Import and export
Importers and exporters: KiCad, Gerber / Excellon and Eagle in; Gerber, ODB++, IPC-2581, DSN, IDX, PDF, SVG and JSON out.
Other formats come in as design files and go out from them through importers and exporters (reference docs/design-file-format.md §20). In the Project view: Project ▸ Import… (right-click a project, or the view’s title bar) picks files to import into the project folder; Export… on a project, its board, schematic or a design file picks a format and a folder. The same commands are in the Explorer’s context menu and the Command Palette (KiCad: Import…, KiCad: Export…).
Opening a foreign file. Open an Eagle .brd, .sch or .lbr, or a Gerber or drill file of a fab set (in the
Gerber viewer): a notification offers Import to project. Pick the folder; the importer writes the design files
there and the board (or schematic) opens in its editor. Don’t ask again sets softforge.edsnx.interop.offerImport
to false.
What was lost. Every import and export has a loss report: what could not be carried over, what was approximated, what was kept as text and what stayed a reference. KiCad: Show Import Report lists the last one in the Problems view, one entry per file, object and reason; the editor of an imported design shows the counts in a banner.
| Import | From | You get |
|---|---|---|
| KiCad | KiCad 6–10 projects and files | design files that export back byte for byte |
| Eagle XML | Eagle 6+ .sch, .brd, .lbr | schematic (symbols, parts, nets, labels, junctions), board (footprints, placements, tracks, vias, polygons as zones, outline, texts, holes), libraries (symbols, footprints); a .sch and .brd of one name become one project |
| Gerber / Excellon | a fab set: a folder, a zip, or one of its files | a board of graphics on the right layers, vias for plated holes, the outline; nets and footprints cannot be inferred from images |
| Export | Gives |
|---|---|
| KiCad | .kicad_pcb, .kicad_sch, .kicad_sym, .kicad_mod, .kicad_pro |
| Gerber / Excellon | Gerber X2 layers, drill files and the job file (native engine, no kicad-cli) |
| ODB++, IPC-2581 | the fab packages (kicad-cli 9+ / 8+) |
| Specctra DSN | the board for external autorouters |
| IDX | an MCAD baseline (outline, holes, keep-outs, components with heights) |
| PDF, SVG | plots of every board layer and schematic sheet (kicad-cli) |
| JSON | the reduced document the editors draw, for scripts |
From a shell: edsnx import divider.brd divider.sch --to design/, edsnx export design/ --as gerber --out fab/
(--report json prints the report, --dry-run writes nothing, edsnx project formats lists the formats). A KiCad project
exports without migrating it: edsnx export blinky/ --as dsn --out route/. Agents use project.import,
project.export and project.formats; add-ons register more formats through api.interop (see
The add-on API).