KiKit Viewer

A visual panel editor for KiKit that runs as a KiCad pcbnew plugin. Design and preview PCB panels interactively without editing JSON by hand.

Features

• Live preview — Panel re-renders automatically as you adjust parameters (or manually via F5). Live refresh can be enabled or disabled with a click.
• Layout — Supports grid layout with rows, columns, spacing, rotation, and alternation as well as a manual placement mode with drag-and-drop positioning.
• Tabs — Supports standard KiKit modes (fixed, spacing, corner, full, annotation) as well as manual tab placement. Manual mode lets you drag tab markers onto board edges.
• Framing — Supports KiKit standard modes: frame, tight frame, rails (top/bottom or left/right); Fiducials and tooling holes have draggable handles for positioning them graphically.
• Layer visibility — Per-layer toggle with color swatches matching the active KiCad color theme.
• Undo/Redo — full undo stack (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y)
• Save/Load — .kicad_panel format (JSON); legacy .kikit.json files load cleanly
• Export — copies the finished panel as a standard KiCad PCB file (*.kicad_pcb) to a location of your choice

Requirements

• KiCad 8.0 or later
• KiKit plugin installed via KiCad's Plugin Content Manager (PCM)
• Python 3.11+ (separate from KiCad's embedded Python) with PySide6, shapely, and qtawesome

Installation

Prerequisites

KiKit plugin

A full KiKit installation includes three separate parts. Follow the directions at https://yaqwsx.github.io/KiKit/latest/installation/intro/ to ensure you have the complete system installed.

Python 3 with additional packages

The KiKit Viewer GUI requires a Python installation that includes PySide6, shapely, and qtawesome. KiCad's bundled Python interpreter does not include these additional packages. Install Python on your system according to your OS conventions. Once Python is installed, you can use the following command to install the required packages:

pip install PySide6>=6.6 shapely>=2.0 qtawesome>=1.3

Installation Via KiCad Plugin and Content Manager (recommended)

PCM submission to the official KiCad repository is pending. In the meantime, you can use our unofficial repository, or you can use the manual method below.

Note: The KiKit plugin (a separate PCM package) must be installed first regardless of which installation method you use.

Using the Unofficial Repository

1. Open the KiCad Plugin and Content Manager tool.
2. On the Repository tab, click the "Manage..." button.
3. In the dialog that appears, click the "+" to add a new repository.
4. Paste the URL for the KiKit Viewer repository JSON file: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AvetosDesign/KiKitViewer/master/repository.json
5. Click "OK"
6. In the Manage Repositories dialog, click "Save".
7. Back in the Plugin and Content Manager main window, use the repository pull-down at the top to select the KiKit Viewer repository.
8. Select the KiKit Viewer package and click "Install"

That should be it. Please contact us if you run into problems.

Manual installation

1. Install the KiKit plugin by following the directions at https://yaqwsx.github.io/KiKit/latest/installation/intro/, then restart KiCad.

2. Clone or download this repository.

3. Run the install script. It writes a small stub into KiCad's scripting/plugins folder that points back to the cloned source.

   python install_plugin.py
   

   The script auto-detects all installed KiCad versions and targets the newest one. To see what was found, or to target a specific version:

   python install_plugin.py --list
   python install_plugin.py 9.0
   

   Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

4. Restart KiCad. A KiKit Viewer button will appear in the pcbnew toolbar.

Usage

1. Open a board in pcbnew.
2. Click the KiKit Viewer toolbar button. The viewer opens in a separate window with the current board pre-loaded.
3. Adjust panelization parameters in the left dock (Layout, Tabs, Framing, Cuts, Post).
4. The panel preview updates automatically. Use F5 or the Refresh button to trigger a manual update.
5. Save your configuration as a .kicad_panel file (File → Save, Ctrl+S).
6. Export the finished panel board (File → Export).

Keyboard shortcuts

Key	Action
F5	Refresh panel
Ctrl+0 / Home	Fit panel in view
Ctrl++ / Ctrl+-	Zoom in / out
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y	Undo / Redo
Ctrl+S	Save
Delete	Remove selected tab marker (manual tabs mode)

Manual board placement

Switch the Layout panel to type manual, then:

• Click a row in the position table to select a board, or click a board outline on the canvas to select its table row — a white outline appears on the canvas
• Drag the outline to reposition the board
• The table can be manually edited to change position and rotation. Simply double-click any parameter to edit.

Manual tab placement

Switch the Tabs panel to type manual, then:

• Left-click on the canvas to place a tab on the nearest board edge
• Right-click on the canvas → Add Tab Here
• Drag tab markers to reposition them (they snap to the board outline on release)
• Right-click a marker → Remove, or select it and press Delete

File format

KiKit Viewer saves configurations as .kicad_panel files — standard KiKit JSON with an extra kikit_viewer section for UI state (layer visibility, etc.). The KiKit section is identical to a .kikit.json preset file and can be used directly with the KiKit CLI:

kikit panelize --preset my_panel.kicad_panel board.kicad_pcb panel.kicad_pcb

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

AI Notice

Claude Code was used in the creation of this plugin. OpenAI (ChatGPT) was used to create the plugin icon.