KiCad friendly PCB manufacturer

Good morning all.

I'm using KiCad 8.0 and have noticed it has some bill of material generating changes from 7.0

I've used KiCad alot and JLCPCB for blank circuit boards. I'm now trying to get some boards made with SMD components.
JLC does not seem to work well with KiCad for that. (At least to my experience)
I know JLC has EasyEDA but i'm most practiced with KiCad.

Are there any recommendations for other manufactures that work well with KiCad?

Have you tried to upload the KiCAD project file instead of the Gerber files? or what?

I upload the gerber files, that part is pretty easy.
I've done it alot when i order blank PCBs for my small THT projects.

JLCPCB apparently does't like how KiCad makes a BOM or placement files.
both of which are csv. files that JLC wants.

I've contacted JLC and the procedures they have to make them mesh seem to be outdated for KiCad8.

They weren't super great with Kicad6/7 but it worked.

JLCPCB apparently does't like how KiCad makes a BOM or placement files.

I literally went through this for the first time yesterday as a test and yeah, it didn't go well. I downloaded their sample BOM & placement files and edited the KiCAD outputs to match, but it still complained.

If you google KiCAD JLCPCB you'll find some scripts that claim to output the manufacturing files in the right format, but I didn't have time to try it out.

ISTR that OSHPark now also has an assembly service associated with them and they might take raw KiCAD files. But I haven't investigated that either.

1 Like

I get that JLC want to utilize their own products including CAD but i would also imagine that a company would make it easy for other CADs to play well together.

They make money from making PCBs not from keeping the entire process "in-house" :roll_eyes:

I did succeed, but had issues. I had to remove the columns as far as i remember, and it had some trouble with the identifiers. Somehow couldn't find the corresponding identifier of the Pick & Place for the BOM (or vice versa) but once i actually copied and pasted the identifier between the 2 it worked.
Mind you i had only one part, and it may have resulted from the generated BOM was much more populated.
I'm still on KICAD 6 just to be clear.
The final files need to be in a very specific format.


This worked for me.
I got some guidance from this
They do explain quite clearly, and with Libre office it was do-able.

Pay extra attention to the rotation though.
I had to make a correction on it, simply because the footprint from the kicad library didn't match what JLCPCB uses. After you upload, verify how you want them. Correct the BOM rotation and re-upload until you get it right. After that you can correct the footprint so the BOM that you generate the next time will be correct straight away.

I think i found the best solution.
It appears that its actually in KiCad.

KiCad Home Page; Plug in and Content Manager; Search JLCPCB; install fabrication tool kit.

On the PCB layout page, top right of the page, the plugin symbol is there.
It will automatically make BOM, Placement files, and gerbers.

1 Like