KiCad PDF Export with Zone Fill

A CLI tool that exports KiCad PCB files to PDF after filling all zones.

This solves the limitation in KiCad 9.x where kicad-cli pcb export pdf does not fill zones before exporting. (The --check-zones flag was added in KiCad 10.)

Requirements

• KiCad 9.x installed (uses KiCad's Python scripting API)
• macOS or Linux

Installation

# Clone or download, then:
./install.sh

# To uninstall:
./uninstall.sh

The install script creates a symlink in ~/.local/bin (or /usr/local/bin if writable).

If ~/.local/bin is not in your PATH, add it:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Usage

# Basic usage
./kicad-export-pdf board.kicad_pcb -o output.pdf

# Specific layers
./kicad-export-pdf board.kicad_pcb -o output.pdf --layers F.Cu,B.Cu

# Use a preset
./kicad-export-pdf board.kicad_pcb -o output.pdf --layers outer

# Skip zone filling (if already filled)
./kicad-export-pdf board.kicad_pcb -o output.pdf --no-fill

# Verbose output
./kicad-export-pdf board.kicad_pcb -o output.pdf -v

Layer Presets

Preset	Layers
copper	F.Cu, B.Cu
outer	F.Cu, B.Cu, F.SilkS, B.SilkS, F.Mask, B.Mask, Edge.Cuts
fab	F.Fab, B.Fab, Edge.Cuts
assembly	F.Fab, B.Fab, F.SilkS, B.SilkS, Edge.Cuts
all-copper	All enabled copper layers

Options

positional arguments:
  input                 Input .kicad_pcb file

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -o, --output OUTPUT   Output PDF file path (required)
  -l, --layers LAYERS   Comma-separated layer names or preset
  --no-fill             Skip zone filling
  --mirror              Mirror the output
  --negative            Negative plot
  --bw                  Black and white output
  --no-values           Exclude component values
  --no-refs             Exclude reference designators
  --frame               Include border and title block
  -v, --verbose         Verbose output

Direct Python Usage

If the wrapper script doesn't find KiCad's Python, you can run directly:

# macOS
/Applications/KiCad/KiCad.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin/python3 \
    kicad_export_pdf.py board.kicad_pcb -o output.pdf

# Or set KICAD_PYTHON
export KICAD_PYTHON=/path/to/kicad/python3
./kicad-export-pdf board.kicad_pcb -o output.pdf

Integration with Build Scripts

#!/bin/bash
# Example: export all PCBs in a directory

EXPORT_SCRIPT="./kicad-export-pdf"

for pcb in pcbs/*.kicad_pcb; do
    name=$(basename "$pcb" .kicad_pcb)
    $EXPORT_SCRIPT "$pcb" -o "output/${name}.pdf" --layers outer -v
done

How It Works

1. Loads the PCB using KiCad's pcbnew Python module
2. Creates a ZONE_FILLER and fills all zones
3. Uses PLOT_CONTROLLER to export to PDF
4. The filled zones are included in the PDF output

The zones are filled in memory only - the original .kicad_pcb file is not modified.

License

MIT