u/admwscki's kicad-kbplacer is a KiCad plugin using KLE layouts to place switches and diodes.
KBD.news Published June 1, 2023
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The kicad-kbplacer KiCad plugin by adamws/admwscki is a handy tool for designing keyboard PCBs. Developed an open-sourced to simplify mechanical keyboard PCB design, it automatically places switches and diodes, and uses the popular JSON layout description format of Keyboard Layout Editor.
All PCBs for mechanical keyboards share common properties which creates great opportunity for scripting. Although this project does not aim to provide a complete automatic PCB generation tool, it speeds up the development process by reducing the task of placing the element – adamws.
This tool is compatible with KiCad 7 and available in the official KiCad plugin repository.
(KLE is great for more classic or ortho layouts, but it gets a real pita once rotation and symmetry is involved, i.e. when designing split boards. In this case you may prefer ErgoGen.)
Features
Automatic key and diode placement
Support for different annotation schemes
Basic track routing
Key rotation support
User selectable diode position in relation to key position