Setup
Ensure KiKit is installed with kikit --version
Check this installations resources/panelizePresets/default.json and panelize_ui_sections.py before adding parameters, these are the way, the truth, and the light.
Usage
- Find the source .kicad_pcb requsted by the user
- Inspect its actual board files, Edge.Cuts, copper layers, pads and components that may interesect board edges to identify items like castellations, edge connectors, antennas, plated edges, etc.
- Resolve grid dimensions, spacing, rotation, tabs, separation, frame, and fabricator limits.
- Position tooling holes and fiducials relative to the panel outline
- Write strict json.
- Generate a versioned panel without overwriting the source in a "build" subdirectory
- Check the generated panel before notifying the user, ensuring that it looks proper from the baord file level as well as in render.
Preferred starting values
- Board routing gap: 2mm
- Tab width: 3mm
- Mouse-bite drill: 0.5mm
- Mouse-bite spacing: 0.8mm
- Mouse-bite offset: 0mm
- Full frame width: 5mm
- Frame-to-array clearance: 2mm
- Frame break cuts: none
- Exterior frame radius: 2mm
- Interior routing radius: 0.25mm
- Tooling: three 1.5mm holes
- Tooling stencil apertures: enabled
- Fiducials: three, 1mm copper with 1mm openings
- Fiducial paste apertures: disabled
KiKit behavior
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source.type: "auto" is appropriate for an ordinary single-board file.
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tabs.type: "spacing" places tabs symmetrically and cannot exclude a particular side.
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With fixed tabs:
- hcount controls tabs projecting from left/right edges.
- vcount controls tabs projecting from top/bottom edges.
- A zero count suppresses that pair of directions.
-
Use annotation tabs when only selected segments or one side must be excluded.
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Protected tab directions must be derived from each board’s geometry and rotation. Never hardcode “bottom” or “right” as a universal rule.
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The global mouse-bite cut method processes every generated cut path, including framing.cuts.
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Therefore, framing.cuts: "both" with mouse bites drills break rows through the rails.
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Use framing.cuts: "none" for a continuous frame.
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Tooling and fiducial offsets are measured inward from the panel’s outer edges.
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To center a feature across a 5 mm frame, use a 2.5 mm perpendicular offset.
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Tooling holes and fiducials with identical counts and offsets overlap. Separate them along the rail.
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paste: true means the feature gets an aperture on the stencil paste layers. It does not control whether a drilled hole is visible.
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framing.fillet rounds exterior panel corners.
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post.millradius rounds concave interior routed corners.
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post.reconstructarcs: true produces real Edge.Cuts arcs instead of dense line-segment approximations.
Useful commands
python3 -m json.tool panelize.json kikit panelize -p panelize.json input.kicad_pcb output-panel.kicad_pcb
Dump the fully merged KiKit configuration with:
kikit panelize -p panelize.json -d resolved.json input.kicad_pcb output-panel.kicad_pcb
Render and open it with:
kicad-cli pcb render
--output panel-top.png
--width 1600
--height 1200
--side top
--background opaque
--quality high
panel.kicad_pcb
kicad-cli pcb render
--output panel-iso.png
--width 1600
--height 1200
--perspective
--rotate 325,0,35
panel.kicad_pcb