Active engineering prototype

aiKiCad — AI-assisted Electrical Design

An AI-assisted workspace for schematic and PCB engineering, connecting conversational review with source-bound tools, deterministic checks, and electrical-to-mechanical handoff.

Challenge

Make AI assistance useful in electrical design while keeping schematics, PCB files, and engineering checks authoritative.

Constraints

Changes must remain tied to the exact design under review. Model suggestions require bounded tools, explicit review, and verification against the electrical source.

System

A standalone desktop overlay connects conversational assistance to KiCad files, rendering, inspection tools, and command-line validation. A separate PCBA exporter packages board geometry for mechanical integration.

Magneum’s contribution

Developed the source-bound review workflow, schematic editing tools, validation reporting, and electrical-to-mechanical package handoff.

Verification

Recorded checks show schematic moves preserving the exported netlist and command-line PCB checks agreeing with the native application. A real asymmetric PCBA export passed AiME's independent intake and geometry reconciliation.

Outcome

A working prototype supports bounded electrical review and editing, with a verified path for handing board geometry to mechanical engineering.

Limitations

Broad conversational editing and some hierarchical schematic operations remain open. The PCBA exporter runs through a command-line workflow; native export UI integration is still pending.

Related challenge

Need to make a complex system testable?

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