05-29, 09:40–10:20 (America/Los_Angeles), Theater
With the release of FreeCAD 1.0 last year and KiCAD v9 introducing it's new long-term API it's time to follow up on my 2019 KiCon threat of improving interoperability between these two CAD suites. KiConnect is a new Workbench for FreeCAD that uses the KiCAD 9 API for bidirectional manipulation of PCBs and their components.
KiConnect is the FreeCAD Workbench I've dreamed of since creating The Cacoffiny in 2018. After several false starts, the stars have aligned. FreeCAD 1.0 was released, KiCAD 9 coming out with it's new long term API, I have finally seen a glimmer of what this Workbench could be.
Even it's early stages it can already do many of the things I want, the biggest ones being able to put circuit boards in a FreeCAD Assembly and be able to update it in place. Something I barely achieved with a delicate mess of Macros before can now be done in a few clicks.
With the core functionality well underway the roadmap ahead is full of possibilities. Multi-board assemblies, rigid/flex assemblies, panelization of dissimilar boards, and much more.
This talk is a followup to my KiCON 2019 talk on designing The Cacoffiny.
