How to import Altium PCBDoc

[danyhm]

Hello,

I'm looking for a workflow where I can import Altium PCBdoc and then generate Gerber files.

Currently this is possible manually with Kicad and PCBeditor but I can't seem to find a way to automate it without UI.

Is Kibot able to do this?

[set-soft]

Hi @danyhm !

Nope, KiBot doesn't implement it. This is because this is an operation that people does only once and manually.

Are you sure that the manual process is simple? I mean: KiCad could import the file, but you'll most probably need to adjust some details manually.

[danyhm]

Hi,

The import is done with PCBeditor.

No other manual setting is required. The file is converted to kicad_pcb

[set-soft]

Do you have a small simple file to use as example? Something simple, but enough to check the gerbers

[danyhm]

esp01.zip
here is a sample PCBDoc File

[danyhm]

Any chance this will be implemented?
if not do you know of any other method that doesn't need GUI and can be run in linux?
my ultimate goal is to convert PCBDoc to gerbers without altium

[danyhm]

This is actually amazing for a start. the important layers are copper and silk layers. altium has more layers unique to its ecosystem.
How did you get this output?

[danyhm]

suppose we suppress the warnings and proceed as is. will it give any Gerbers that can be at least rendered?

[set-soft]

Not gerbers yet, but KiAuto can now convert the file you sent me, I tried it for KiCad 7 and 8.

The command is: pcbnew_do convert -o OUTPUT.kicad_pcb INPUT.PcbDoc ./

Now I'll try to add the conversion to KiBot

[set-soft]

The f0c8e12 patch adds some experimental support.
You need KiAuto 2.3.2 installed, then you just pass the Altium PCB file to KiBot.
I was able to get the gerbers for the file you posted.

[danyhm]

Thanks. I see that KiAuto does this emulating the User interaction. Is there anyway to do it inside a linux VPS without GUI?

[set-soft]

KiAuto uses a virtual X server, is designed to do the work using a remote server. The main idea behind KiBot (which uses KiAuto for GUI tasks) is to run all the things in a CI/CD environment, like GitHub Actions. When running KiAuto you won't see any KiCad window, they are all redirected to a virtual server.

You can just use a docker image like kicad_auto_test to run KiBot. All the needed tools are installed in the docker image. But note that this new feature is experimental, and you'll need the docker images tagged as dev (development) to find the new features.

As I said now you can use KiBot to generate gerbers for the file you sent, you just pass to KiBot the PcbDoc file instead of the kicad_pcb file. KiBot will try to convert the file using KiAuto.