Frequently asked questions

The PNG output does not work! My images are empty or look weird.

PcbDraw uses either Inkscape or librsvg (rsvg-convert) to convert generated SVG files into PNG files. If neither is available, conversion will fail.

We recommend installing librsvg as it is faster. On Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install librsvg2-bin

Alternatively, install Inkscape 1.x. Make sure the inkscape or rsvg-convert executable is in your PATH.

PcbDraw doesn't work with my KiCad version

PcbDraw supports KiCad 9 and 10, following the policy of supporting the two latest KiCad releases. Older versions (v5, v6, v7, v8) are no longer supported. If you need support for older versions, use PcbDraw v1.1.x from PyPI.

PcbDraw invokes kicad-cli and does not import the pcbnew Python module. If KiCad is installed outside PATH, set KICAD_CLI to the executable path.

Component footprints are missing

PcbDraw ships with a basic set of SVG footprint images. If your board uses footprints that are not in the built-in library, PcbDraw will show a warning and skip those components. You can provide your own footprint SVGs via the --libs option or create them using the pcbdraw libtemplate command. See the library documentation for details.