Tomachie for KiCad
A button in KiCad's schematic editor that sends your design to Tomachie for design-for-test analysis: test-point insertion, structural checks and an optional AI review.
Tomachie installs from inside KiCad, through KiCad's own Plugin and Content Manager. There is no installer to download and run.
Requirements: KiCad 10.0 or later, on Windows or Linux (a distribution's KiCad or the KiCad Flatpak from Flathub).
Step 1 — Turn on the KiCad API
In KiCad: Preferences → Preferences… → Plugins → tick Enable KiCad API, then restart KiCad. Once it is on, KiCad shows a line reading Listening at ipc://…
Step 2 — Download the plugin package
Choose your system. These are KiCad plugin packages: do not unzip them, KiCad reads the zip as it is.
Step 3 — Install it with KiCad
- In KiCad, open the Plugin and Content Manager.
- Click Install from File… and choose the zip you downloaded.
- Restart KiCad.
Where the button is
Open a schematic. The Tomachie check mark is at the right-hand end of the schematic editor's top toolbar, with the other plugin buttons.
To move it next to the Electrical Rules Checker: Preferences → Preferences… → Schematic Editor → Toolbars, select Top main and drag IPC/Scripting plugins where you want it. No restart needed.
First run
The first time you click the button, a one-time setup dialog in your system's language asks for the email address your results are sent to. On Windows, hold Shift and click the button to change it later.
On Linux, KiCad does not pass the Shift key to a plugin: to change the address, run the command the setup dialog shows in a terminal.
What is sent
Only the schematic sheets your design references (.kicad_sch), the project file (.kicad_pro) and the design rules file (.kicad_dru), if present. Never your PCB layout, Gerbers, 3D models or anything else in the project folder.
Nothing is analyzed until you press Analyze Schematic on the Tomachie page that opens in your browser. If you close that page, the upload is deleted after two hours without being looked at.
Save your schematic before clicking the button: the plugin sends what is on disk.
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Linux, step by step
Taken on Ubuntu with the KiCad Flatpak. The steps are the ones above; install the Linux package.
