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  • Author Author: fmilburn
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KiCad 6 - Adding Logos and Graphics to a Silkscreen

fmilburn

KiCad recently released Version 6 and I've been playing around with it this week.  After the initial irritation of little things that have changed like the new icons and learning where the design rules are located, I'm finding my way around again and there are lots of things to like.  I have a board I started in KiCad 5 and against better judgment decided to finish it in the new version.  Adding graphics was always kind of clunky in KiCad but the new version makes it quite a bit easier.

In this case, a servo graphic is desired as shown in the finished board below.

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The drawing was made by taking a screenshot of the servo symbol in the KiCad schematic editor and saving it as a PNG file.

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The image converter on the KiCad home page is used to prepare the graphic.

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Once the image converter is open the graphic is opened with the Load Bitmap button.  But before doing that select the radio button for Footprint.  The Black/White Threshold becomes important for greyscale but won't matter for this black and white line drawing.  Finally, select the Front silk screen radio button (it is possible to change it to the back silk screen inside the PCB editor) and press the Load Bitmap button.

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I got a warning message about the profile which I've been able to safely ignore with line drawings, so press the OK button.

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Now that the graphic is visible it can be prepared for export.  The bitmap has to have sufficient resolution but this image is plenty large for the final 15 x 8.4 mm size footprint selected.  It is possible to export it as a file, but exporting it to the clipboard saves the step of having to import it later so press Export to Clipboard.

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Now with the graphic in the clipboard, navigate to the PCB editor.  I'm using a blank PCB here for demonstration purposes.  Use right-click paste or ctrl-V with Windows and there you go.  Move it to where it belongs and then click on G*** to highlight it and ask for properties.  That is a label KiCad uses for assigning footprints and we don't want it visible on the silk screen.

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Make sure the Visible box is not checked.

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OK, all done.  Here is what it looks like in the 3D viewer.

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  • in reply to shabaz

    Hi Shabaz,

    I’m glad you found it useful and encouragement is always welcome :-)  From reading your posts on KiCad it is clear you are already more advanced than me when it comes to true PCB design issues. I am interested in the 3D aspects of design as a result of complexities associated with trying to stuff electronics into my little robot projects. I’ll make a post on how I move KiCad models into 3D CAD mechanical models. 

  • Hi Frank,

    That looks really good! It was always a pain to import graphics into EAGLE, this looks much easier. And it's great you're blogging on these things so we can all learn these tips and tricks.

    All-in-all, I'm glad I have made the transition to KiCad 6 too, although throughput is slower compared to EAGLE, I'm confident the workflows will improve or I'll discover new ways or I'll find or write scripts.

    From my perspective both EAGLE and KiCad had advantages and disadvantages, they are both missing some functionality or could improve in places, but I couldn't see anything that I couldn't live with were I to move to KiCad. As a result, although I'm editing a few EAGLE projects, I doubt I'll ever use EAGLE again after they are complete.

    As a bonus, I got to finally learn a bit of 3D CAD, since I was seeking how to get vectors into KiCad, and that led me to come across SolveSpace, which I really like - it is way simpler than Fusion 360, which suits me fine because I do not ever intend to become a 3D expert, I just want to learn enough of it to get stuff done.

  • Ive been playing with it too, I like it, it improved lot of things.