Configuring blendcfg.yaml¶

You can customize picknblend’s behavior and outputs by editing the blendcfg.yaml file which defines component import options. The file needs to be placed in the main directory of the hardware project. A default blendcfg.yaml is generated in the project directory when one does not exist. Alternatively it can be copied manually from this repo, from the templates/blendcfg.yaml file.

A single, joint blendcfg.yaml file can be shared between gerber2blend and picknblend tools.

This file can contain the following configuration sections:

SETTINGS¶

Specifies paths to input files and naming conventions used by picknblend:

• FAB_DIR - string specifying the name of the intermediate work directory that the board model and PnP data are located in. This is relative to the working directory/hardware project that picknblend is executed from.

• BOM_DIR - string specifying the name of the directory the Bill of Materials (BOM) data is located in. This is relative to the working directory/hardware project that picknblend is executed from. The BOM is assumed to be in a filename suffixed with BOM-populated.csv. BOM is only required when the SHOW_MARKINGS option is enabled.

• PRJ_EXTENSION - string containing EDA software main project file extension, used to read the PCB project name. Can be set to "" if the extension is undefined. If no files with this extension are found, unknownpcb will be used as the name.

• MODEL_LIBRARY_PATHS - array of strings containing paths to model libraries (simple directories containing .blend files) that will be used during import. The paths can contain environment variables (using the $NAME or ${NAME} syntax) that will be expanded by picknblend at startup. Model libraries are searched from top to bottom, where libraries appearing earlier in the MODEL_LIBRARY_PATHS have priority over later ones.

EFFECTS¶

Enables additional import effects:

• SHOW_MECHANICAL - boolean switch enabling mechanical components import. See Importing submodels chapter for more info about defining mechanical components.

• SHOW_MARKINGS - boolean switch that enables importing models with part-specific markings. When enabled, BOM data must be provided. The manufacturer and MPN from the BOM will be used when determining the model to import instead of using a generic footprint model.

Custom config settings¶

picknblend can run with a specified configuration preset by typing picknblend -c custom_preset as mentioned in the usage chapter. The current template file contains a single, default preset. You can add a new preset and save it in the blendcfg.yaml template file as follows:

default:
    SETTINGS:
        FAB_DIR: fab
        BOM_DIR: doc
        PRJ_EXTENSION: .kicad_pro
...

custom_preset:
    SETTINGS:
        FAB_DIR: fabrication_dir
        BOM_DIR: bom_dir

In blendcfg.yaml presets, only the fields that are modified need to be included in a new preset. The remaining values are inherited from the default preset through mapping merges.