KiCad Setup

KiCad Installation

For the 2025-2026 design cycle, LHRs Electrical members will use KiCad 9. Download the latest stable version here.

Required Plugins

There are a few plugins we use that aid in day-to-day development and will make your life a lot easier. You can access the Plugin and Content Manager (PCM) from the KiCad home screen as shown below.

Interactive HTML BOM (IBOM)

This allows you to generate a convenient Bill of Materials (BOM) listing with the ability to visually correlate and easily search for components and their placements on the PCB. It's useful when hand-soldering boards, since you can quickly find the location of each component you're placing. Install from the PCM as shown below. Make sure to click "Apply Pending Changes."

Once installed, you can launch the IBOM tool from pcbnew by clicking this icon in the top bar.

Then modify any relevant settings and generate the IBOM. By default, it will be saved in your project directory as ibom.html.

KiCAD JLCPCB Tools

This plugin is very useful for working with our PCBA fab, JLCPCB. It allows for one-click generation of gerbers, BOM, and CPL (component placement list) files, along with assigning LCSC (JLC supplier) parts for assembly.

Install this plugin by following the directions on Github.

Once installed, you can launch the JLCPCB tool from pcbnew by clicking this icon in the top bar.

To assign LCSC part numbers, simply select a part from the list, click "Select alike parts" in the right sidebar and then "Assign LCSC number." Then you can search for the LCSC number (or use this website for easy parametric search).

Now to generate production files simply click the generate button. The files will be located in the jlcpcb/production_files folder within your project directory.