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9 Lay out the board

After this step your board is placed, routed and checked, in EasyEDA Pro or in KiCad.

What you do

Install the program you chose once: EasyEDA Pro desktop with Node 24, or KiCad 10. For EasyEDA you create the project by hand, File → New → Project, with your project's name. Its interface cannot do that. With KiCad there is nothing to create: Claude writes the project.

Then start a new session and type /edakit:pcb-round. Claude works from what the last steps handed over. It plans the places and checks the plan offline:

$ edakit pcb plan
…
  4 fixed parts, 0 for the auto-layout; airline length of the fixed parts (without GND): 0.02 m

The walkthrough's placement: a round board, the cell holder in the middle

Then it places the parts, routes with Freerouting, pours the ground, prints the labels and runs the design rule check. In EasyEDA you click nothing here: edakit writes what EasyEDA's import would set. Only if its check still waits for the import, Claude asks you for one click: Design → Import Changes.

The walkthrough's routed board, all layers from above: the ground pour and the tracks from the cell holder to the switch, the resistor and the LED

What you are asked

What only you can say: the board's size and shape, its holes, where the parts go that a person touches, and how it looks. In the walkthrough you wanted it round.

What you decide

Looks, size, holes and colours. A wish for the board stays in the board's file. A wish that changes the circuit goes back to the circuit, through its own steps.

What you have

hardware/boards/main.toml, the board as text, and the board itself in EasyEDA or KiCad. The reviewer pcb-reviewer reads it next. Next: Order the board.

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