feat: ✨ WebGL graphics blog post, Gerber demo on landing page, open-source license notices
- Blog: porting-kicad-graphics-to-webgl post + GAL native/WebGL comparison images and <GalCompare> - Landing page: embed lazily-loaded Gerber demo section + footer "Live demo" link - Licensing: /licenses page (GPLv3 + wxWindows/LGPL-v2 breakdown, ahilss credit, corresponding-source offer) and a footer build-SHA link - Docs: CLAUDE.md + README note to bump the hardcoded footer BUILD_SHA on each release Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Viktor Vaczi
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---
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title: "Porting KiCad's Graphics to WebGL with Claude"
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description: "Coming soon."
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pubDate: 2026-06-07
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title: "Porting KiCad's Graphics to WebGL in 2026"
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description: "How to make KiCad run in a browser pt. 1. Check the demo!"
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pubDate: 2026-06-18
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---
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import GerberDemo from '../../components/GerberDemo.astro';
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import GalCompare from '../../components/GalCompare.astro';
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{/* TODO(author): intro — the gerbview port and the graphics-abstraction-layer → WebGL work. */}
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# TLDR:
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Coming soon.
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I don't know much about graphics.
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Back when it was still called GPGPU I did a CUDA class, but other than that I have no experience.
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## See it run: a Gerber viewer in your browser
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Then during porting KiCad I realized that I will need to run its graphics abstraction layer in the browser.
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## Gerber viewer in your browser
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The viewer below is KiCad's `gerbview` compiled to WebAssembly. Click to load it
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(it streams ~22 MB on demand) and it renders a real multi-layer board —
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the [tiny_tapeout](https://tinytapeout.com/) demo — entirely client-side, with no
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server doing the rasterization.
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(it streams ~22 MB on demand) and it renders a real multi-layer board:
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the [tiny_tapeout](https://tinytapeout.com/) demo -- entirely client-side.
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<GerberDemo />
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# What did not work
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First I just wanted KiCad to build with a WASM target.
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It took a while, thankfully I've found https://github.com/ahilss/wxWidgets-wasm, a wxWidgets port for the web for an old version.
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I've used that port as a starting point, but it missed a lot of features. After multiple lines of find-whats-missing and a lot of e2e tests with a lot of screenshots
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I had a working~ish wxWidgets port, a good start.
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Then it lot of corner cutting, lot of shimming things away that I wanted to work to make KiCad build. The first time the welcome dialog loaded I was happy, very happy, even though
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clicks did nothing.
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Then when I got through that eventually KiCad loaded up. It was horribly slow.
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I had two main sources of errors: Asyncify and the OpenGL `-sLEGACY_GL_EMULATION` that made it possible to run OpenGL apps on the web.
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Asyncify is a huge error source on its own, I wanted to get rid of all OpenGL errors ( and get some speed if possible ), so I have a chance to debug them.
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The errors were an infinite loop of Emulation and WebGL sprinkled with some Asyncify interplay. I had no other option.
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# Let's rewrite to WebGL!
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Thankfully KiCad has a Graphics Abstraction Layer ( GAL ). There's already an alternative CPU renderer, an OpenGL one, let's do a WebGL one then!
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I don't know OpenGL but there's Claude Code. So: the core idea was to create WebGL and native test apps that check each GAL feature, compare the screenshots to double check.
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For the native GAL test apps I had to pull the headers inside KiCad from my test code, it needed a few shims ( KiCad usually brings the kitchen sink too ), but in the end worked.
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At first I wanted to do byte-to-byte comparison but it is not possible ( AFAIK ),
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the WebGL and OpenGL outputs will never be the same, but to a human eye they can look identical.
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Here are two scenarios straight out of that regression suite -- the same GAL calls, drawn once by native OpenGL and once by my WebGL backend:
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<GalCompare />
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So in the end I relied on asking Claude to check the screenshots, prodding, checking again, but in the end I got two screenshots folders that looked the same.
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Claude back then wasn't that good at understanding screenshots, sometimes LGTM'd totally black things, couldn't see colors, but it was still helpful.
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# Moment of truth
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And then I wired up my new WebGL GAL into KiCad and... It worked! And it was fast.
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We want to upstream our changes eventually, I'm sure the fork needs a few changes, but it's not in a bad position already. The shaders stayed the same
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( with the help of a GLSL 1.0 -> GLSL 3.0 ES transformer Python script ), the difference between the OpenGL and this version is a few hundred lines
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of translation and emulation code ( for a few things you can't do in WebGL, no raw pointers, immediate mode for ex. ).
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We don't want to dump this on someone, when that time comes I will need to understand the changes deeply and clean up the rough edges.
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{/* TODO(author): the rest of the article. */}
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64
site/src/content/legal/licenses.md
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64
site/src/content/legal/licenses.md
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---
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title: Open-Source Licenses & Source Code
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description: The open-source software PCBJam is built on, the licences that apply, and how to get the corresponding source code.
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updated: 2026-06-18
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---
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## The short version (summary)
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This summary helps you understand this page at a glance. It is **not a substitute** for the open-source licences themselves, which are what legally apply.
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- **PCBJam runs open-source software in your browser.** The application is built on **KiCad** (the open-source EDA suite) compiled to WebAssembly, together with **wxWidgets** and other open-source libraries. Each stays under its own licence.
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- **You have the right to the source.** Because we deliver GPL-licensed software (KiCad) to your browser, you are entitled under the GNU GPL to the **corresponding source code** for the version you receive. See [Getting the source code](#getting-the-source-code).
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- **These licences are not changed by us.** Our [Terms of Service](/terms) govern the hosted PCBJam service and our own proprietary code; they do not modify or restrict your rights under the open-source licences with respect to the open-source components themselves.
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- **Trademarks.** "KiCad" and related marks belong to their owners. PCBJam is an independent product built on KiCad and is **not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by** the KiCad project.
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---
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## Components and their licences
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PCBJam is a combined work. The table below lists its principal open-source components and the licence that applies to each.
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| Component | What it is | Licence |
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|---|---|---|
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| **KiCad** | EDA suite, compiled to WebAssembly — the core of PCBJam | **GNU General Public License, version 3 (GPLv3)** |
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| **wxWidgets** (base) | Cross-platform GUI toolkit that KiCad uses | **wxWindows Library Licence v3.1** (LGPL v2+ with a binary-distribution exception) |
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| **wxWidgets — WebAssembly port** | The browser/WASM platform layer, derived from [ahilss/wxWidgets-wasm](https://github.com/ahilss/wxWidgets-wasm) | **GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2 (LGPL v2)** — *without* the wxWindows binary exception |
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| Other bundled libraries | Various supporting libraries used by KiCad | Their respective licences (Apache-2.0, MIT, BSD-3-Clause, Boost, CC0, ISC, CC-BY-SA-4.0, and others) |
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The combined application is conveyed to you under the **GPLv3**. The wxWidgets components are GPL-compatible: the base toolkit's licence is explicitly compatible with GPL'd applications, and the LGPL v2 WebAssembly-port files may be combined into a GPLv3 work under the LGPL's terms.
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> **Note on the WebAssembly port.** The wxWidgets WASM-port files (originally authored by Adam Hilss) are released under plain **LGPL v2 without** the wxWindows binary-distribution exception that the rest of wxWidgets grants. This does not affect your rights here — PCBJam is conveyed as open source under the GPLv3 regardless — but we state it so our notices are accurate. The unmodified wxWidgets base remains under the wxWindows Library Licence.
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---
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## Getting the source code
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In line with the GNU GPL (and as referenced in §12.4 of our [Terms](/terms)), the complete **corresponding source code** for the GPL-licensed software we deliver to your browser — together with the applicable licence texts and notices — is publicly available in one place:
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**<https://github.com/emergence-engineering/pcbjam>**
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The KiCad and wxWidgets forks are included in that repository as **git submodules**, so a recursive clone fetches everything needed to build PCBJam:
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```sh
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git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/emergence-engineering/pcbjam.git
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```
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For reference, the component forks pulled in as submodules are:
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- **KiCad fork** — <https://github.com/emergence-engineering/kicad-source-mirror> (branch `wasm-port`)
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- **wxWidgets fork** (incl. the WebAssembly port) — <https://github.com/emergence-engineering/wxWidgets> (branch `wasm-port`)
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The source corresponding to a specific deployed build is identified by the commit revisions — including submodule revisions — recorded in the application's **About / build information**. If you need the exact corresponding source for a build you received and cannot locate it, contact us at **hello@pcbjam.com** and we will provide it.
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We do not claim ownership of, and do not purport to relicense, the open-source components.
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---
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## Full licence texts
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- **GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3)** — <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html>
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- **GNU Lesser General Public License v2 (LGPL v2)** — <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.0.html>
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- **wxWindows Library Licence v3.1** — <https://www.wxwidgets.org/about/licence/>
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Copies of these licences and the per-component notices are also included in the source repositories listed above.
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