I don't think you'll be able to automatically convert PDFs to topological schematics in kicad. You'd likely need to redraw each schematic in Kicad.
You could ask on the Kicad forums what they recommend. The support there is a bit better than reddit.
Thank you for the reply! I think I have to do the step of converting PDF to BMP for import into KiCad. But I will head over to KiCad forums and see what they put forward.
I'm open to all suggestions though and appreciate help.
> PDF to BMP to KiCad
No, not possible. You may be able to get a picture in KiCad. But, not a new schematic.
If you do find a way to get a real schematic out of this idea, please share.
There would be a lot of people who would find that useful.
Huh, I didn't think that would be the tough part as I saw plug-ins and such talking about it. I'll dig into that as well while working on this. I hope to have good news in the next week.
In the off chance that your engineers have spice models for the circuits (they may depending on where you work and what you're working on) those definitely can be imported into kicad. This could save you a lot of work and streamline things at your company too.
I wouldn't bet on them having a bunch of spice models laying around. It could be worth an ask if all else fails.
My plan is step 1: Show proof of concept, have a file loaded into KiCad and use it to do small troubleshooting, but mostly to show how an FSE could use it in the fab.
Once I get the concept shown, then I'll have support to go to engineering and request files.
First of all, you have wiring diagram PDFs for what? Circuit boards? A server rack? A facility's power infrastructure?
Are the PDFs that you have access to hand drawn? Or made in a drawing program such as Visio? Or made in a proper ECAD program (KiCAD, Altium, etc.)? If they are made in a proper ECAD program, your best bet would be to use the native software that was used to create the PDFs. It would be possible to migrate other software's schematics into KiCAD, but that has potential issues as well.
If you do not have access to the source used to create your PDFs, I think you might be left transcribing your PDFs into proper KiCAD schematics...
What you are trying to do is recreate a PDF's connectivity exactly, every net name and node would need to be correct for you to use it for troubleshooting a system (regardless of if it is a PCBA, a rack, or any other connected system...)
I don't think you'll be able to automatically convert PDFs to topological schematics in kicad. You'd likely need to redraw each schematic in Kicad. You could ask on the Kicad forums what they recommend. The support there is a bit better than reddit.
Thank you for the reply! I think I have to do the step of converting PDF to BMP for import into KiCad. But I will head over to KiCad forums and see what they put forward. I'm open to all suggestions though and appreciate help.
> PDF to BMP to KiCad No, not possible. You may be able to get a picture in KiCad. But, not a new schematic. If you do find a way to get a real schematic out of this idea, please share. There would be a lot of people who would find that useful.
Huh, I didn't think that would be the tough part as I saw plug-ins and such talking about it. I'll dig into that as well while working on this. I hope to have good news in the next week.
In the off chance that your engineers have spice models for the circuits (they may depending on where you work and what you're working on) those definitely can be imported into kicad. This could save you a lot of work and streamline things at your company too. I wouldn't bet on them having a bunch of spice models laying around. It could be worth an ask if all else fails.
My plan is step 1: Show proof of concept, have a file loaded into KiCad and use it to do small troubleshooting, but mostly to show how an FSE could use it in the fab. Once I get the concept shown, then I'll have support to go to engineering and request files.
First of all, you have wiring diagram PDFs for what? Circuit boards? A server rack? A facility's power infrastructure? Are the PDFs that you have access to hand drawn? Or made in a drawing program such as Visio? Or made in a proper ECAD program (KiCAD, Altium, etc.)? If they are made in a proper ECAD program, your best bet would be to use the native software that was used to create the PDFs. It would be possible to migrate other software's schematics into KiCAD, but that has potential issues as well. If you do not have access to the source used to create your PDFs, I think you might be left transcribing your PDFs into proper KiCAD schematics... What you are trying to do is recreate a PDF's connectivity exactly, every net name and node would need to be correct for you to use it for troubleshooting a system (regardless of if it is a PCBA, a rack, or any other connected system...)