Import a KiCad project,
keep your files
Bring a KiCad 5 to 10 project into the browser: schematic, board, sheets, layers, buses and variants. Edit it by hand or with Sakura, then export your own KiCad files back with only your edits written into them.
How do you import a KiCad project?
On the Projects page, click Import KiCad and pick a zip, a folder or the files, or drop any of those on the page. The editor runs in the browser at /app, so there is nothing to install. Projects can be up to 32 MB.
A small dialog walks through reading, building and saving. A big board can take about 15 seconds, and you can cancel any time before it saves. If your files hold several boards, it asks which one. When it finishes, the project opens with one line over the canvas: “Imported from KiCad. See the report.” The report lists what was carried over and what was not, stays with the project, and is visible to anyone you share it with.
The file picker accepts these extensions: .kicad_pro, .kicad_sch, .kicad_pcb, .kicad_dru, .kicad_sym, .sch, .lib, .pro, .brd, .zip.
We measured the importer on 1,145 open-source KiCad projects: 96% of the boards and 99% of the projects import. KiCad 5 projects come in with their schematic too. CERN’s Macbeth board, with 2,970 parts and 47 pours, opens and runs Checks without freezing the page.
Does it keep sheets, layers, buses and variants?
These parts of a KiCad project stay real sheets, layers, nets and rules in the editor.
Multi-sheet schematics
A sheet symbol opens a child sheet, one sheet can be used several times with its own references, and the editor shows the sheets as a tree on the left. Sheet pins, hierarchical labels, global labels and local labels join the way KiCad joins them.
Multilayer boards
2 to 32 copper layers with names, types and a stackup. Arc tracks, and through, blind, buried and micro vias with their spans. Every copper layer gets its own colour.
Buses and bus aliases
Buses and bus entries are schematic drawings, bus names such as D[0..7] make member nets, and aliases from the project file are read.
Variants (KiCad 10)
Per-variant do-not-populate, BOM, position-file and field overrides are kept. The BOM, position file and fabrication files follow the active variant, and the symbols are never rewritten.
The full pad model
Rounded and chamfered rectangles, trapezoids, custom pads, slots, off-centre drills, per-pad mask and paste margins, thermal settings, and pads that share a number but sit on different nets.
Rules and net classes
Net classes and design rules from the project file, directive labels and rule areas, placement rule areas and component classes, tuning patterns, via protection and backdrill.
Pours, 3D models and pictures
Pours join the vias and traces inside them, KiCad's own pour fill is kept until you edit near it, and 3D models and schematic pictures come along.
Can you edit it, and with AI?
Yes. The imported schematic and board are the same documents you get from a new project, so every editor tool works on them. Edit by hand, or ask Sakura. Sakura’s tools take a sheet, so it can tidy one sheet of a hierarchy, and it can build sheets of its own: add a sheet, reuse one for another channel, add a hierarchical label and wire a sheet pin. Plans and AI allowances are on the pricing page.
Checks on an imported project aim to say what KiCad’s own DRC and ERC say, at the severities your project file sets. On 37 boards compared against KiCad 10’s command-line checker, the boards where every shared category agreed went from 1 to 25. How net classes, keepouts and placement areas work in the editor is in PCB design rules. For the rest of what the editor does, see the Cherry Blossom v2 announcement.
Will you get your own KiCad files back?
Yes. Import keeps your original files. The KiCad export patches them: only what you edited is written into your own files, and with no edit at all you get your exact bytes back, at once. Projects drawn in the editor export through a converter instead.
We test this with KiCad itself. A test runs KiCad 10’s kicad-cli on the original and the export and compares the netlist, BOM, positions, Gerbers, drill files, DRC, ERC and settings. Across 1,499 boards, the count that came out identical in every way went from 61 to 208, and import, export, import again showed 0 real differences.
The Export menu also has Circuit JSON, and the open standards page lists every format. Both the KiCad and Circuit JSON exports are on the Free plan. A multi-sheet schematic is flattened in Circuit JSON, with a note saying so.
What does the KiCad import not cover yet?
These come from our own notes on what is unfinished. Read them before you import a project that depends on one.
Boards
- The 3D view shows no inner copper.
- The STEP export drills solid holes through vias only.
- The router does not route inner layers yet.
- Of a
.kicad_drurules file, only the courtyard “allow overlap” rule is read. - DRC and ERC exclusions made in KiCad are not read.
Schematics and export
- Several top-level sheets (a KiCad 10 feature) are refused by name.
- Sakura has no bus tools yet, and Tidy refuses a sheet with buses.
- The KiCad export writes KiCad 9 files. KiCad 10-only settings stay in the project, with a note.
- A 5.8 MB board took 87 seconds to export in our measurement. A project with no edits exports at once.
- Some KiCad checks have no editor check yet, such as power pins not driven.
Can you import one part from your own KiCad files?
You do not need a whole project for this. The parts library panel has an Import KiCad part button, and it also takes files dropped on the panel. Give it a .kicad_sym symbol, a .kicad_mod footprint (KiCad 5 form too), a 3D model, or the zip a vendor sends with all three.
Each part is added to your project on your own land pattern and shows under This project. The 3D model comes from your file, or from KiCad’s library if you gave none. Checks treats the part as built from your data, and the supplier comparison looks at pins only. Viewers of a shared project cannot import. For the built-in library, see the parts library post.
Questions
Yes. On the Projects page, click Import KiCad and pick a zip, a folder or the files themselves, or drop them on the page. KiCad 5 to 10 projects are accepted, up to 32 MB. The import brings in the schematic, the board, pours, 3D models and pictures, then opens the project with a note that says it was imported and links to a report of what it could not carry over.
Yes. Cherry Blossom's editor runs in the browser at /app, so the import, the schematic and board editors, Checks and the 3D view need no install. Drop a KiCad zip or folder on the Projects page and the project opens in the browser.
The picker accepts .kicad_pro, .kicad_sch, .kicad_pcb, .kicad_dru, .kicad_sym, the older .sch, .lib, .pro and .brd files, and zips. It reads KiCad 5 to 10 files, including KiCad 5 projects that come with their schematic. A project can be up to 32 MB. If the files hold several boards, the import asks which one to open.
Yes. The Export menu has a KiCad project entry that writes a zip with the schematic, board and project file. For an imported project, Cherry Blossom keeps your original files and writes only your edits into them, so a project you did not edit comes back as your exact bytes. Settings that only KiCad 10 understands stay in the project and are left out of the KiCad 9 file, with a note saying so. The same menu exports Circuit JSON. Both exports are on the Free plan.
Yes. Sakura, the AI agent in the editor, works on an imported project like any other. It can read the design, tidy a schematic, move parts on the board and build sheets, with tools to add a sheet, add a hierarchical label and wire a sheet pin. Checks on the imported board report what KiCad's own DRC and ERC report, at the severities your project file sets. AI usage belongs to the paid plans, listed on the pricing page.
Yes. In the parts library panel, the Import KiCad part button, or a drop on the panel, accepts a .kicad_sym symbol, a .kicad_mod footprint (KiCad 5 form too), a 3D model, or a vendor's zip of them. Each becomes a part in your project on your own land pattern. The 3D model comes from your file, or from KiCad's library when you gave none. Viewers of a shared project cannot import.
Open your KiCad project in the browser.
Import a zip or folder, read the report, and export your own files back.
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