KiCAD tips#

KiCAD is an open source electronic design automation (EDA) software, that consists of a schematic editor, PCB editor, and many more tools. This page is aimed at providing some tips beyond the documentation that can be found in their homepage.

How to create a symbol using a CSV pinout file#

The symbol editor tool in KiCAD allows you to create symbols, which is very useful when making custom symbols or symbols for components not available by default. However, for components like FPGAs, this is very time consuming and I do not recommend to make the symbol by hand. Rather, you can use a software package (particularly the KiPart package) which can convert a CSV file with the pinout information directly into a schematic. Simple follow the steps below (using the AMD-Xilinx Artix Ultrascale+ XCAU25P-SFVB784 as an example).

  1. First create the CSV file with the pinouts.

    Hint

    For the AMD-Xilinx UltraScale+ FPGAs, you can find the basic pinouts at their homepage.

    The CSV files should be made in the format Pin, Name, .. as shown below. Make sure to give the name of the symbol first. More details on the naming and options can be found here.

    name_of_symbol
Pin,Name,Type,Side,Style,Unit
1,Input_1,bidirectional,left,line,A
2,Input_2,bidirectional,right,line,A
...,...,...,...,...,...
10,GND,power_in,left,line,B
...,...,...,...,...,...

  2. Then install KiPart. As always, it’s good to install these package to a python venv.

    python3 -m venv KiCAD_Schem_Conv
source KiCAD_Schem_Conv/bin/activate
python3 -m pip install kipart

  3. Then run using the below command.

    kipart mycomp_pinout.csv -o mycomp.kicad_sym

  4. Finally add the KiCAD symbol to the schematic library in KiCAD through Preferences –> Manage Symbol Libraries –> <folder mark> –> Select the mycomp.kicad_sym

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