20250110-679and707disV01

KiCad Library for Optics

This repository includes a library for designing optical setups in KiCad.

Please visit our website for more product and ordering.
If you have any question or need help, write to us: opticsfoundry@gmail.com

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• How to add library to KiCad
• Start a new design
  • Schematic
  • PCB
• Free Projects

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Introduction

KiCad is an open source electronic design software. However, we have developed this library to be able to design optical setup. The procedure of producing an optical setup with Robot developed by OpticsFoundry is shown below.

How to add library to KiCad

1. Install KiCad from here,
2. Download or clone this repository to your computer as shown below,

3. Unzip the downloaded folder and move the folder to an appropriate path if you want,
4. Open the KiCad software, from Preferences tab, click on Configure Paths... as shown below,

5. Add a new path, name it KIGITHUB with path https://github.com/KiCad. As shown below,

6. Add another one and name it KICAD_FIREFLY_OPTICS, for the path click on folder icon and go to the path which the library has been downloaded then select Optics folder. As shown in following pictures,

7. At the end click on OK and close the window,
8. Now from Preferences tab, click on Manage Symbol Libraries...,
9. Add a new row and call it Optics with library path ${KICAD_FIREFLY_OPTICS}/Symbols/Optics.kicad_sym. As shown below,

10. Then click on OK and close the window. If you encounter an error like below, probably the path is not defined correctly,

11. From Preferences tab, click on Manage Footprint Libraries...,
12. Add a new row and call it Optics with library path ${KICAD_FIREFLY_OPTICS}/Footprints/Optics.pretty, at the end click on OK and close the window. As shown below,

13. To make sure the library has been added correctly, click on Symbol Editor and Footprint Editor in Tools tab. As shown below,

14. Search for Optics library in search bar, you should be able to see list of all the optical symbols and footprint. As shown in following pictures,

15. Done! Now you are ready to start a new optical design.

Start a new design

Now you can start a new project and open schematic editor to design your optical setup, as shown below.

You could also copy one of the examples or use one of the Free Projects for starting point.

Note Standard optics hight is 7.5 mm, if optics hight of your components is smaller or bigger, please write to us: opticsfoundry@gmail.com

Note If you need a specific baseplate size or any other components which are not available in Symbols, please write to us: opticsfoundry@gmail.com

Schematic

Based on your design, you need to choose baseplate size for your board.

If your page size is smaller than baseplate, you can change it in the page settings from File tab for schematic and footprint editors.

Schematic editor looks like this after adding baseplate.

I have added two collimators and mirrors to design a fiber to fiber setup.

By selecting wire, you can draw the beam path.

Each component need to be defined by selecting the component and changing the value based on what is your need.

PCB

After finishing your design, save all changes in schematic editor. NOw you could move to PCB editor and update your PCB from Schematic.

Note You could also update PCB design each time after adding any new components.

Click on Update PCB from Schematic... in PCB editor, then update PCB and close the window as shown below.

Now the PCB looks like this:

Each component need to be selected and reposition and rerotate based on reality.

This example is available in test

Free Projects

1. AQuRA