KiCad WebAssembly Port

Experimental project to run KiCad's core logic in WebAssembly.

Project Structure

kicad-wasm/
├── kicad/              # KiCad source (git submodule)
├── patches/            # Patches for KiCad source
│   └── 0001-wasm-optional-deps.patch
├── stubs/              # Stub implementations for disabled deps
│   ├── include/        # Stub headers
│   │   ├── curl/       # CURL stub headers
│   │   ├── git2.h      # libgit2 stub header
│   │   ├── ngspice/    # ngspice stub headers
│   │   └── Standard_Version.hxx  # OCC stub header
│   └── src/            # Stub source files
│       ├── disabled_features_stubs.cpp
│       ├── occ_stubs.cpp
│       ├── panel_git_repos_stub.cpp
│       └── kicad_git_all_stubs.cpp
├── cmake/              # CMake override modules
│   ├── FindCURL.cmake
│   ├── Findlibgit2.cmake
│   ├── Findngspice.cmake
│   └── FindOCC.cmake
├── scripts/            # Build scripts
└── docs/               # Documentation

Goals

1. Phase 1: Build KiCad with optional deps disabled (curl, git, OCC, ngspice) ✅ Complete
2. Phase 2: Extract core computation code as standalone library
3. Phase 3: Compile core to WebAssembly
4. Phase 4: Run native GUI with Wasm worker backend
5. Phase 5: Browser-based UI

Documentation

• Implementation Plan
• Knowledge Base (Summary)
• Knowledge Base (Full)

Design Decisions

• Memory: Serialize/deserialize on every operation (proof of concept)
• Threading: Web Workers (browser-first design)
• Updates: Full board re-serialization

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• CMake 3.22+
• C++20 compiler (GCC 10+, Clang 12+, or MSVC 2019+)
• wxWidgets 3.2+
• Required libraries

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install cmake wxwidgets boost cairo pixman freetype harfbuzz fontconfig \
             glm glew swig protobuf pkg-config nng python@3.14 zstd unixodbc

Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt install cmake build-essential libwxgtk3.2-dev libboost-all-dev \
                 libcairo2-dev libpixman-1-dev libfreetype-dev libharfbuzz-dev \
                 libfontconfig-dev libglm-dev libglew-dev swig libprotobuf-dev \
                 protobuf-compiler libnng-dev python3-dev libzstd-dev

Quick Start (with dependencies disabled)

# Clone with submodules
git clone --recursive <repo-url>
cd kicad-wasm

# Apply patches to KiCad source
cd kicad
git apply ../patches/0001-wasm-optional-deps.patch
cd ..

# Build
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ../kicad \
    -DCMAKE_MODULE_PATH="$(pwd)/../cmake" \
    -DKICAD_USE_CURL=OFF \
    -DKICAD_USE_GIT=OFF \
    -DKICAD_USE_OCC=OFF \
    -DKICAD_USE_NGSPICE=OFF \
    -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=OFF
make -j$(nproc)

Build Options

Option	Default	Description
KICAD_USE_CURL	ON	Enable network features (PCM, update check)
KICAD_USE_GIT	ON	Enable git integration
KICAD_USE_OCC	ON	Enable OpenCASCADE (STEP import/export)
KICAD_USE_NGSPICE	ON	Enable SPICE simulation
KICAD_USE_DATABASE	ON	Enable database libraries (ODBC)

Using the Build Script

# Build with all optional deps disabled (default)
./scripts/build.sh

# Build with specific features enabled
./scripts/build.sh --with-curl --with-git

# Clean build
./scripts/build.sh --clean

# Debug build
./scripts/build.sh --debug

# Just configure, don't build
./scripts/build.sh --configure-only

# See all options
./scripts/build.sh --help

Current Status

Phase 1 Complete

• CMake override modules for optional dependencies (FindOCC, Findngspice, FindCURL, Findlibgit2)
• Stub headers and implementations for disabled features
• KiCad source patches (patches/0001-wasm-optional-deps.patch)
• Full native build verified on macOS with all optional deps disabled

Built Components

• kicad - Main application
• kicad-cli - Command line interface
• _pcbnew.kiface - PCB editor
• _eeschema.kiface - Schematic editor
• _cvpcb.kiface - Component to footprint association
• _gerbview.kiface - Gerber viewer
• _pl_editor.kiface - Page layout editor
• _pcb_calculator.kiface - PCB calculator

Next Steps

• Verify build on Linux/Windows
• Begin Phase 2 (core library extraction)

License

KiCad is GPL-3.0. This wrapper/tooling follows the same license.