Replicate positions

Copy a layout from one board onto another, matching parts by reference designator. The two boards can be different formats, so an EAGLE layout can drive a KiCad respin.

Boards

Source board

The layout you want to copy. This file is only read.

Target board

The board to edit. You get a new copy back — your upload is never modified.

What follows what

One row per designator group. Anything left blank is ignored.

Group

Follows

Offset X

Offset Y

Rotation

No. offset

Group is the designator prefix to move, so LED covers LED1…LED338 but never LED_A1. Follows is the group on the source board to take positions from — leave it blank to use the same prefix. Offsets are millimetres added afterwards, so a decoupling cap can sit 6 mm above its LED. Rotation is degrees counter-clockwise, or blank to leave each part as it is. No. offset shifts the number match, so 10 makes C1 follow LED11. Leave a row blank to ignore it.

Placement

Scale ×

Source coordinates are multiplied by this before any offset is added.

Where the layout lands

Absolute coordinates — Use the source coordinates exactly. Right when both boards share an origin.

Re-centre on the target — Keep the pattern but slide it so its centre sits where the target parts already are. Use this across formats.

Copying between EAGLE and KiCad? Pick Re-centre on the target. The two tools put their origins in completely different places, so absolute coordinates would land the pattern well off the sheet.

Also copy lines and circles Copies the source board's lines and circles, scaled and shifted the same way the matched components were. Silkscreen artwork lands on the target's silkscreen; anything on a documentation or measurement layer lands on its fabrication layer instead — EAGLE's tDocu/bDocu, KiCad's F.Fab/B.Fab.

Labels

What happens to the silkscreen text on the parts you place.

Keep the labels off the finished board Hides the value and the fabrication-layer copy of the reference, then moves the reference itself onto the fabrication layer — KiCad's F.Fab/B.Fab, EAGLE's tDocu/bDocu. The designator stays readable while you work and never reaches the silkscreen. Text is hidden rather than deleted, so nothing is lost.

The target board is written back in its own format.