KiCad - the KiCad Bridge

@@ -93,8 +93,13 @@ Y = yes, P = partial, N = no. Marks for other tools come from their own document | Gerber, drill, STEP, SVG, PDF export | Y | Y | Y | P | N | P | Y | P | Y | Y | export jobs over IPC for everyone | | 3D image of a board or chip | Y | P | N | N | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | `RunBoardJobExportRender` for everyone | | 3D model diagnostics (missing, unresolved, wrong scale, hidden) | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | unchanged |-| Design review depth (power tree, ESD, EMC, thermal, SI/PI) | P | P | P | Y | N | P | Y | P | N | N | unchanged |-| SPICE simulation with results back to the AI (engines, cross-checks, Monte Carlo) | Y (5) | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | unchanged |+| Current density and DC voltage drop on the real copper, per net, through the vias | Y (9) | N | N | P | N | N | P | N | N | N | unchanged |+| Thermal: heat flow per layer through vias and heatsinks, temperature rise over the board | Y (9) | N | N | P | N | N | P | N | N | N | unchanged |+| Signal integrity: impedance, differential-pair skew, length matching, stackup synthesis | P (9) | N | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | unchanged |+| Power integrity: decoupling and PDN checks | N | N | N | P | N | N | Y | N | N | N | unchanged |+| EMC and ESD rule checks (return paths, plane splits, stitching, protection) | N | N | N | Y | N | N | Y | N | N | N | unchanged |+| DFM against a fab's rules | Y (10) | N | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | unchanged |+| SPICE simulation with results back to the AI | Y (5) | N | N | Y | N | N | Y | N | N | N | unchanged |  ### Libraries and parts @@ -133,12 +138,16 @@ Y = yes, P = partial, N = no. Marks for other tools come from their own document  (4) Our schematic verbs write the file format and run kicad-cli ERC after every write, then reload the editor. KiPilot already edits live through the KiCad 11 schematic API; we move to it as 11 stabilises. -(5) [Adom SPICE](https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/adom-spice-skillpack) runs one study in ngspice (in the container), LTspice or PSpice for TI (on a Windows PC through Adom Bridge), or all three on one set of axes, with an agreement table that names the engine out of line, parallel Monte Carlo, and a ledger of every run's time and AI tokens. PSpice for TI is the only way to run the encrypted PSpice models many power-device vendors ship, and no other tool here drives it. The AI writes the study (netlists, signals, measurements); kicad-happy goes further on the other end, generating testbenches automatically from subcircuits it recognises in a schematic.+(5) [Adom SPICE](https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/adom-spice-skillpack) runs one study in ngspice (in the container), LTspice or PSpice for TI (on a Windows PC through Adom Bridge), or all three on one set of axes, with an agreement table that names the engine out of line, parallel Monte Carlo, and a ledger of every run's time and AI tokens. PSpice for TI is the only way to run the encrypted PSpice models many power-device vendors ship, and no other tool here drives it. The AI writes the study (netlists, signals, measurements). kicad-happy goes further on the other end, generating testbenches automatically from subcircuits it recognises in a schematic, and kicad-mcp-pro runs operating point, AC, transient and DC sweep analyses in ngspice straight from the KiCad project.  (6) The bridge has macOS and Linux platform layers, but each needs an owner's build and test before we mark it supported.  (7) The KiCad Bridge page has had 118 issues since June; 105 are closed, half of them within 16.5 hours, and issues from people other than the project lead closed in a median of 12.2 hours. Three developers on staff review pull requests across the Adom bridges. All 20 pull requests so far came from our own contributors and merged in a median of 8 minutes; we have not yet had one from outside, and we would like to. +(9) [Adom Fields](https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/adom-fields) solves the physics numerically on the board's own filled copper: a DC conduction solve per loaded net between its terminals and through every via barrel (amps per square millimetre on every cell, the peak and where it is), and a heat-flow solve over four coupled copper layers with the dielectric, the vias, conducting heatsink blocks and still or moving air (temperature rise over the board, each hot part's heat split between its layer, its vias and the dielectric). It paints the result on the board in 3D with each part's own model standing in its hot spot, and lists the issues with the fix (a neck over 60 A/mm², a tab over its rise budget, a chip short of thermal vias). Its signals view (0.4) estimates microstrip impedance, differential-pair skew, reference-plane coverage and overlap capacitance. Its limits are on its page: DC only, a flat convection coefficient, no enclosure or radiation. kicad-mcp-pro covers more disciplines with closed-form estimates, which its README rates at typically 5 to 10 percent, "not a substitute for a 2D/3D field solver"; the two approaches complement each other.++(10) [PCB design rules by fab](https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/pcb-design-rules) holds the DRC limits of popular fabs per process and layer count, generated for KiCad, Fusion and Altium; the bridge applies them to the board (`kicad_set_design_rules`) and KiCad's own DRC does the check. kicad-mcp-pro adds a manufacturing cost estimate, which we do not have.+ (8) [adom-symbol](https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/adom-symbol) bakes the chip's outline (rendered from the manufacturer's STEP by chip-thumbnailer, with the part number lasered on) into the middle of the symbol as real polylines, fitted between the pin-name columns so it never covers a pin. Pins come grouped by function from the datasheet extraction, with bold group captions, in two-column, square or square-grouped layouts. A schematic then reads like the board: you can see which package each part is. adom-lbr carries the same drawing and captions into native Altium and Fusion libraries, so the part looks the same in all three tools. Any wiki component page can offer every layout variant, generated in the browser, as a `.kicad_sym` download.  ## What KiCad 11 changes@@ -165,6 +174,7 @@ We have asked the KiCad developers for the second list, with measurements and vi ## Where we lead, with the evidence  - **Real boards, on camera, with the numbers.** The [ESC G431 demo](esc-demo.md) is a public 149-part, 4-layer drone ESC placed and routed from scratch through the bridge by Claude Fable 5.1, GPT-6 Astra and Freerouting, with wall clock, tokens, dollars, result quality and the caveats (an electrical review found power-path and thermal issues in one layout despite clean DRC). The [adom/codex page](https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/codex) has GPT-6 Astra routing a public board through the bridge, recorded.+- **Current and heat, solved on the copper.** Adom Fields is the only tool here that solves current density and heat flow numerically on the board's real copper and vias and shows them on the board in 3D, with the fix for each issue. - **The desktop around KiCad.** Background screenshots of covered windows with their dialogs, native video recording of a window or the desktop, the taskbar badge and progress bar, and posted menu commands. Recorded examples are on the [wishlist page](kicad-wishlist.md). - **A second computer.** Adom Bridge's mesh lets an AI in any container drive KiCad on a named machine, so the user's own screen is never touched. - **Install to uninstall.** Silent KiCad install with verification, a signed single binary updated from a sha-verified manifest with an early-access tier, and a supported uninstall.@@ -174,7 +184,7 @@ We have asked the KiCad developers for the second list, with measurements and vi ## Where others lead  - **Cross-platform.** Every other tool runs on macOS or Linux; we are Windows-only until our platform owners finish their builds.-- **Analysis depth.** kicad-happy (automatic SPICE testbenches from a schematic, corpus validation) and kicad-mcp-pro (SI, PI, EMC, thermal, DFM) go deeper on design review than we do.+- **Breadth of design checks.** kicad-mcp-pro covers signal integrity, power integrity, EMC and DFM cost with fast estimates, and kicad-happy audits power trees, ESD and EMC and generates SPICE testbenches automatically. We have no PDN, EMC or ESD checks yet. - **Supply-chain hygiene.** kicad-mcp-pro's OpenSSF Silver, SBOMs and checksums set the bar; we sign our executable but publish no SBOM yet. - **Community size.** KiCAD-MCP-Server has thousands of stars and many outside contributors. We live on our own wiki rather than GitHub, which makes us harder to find, and we have no outside pull requests yet. - **KiCad 11 schematic API.** KiPilot is there first.@@ -197,6 +207,7 @@ Most tools on this page are a KiCad tool. This bridge is one part of an environm | [Hydrogen](https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/hydrogen) | One workspace where Claude, Codex, Antigravity, Grok and Kimi drive KiCad through the same bridge, with no per-AI MCP setup. | | [Adom Bridge](https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/adom-bridge) | The desktop host for every bridge: KiCad, Fusion, Altium, browsers, Blender, SolidWorks. Screenshots, window control, native video recording, taskbar status, files, permissions, identity, and the mesh that reaches other machines by name. | | [Grok Bridge](https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/grok-bridge) | Grok Bot and its remote computer, driven from Hydrogen next to the other AIs. |+| [Adom Fields](https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/adom-fields) | Current density and heat flow solved on the board's copper and vias, temperature over the board, signal estimates, painted on the board in 3D with the fix for each issue. | | [Adom SPICE](https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/adom-spice-skillpack) | ngspice, LTspice and PSpice for TI from one dashboard, with cross-engine agreement, Monte Carlo and a run ledger. | | [service-kicad](https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/service-kicad) | Headless KiCad as a shared service or kicad-cli in your container: DRC, ERC, Gerbers, STEP, GLB, renders, library lookups. | | [adom-parts-search](https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/adom-parts-search) | Mouser, DigiKey and JLCPCB in one search with a best-source pick. |