kicad-diff-visualizer

A tool to visualize differences in PCB layouts and schematics created with KiCad.

This tool recognizes a Git repository and auto-backups, and visualizes the difference between two versions. Typical use cases include:

• Writing commit logs: it helps you recall design changes.
• Reviewing commit history: visual diffs are easier to understand than text diffs.

One of the key features of this tool is its minimal reliance on external dependencies. It leverages kicad-cli, which comes bundled with KiCad, to generate images for each commit and calculate the differences.

Requirements

• git command
  • Ubuntu: sudo apt install git
• Jinja >= 2.10
  • Ubuntu: sudo apt install python3-jinja2
• GitPython >= 3.0 (for tests)
  • Ubuntu: sudo apt install python3-git

This program has been tested on Ubuntu running under WSL2. Please test it on your environment and send a report or a pull request.

Screenshot

The server shows the PCB layout differences.

• White: no diff
• Red: only in the old commit
• Blue: only in the new commit

Shcematics can be showen as well.

How to use

$ ./run_server.sh /path/to/kicad_project_dir

or

$ cd /path/to/kicad_project_dir
$ /path/to/kicad-diff-visualizer/run_server.sh

Then, open http://localhost:8000/ with a Web browser.

kicad_project_dir refers to the directory containing a .kicad_pro file. Alternatively, you may directly specify paths to .kicad_pcb and/or .kicad_sch.

Once a page is opened, you can change the "Base" and "Target" versions individually. Click the "show list" button to view available versions, including Git commits and auto-backups located in the <proj>-backups directory. You can select a version from the list or enter its name directly in the text box. Version names follow these formats: YYYY-MM-DD for auto-backups and SHA-1 hashes for Git commits.

Configuration

Copy kidivis_sample.ini to kidivis.ini, then modify it as needed. To use a different configuration file, pass the --conf option to run_server.sh.