Extract Pinouts from PDF Data Sheets to Create KiCad Schematics with uConfig

Need to make parts using KiCad, but the libraries required to make those parts are in PDF form? Now there is a way to do just that, with…

Cabe Atwell
5 years ago

Need to make parts using KiCad, but the libraries required to make those parts are in PDF form? Now there is a way to do just that, with Robotips’ uConfig tool, which automates the process of making schematic parts and footprints using the text provided in the PDFs. To put it another way, it automatically takes the pinout information from the datasheets and transforms them into schematic symbols.

According to Robotips, uConfig was an old personal project he resurrected and repackaged as an open source tool to create KiCad schematics. The software works by first parsing the datasheet and extracting blocks of text from the PDF. It then sorts the text into pin numbers and labels using Poppler’s PDF rendering tool. Those labels and numbers are mated by the most relevant pair to create the pins, which are also sorted and associated using the same method, and thus saved as a KiCad library.

The video shows how uConfig functions — in this case, it imports a PDF PIC32 datasheet, and then automatically extracts the text packages, turning them into symbols during the process. Although it doesn’t it doesn’t render the full part, or the footprint for that matter, it’s a great tool that works with both Windows and Linux operating systems and will help you get there much faster.

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