jlcpcb\parts.db

Select LCSC parts from the JLCPCB parts database

Select one or multiple footprints, click select part. You can select parts with equal value and footprint using the Select alike button. In the upcoming modal dialog, search for parts, select the one of your choice and click select part. The LCSC number of your selection will then be assigned to the footprints.

Generate fabrication data

Generate all necessary assembly files for your board with a simple click.

A new directory called jlcpcb is created, and in there, two separate folders are created, gerber and assembly.

In the gerber folder all necessary *.gbr and *.drl files are generated and zipped, ready for upload to JLCPCB. The zipfile is named GERBER-<projectname>.zip

In the assembly folder, two files are generated, BOM-<projectname>.csv and CPL-<projectname>.csv.

Footprints are included into the BOM and CPL files according to their exclude from BOM and exclude from CPL attributes.

Footprint rotation correction

JLCPCB seems to need corrected rotation information. @matthewlai implemented that in his JLCKicadTools and I adopted his work in this plugin as well. You can download Matthews file from GitHub as well als manage your own corrections in the Rotation manager.

---