KiCad plugins

The PCB Trace Length Analyzer and the EMI Analyzer are also available as plugins for KiCad's PCB Editor, so you can check a board without leaving KiCad or uploading it anywhere. Both read the board straight out of the editor — unsaved edits included — and run locally.

PCB Trace Length Analyzer

Length matching for DDR, Ethernet, USB, PCIe, MIPI and SD on the board open in the PCB Editor: which nets are too short or too long and by how much, with a click-to-select report beside pcbnew. Nothing is uploaded.

Requires KiCad 10.0.1 or newer with Preferences → Plugins → Enable KiCad API turned on.

Install

Download the release for your platform from the pcb-trace-length-analyzer releases page and unzip it into KiCad's plugins folder:

OS	Folder
macOS	`~/Documents/KiCad/10.0/plugins/`
Linux	`~/.local/share/kicad/10.0/plugins/`
Windows	`%USERPROFILE%\Documents\KiCad\10.0\plugins\`

Restart KiCad. Two buttons — Trace Length Analyzer and Selected Net Length — appear on the PCB Editor's toolbar.

Install by hand, not through the Plugin and Content Manager

PCM installs of IPC plugins have crashed KiCad on Windows through 9.0.x and dropped plugins in 10.0.1-rc1, so this one ships as a zip rather than through the PCM.

The first press installs the plugin's Python dependencies (PySide6 with QtWebEngine) into its own environment — a few hundred MB, once. Full details, troubleshooting and how it works: pcb-trace-length-analyzer/kicad-plugin.

EMI Analyzer

Checks the board open in the PCB Editor for the layout causes of EMI and EMC failures, without exporting anything. The plugin is a front end: the analysis, your boards and the results belong to the EMI Analyzer desktop app, which runs everything on your own computer.

Install

Install the EMI Analyzer desktop app first — it is a separate download and needs Docker. Follow the app's install guide, start it once, and check that a board analyzes.

In KiCad's Plugin and Content Manager, open Manage repositories, click +, and add:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/embeddedci-com/kicad-plugins/main/repository.json

Install EMI Analyzer from that repository and restart KiCad.
Turn on Preferences → Plugins → Enable KiCad API, if it is not already on.

Press EMI Analyzer in the PCB Editor toolbar. It finds the running app (starting the installed one if needed), packs the board as it is in the editor with its .kicad_pro, and shows the app's own findings, board viewer, ESD simulation and cable budget beside pcbnew. Click a finding and Show in KiCad to select that net and zoom to it.

Full details, troubleshooting and running it against a source build: emi-analyzer/kicad-plugin.

Where to next

PCB Trace Length Analyzer and EMI Analyzer — the same tools, in the browser.
EMI analysis in CI — run the EMI Analyzer's rules tier on every commit, instead of (or alongside) checking boards by hand in KiCad.