EasyEDA Footprint Scraper for KiCAD

The whole project is work-in-progress. There is no solid documentation and everything might not work.

Prerequisites

• KiCAD
• easyeda2kicad
• ctmconv

Trying it out

Just run:

./fetchComponent.py fetchlcsc --kicadLib test.pretty --force C558438

It will create a KiCAD library test.pretty and test.3dshapes in the working directory. There will be a footprint for component C558438 and a corresponding 3D model. To actually view the 3D models in KiCAD, you have to configure a KiCAD variable EASY_EDA_3D pointing to a directory with test.3dshapes.

Docker

On macOS and Windows, it's a pain to expose the Kicad Python interface and install ctmconv. Instead, running inside Docker works perfectly to grab footprints and 3D models - no dependencies needed on the host system.

1. Build the docker container (run from the root of this repository). docker build . --tag=fetchcomponent
2. Run the container. docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/output fetchcomponent fetchlcsc --kicadLib /output/test.pretty --force C558438

Known issues

• The script segfaults on exit - this is a bug in KiCAD (see issue)
• Materials of 3D models are not preserved
• Some LCSC code are not found
  • this is issue on the EasyEDA website
  • they seem to be working on direct search among LCSC codes, however, their page says it is under construction

What needs to be done

• prepare a script for batch downloading (we can use data from JLC Parts)
  • create a component table
  • cache existing entries
• possibly shorten the long EasyEDA footprint names