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Fabrication: PCBWay

The basic usage of this exporter is: 

kikit fab pcbway [OPTIONS] BOARD OUTPUTDIR

When you run this command, you will find file gerbers.zip in OUTPUTDIR. This file can be directly uploaded to the PCBWay site. KiKit automatically detects the number of layers.

If you want to name your files differently, you can specify --nametemplate. For detailed description of this option, see JLC PCB documentation.

Assembly

If you would also like to use the SMD assembly service, you have to specify --assembly option and also provide the board --schematic <schematics_file>. KiKit will generate two extra files: bom.csv (bill of materials) and pos.csv (component placement). Use these two files when ordering the PCB assembly.

The files above will include all components on the board by default, except footprints having the attribute virtual set. You should provide the "Manufacturer" and "PartNumber" Fields for each component, where PartNumber refers to the manufacturers part number (and can safely contain non-digit characters). If the "Description" field is present, this value will be inserted in the "Value/Description" column in the BOM, otherwise the value of the component. It is recommended to provide no description for capacitors, resistors, and inductors, so that the value is inserted into the BOM for them. PCBWay also requires the soldering type (SMD, thru-hole, ...) to be specified. Any footprint only having SMD pads will be considered as "SMD", everything else as "thru-hole". You can manually overwrite the type by adding a "Type" field to the component. For the footprint column of the BOM the KiCad footprint name is used by default. Add a "FootprintPCBWay" field to overwrite this in the BOM list for a more human readable footprint name, if you want. Finally, notes or assembly instructions can be added using the "Notes" field.

You can exclude some of the components by specifying --ignore <comma separated list of references>. When you pass option --missingError, KiKit will fail when there is a component with missing manufacturer and/or part number. This might be useful in case when you run KiKit in CI and you want to fail the build.

Note that when you order assembly for a panel, you should specify panelized board and the original schematics of a single board. Use the --nBoards parameter to specify the number of boards in the panel. The quantity column is generated by multiplying this number with the number of references in each row.

Correction of the Footprint Position

It is possible that orientation footprints in your SMD does not match the orientation of the components in the SMD assembly service. There are two solutions:

  • correct the orientation in the library or
  • apply KiKit's orientation corrections.

The first option is not always feasible - e.g., when you use KiCAD's built-in libraries or you are preparing a board for multiple fabrication houses and each of them uses a different orientation.

KiKit allows you to specify the origin and orientation correction of the position. The correction is specified by PCBWAY_CORRECTION field. The field value is a semicolon separated tuple: <X>; <Y>; <Rotation> with values in millimeters and degrees. You can read the XY corrections by hovering cursor over the intended origin in footprint editor and mark the coordinates. Note that first the rotation correction is applied, then the translation. Usually, you will need only the rotation correction.

Using Corrections to Configure Jumpers

If your board features solder jumpers you can use the corrections to specify their default value. The solder jumper should be designed such it can fit a zero Ohm resistor in suitable size. Then specify an order code of the zero Ohm resistor for the jumper and adjust correction so it fits the default position.

Note that you can specify multiple correction fields by --corrections <comma separated list of correction filed names>. The first found correction field is used. This allows you to keep several configuration of the solder jumpers in your design e.g., in fields PCBWAY_CORRECTION_CFG_1 and PCBWAY_CORRECTION_CFG_2. Then you can simply change the board configuration by calling kikit with --corrections PCBWAY_CORRECTION_CFG_1,PCBWAY_CORRECTION or --corrections PCBWAY_CORRECTION_CFG_2,PCBWAY_CORRECTION.