kibuilder: visual step-by-step assembly guides from KiCAD PCBs

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Authors: Matthew Nakamura
Cited by: 3

Abstract

A tool that turns any KiCAD PCB into a visual, stage-by-stage assembly guide. Each step pairs a high-quality OpenCASCADE render of the components added at that stage with a cumulative kicad-cli render of the board, composited into instruction-manual-style pages with step badges and quantity tags. Outputs per-stage images, a combined landscape PDF, and a GitHub-viewable Markdown guide. Includes a PyQt6 GUI for stage editing, component orientation, and height-based auto-staging.

Publication details

Journal / source
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Publication date
13 June 2026