Roundabout way to "convert" a PDF to a schematic - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: LoveLaika
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2022, 09:48:20 pm
content: I kind of found a roundabout way to take a PDF and turn it into a schematic, or at the very least, an image that can be superimposed onto a schematic. As a test, I took a PDF of a schematic, and I converted to a bitmap. I then used KiCAD's worksheet editor, loaded the bitmap into a template, saved the template, and used the schematic page settings to load the template. You can see the results below in my ZIP file. It took a lot of steps, and it was a bit roundabout, but that's one way to take a PDF of sorts and convert it into a schematic (if not an actual schematic, at least a guideline for a schematic).This method seems handy, especially for taking really old schematics and trying to rebuild them. Rather than redraw them by hand, this gives a guide to make things easier. I was wondering if anyone had some tips to make this process smoother or more accurate? Or maybe there's a more direct way to convert a PDF to a KiCAD schematic? I thought this was kind of cool, so I thought to share it.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2022, 09:17:11 pm
content: There are some 50+ "side projects" around KiCad, and one of them is uConfig:https://github.com/Robotips/uConfigIt claims to be able to help with pin data extraction from pdf (datasheets) to create schematic symbols.I have not used it myself though, and I do not know how good it works. For a big part it depends on the .PDF you start with. Some .PDF files are just grorified bitmaps, while others have text as real text.

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2022, 09:28:04 pm
content: It may look like a schematic, but can KiCad convert it to a PCB and include schematic capture?

author: Bassman59
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 10, 2022, 06:29:15 pm
content: it will be really useful when it figures out how to pull the correct footprints for board layout.

author: LoveLaika
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2022, 02:58:25 pm
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on March 09, 2022, 09:28:04 pmNot sure about that. I was repairing a piece of equipment (old power equipment from the '80s), and I just thought to myself that when it fails, I'll probably have to rebuild the board by making a PCB of it and all that. The thing is, if I try to replicate it, I fear that I might miss out on a wire or some component that would cause the whole endeavor to fail. It would be cool if there was a tool to do this for me (forgot about uConfig when I wrote this up; it'll be interesting to see if it will work for a whole schematic rather than a single component), but I couldn't find one. So, this was my 'hack'; it's not perfect but at least I have a guide to try and not make mistakes.Documentation also provided a 'block diagram' of sorts showing the component and the board, but it doesn't show the connections. It's not very detailed, and it would be hard to get a PCB generated from it.

author: LoveLaika
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2022, 02:59:39 pm
content: Quote from: Doctorandus_P on March 09, 2022, 09:17:11 pmThanks for the reply. I am curious to see if uConfig will work for me. It will be interesting to see it being applied to a whole schematic rather than a single part.

author: LoveLaika
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2022, 03:00:51 pm
content: Quote from: Bassman59 on March 10, 2022, 06:29:15 pmSadly, that seems far off.