Hi,
I like the idea of converting images to KiCad modules. Since I am the author of JavE (a free Ascii-Art editor), I experimented with extending its Image2Ascii converter to also support KiCad module file output. It might seem a little strange to use an Ascii-Art editor for this purpose, but hey: The Image2Ascii converter already contains all of the required image processing - including various dithering algorithms. And it provides a decent user interface to keep things simple :-) It only took me a few hours to make it work. So here is a step-by-step instruction how you can use JavE to do the conversion: http://www.jave.de/docs/kicad/image2module.html Some comments: - JavE is based on Java, so it is platform independent - The pixels in the module files are be formed of SMD-like pads (Type "MECA"). I decided to use pads instead of the segments being used in the AWK-script, in order to make them rectangular. I am etching the boards myself, so I don't know if this makes any problems when having more options for PCB production... - The image size/resolution is limited to 16k pixels in order keep the module files small. - The converter does a bit of compression by merging adjacent pads in the same row. It still happens that the output results in > 300kB module files. Please let me know if you have any comments or ideas for improvements. Regards, Markus
