How to properly use/build PartitionLine

[Khanorr]

Hello!

I was scouring the documentation and discussions and issues in here but couldn't find any information regarding how to properly draw/inject partition lines into a PCB to try and export multiple different PCB desings into one panel.

My use case would be rapid prototyping of a commercial unit that consists of 12 different small irregular shaped PCB's with castellations and not having to manually panel them for every single new revision would be phenomenal.

I was trying manually building a panel through python and even reading through the UI based code and actions but I just can't figure out how to properly use PartitionLines just to try to have two different PCB desings on one panel somehow.

If someone has any input on that please let me know.

Other than that I simply love the whole suite for fab data and simple panelling. Thanks in advance!

Daniel

[yaqwsx]

This is not well documented yet; basically, you have two options:

• let it compute automatically via bounding boxes (this is what CLI does) by invoking panel.buildPartitionLineFromBB
• or you can set it manually. A partition line is shapely.LineString and it is stored per substrate in panel.substrates. Each substrate has an attribute partitionLine you can directly set.

[Khanorr]

Ah okay, I think i got it.

The order of operations then would be (loosely):

• Create empty panel
• create substrates of target boards via bounding boxes
• building or defining the partition lines for each substrate
• append them to the panel
• framing etc..

Thank you for your quick help, I'll fiddle around with it and see what i can get out of it.

[yaqwsx]

Not precisely, the operations should be:

• create an empty panel,
• plate all your boards via appendBoard,
• build partition line (e.g., via buildPartitionLineFromBB or manually)
• create tabs,
• render cuts,
• create framing,
• save the panel.

Basically, you can follow the CLI:

KiKit/kikit/panelize_ui.py

Lines 191 to 222 in 3562a29

	panel = Panel(output)
	panel.inheritDesignSettings(board)
	panel.inheritProperties(board)
	panel.inheritTitleBlock(board)
	sourceArea = ki.readSourceArea(preset["source"], board)
	substrates = ki.buildLayout(preset["layout"], panel, input, sourceArea)
	framingSubstrates = ki.dummyFramingSubstrate(substrates,
	ki.frameOffset(preset["framing"]))
	panel.buildPartitionLineFromBB(framingSubstrates)
	tabCuts = ki.buildTabs(preset["tabs"], panel, substrates,
	framingSubstrates, ki.frameOffset(preset["framing"]))
	backboneCuts = ki.buildBackBone(preset["layout"], panel, substrates,
	ki.frameOffset(preset["framing"]))
	frameCuts = ki.buildFraming(preset["framing"], panel)
	ki.buildTooling(preset["tooling"], panel)
	ki.buildFiducials(preset["fiducials"], panel)
	ki.buildText(preset["text"], panel)
	ki.buildPostprocessing(preset["post"], panel)
	ki.makeTabCuts(preset["cuts"], panel, tabCuts)
	ki.makeOtherCuts(preset["cuts"], panel, chain(backboneCuts, frameCuts))
	ki.setStackup(preset["source"], panel)
	ki.runUserScript(preset["post"], panel)
	ki.buildDebugAnnotation(preset["debug"], panel)
	panel.save()

[yaqwsx]

PS: There is a newly emerging scripting guide (still incomplete): https://github.com/yaqwsx/KiKit/blob/master/doc/scripting.md

[Khanorr]

Thank you so much, I'm making progress now. I didn't completely understood the definitions inside the module (substrate/panel etc..) Your short guide helped a lot to get around the concept.

I'll see if i can get decent results from this now :)