KiCad Preview for Visual Studio Code

Preview KiCad schematics and PCBs, in 2D and 3D, inside Visual Studio Code.

Author: Myeongjin Lee (menggu1234@naver.com)

Overview

KiCad Preview opens .kicad_sch and .kicad_pcb files as read-only previews. It does not draw KiCad files itself. It calls kicad-cli from your KiCad installation, so every preview matches what KiCad produces. KiCad 9.x or 10.x must be installed on the machine that runs the extension.

What you can do:

• View every sheet of a hierarchical schematic, with pan and zoom.
• View PCB layers in 2D, toggle each layer, and flip to the bottom side.
• Orbit the assembled board in 3D, with component models, shadows and ambient occlusion.
• Render a high-quality image of the current 3D view with KiCad's raytracer.
• See changes as soon as you save in KiCad.

 .kicad_sch / .kicad_pcb ──▶ extension ──▶ kicad-cli (your KiCad install)
                                              │  SVG (2D), GLB (3D), PNG (snapshot)
                                              ▼
                               preview tab in VS Code (2D / 3D)

Supports

Platform	Status	Notes
Ubuntu 24.04, KiCad 10.0.5 (PPA)		Development platform. Core integration tests and viewer checks run here.
Ubuntu, KiCad 9.0.9 (Docker image kicad/kicad:9.0-full)		Core integration tests pass. Output file names, 3D model structure and snapshot framing match 10.0.5. Not yet checked in the VS Code UI.
Windows 10/11, KiCad 9.x or 10.x		Supported by design. Only the kicad-cli detection logic has been tested.
Ubuntu, KiCad from Flatpak		Detected automatically. The Flatpak sandbox may block writes to the output folder.
VS Code Remote (SSH, WSL)		The extension runs on the remote host, so KiCad must be installed there.
KiCad 8.x or older		The extension warns and tries anyway. Results are not verified.
macOS		Not in scope. There is no automatic kicad-cli detection.

Contents

• KiCad Preview for Visual Studio Code
  • Overview
    • Supports
  • Contents
  • Quick Start
  • 1. Package Layout
  • 2. Installation
    • 2.1 Requirements
    • 2.2 Install KiCad (once per machine)
    • 2.3 Install the extension (once per machine)
    • 2.4 Check
    • 2.5 Uninstall
  • 3. Usage
    • 3.1 Opening files
    • 3.2 Schematic and PCB 2D view
    • 3.3 PCB 3D view
    • 3.4 Snapshot
  • 4. Configuration
    • 4.1 Settings
    • 4.2 kicad-cli detection
  • 5. Files and Data
  • 6. Troubleshooting
  • 7. Performance
  • 8. Known Limitations
  • 9. License
  • 10. Third-Party Notices

Quick Start

$ kicad-cli version                                # must print 9.x or 10.x
$ code --install-extension mjlee111.vskicad
$ code my-board.kicad_pcb                          # opens the preview

10.0.5

Click 3D in the preview toolbar for the 3D view. If the preview says that kicad-cli was not found, set its path as shown in §4.2.

1. Package Layout

The extension is published on the Visual Studio Marketplace as mjlee111.vskicad. Each version is one package file, vskicad-<version>.vsix. It contains:

vskicad-<version>.vsix
└── extension/
    ├── package.json         manifest: commands, editors, settings
    ├── README.md            this document
    ├── LICENSE.txt          MIT license (§9)
    ├── dist/extension.js    extension host code, runs kicad-cli
    ├── dist/webview.js      preview UI, includes three.js (§10)
    ├── media/icon.png       extension icon
    └── media/preview.css    preview UI styles

The extension has no runtime dependencies other than VS Code and KiCad.

2. Installation

2.1 Requirements

2.2 Install KiCad (once per machine)

Ubuntu

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kicad/kicad-10.0-releases
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install kicad kicad-packages3d

For KiCad 9, use ppa:kicad/kicad-9.0-releases instead. kicad-cli is part of the kicad package and installs to /usr/bin/kicad-cli.

Windows

Install KiCad 10 (or 9) from the official installer at kicad.org. Keep the default location. The extension looks for C:\Program Files\KiCad\<version>\bin\kicad-cli.exe.

2.3 Install the extension (once per machine)

Open the Extensions view, search for KiCad Preview (publisher mjlee111), and click Install. Or, from a terminal:

$ code --install-extension mjlee111.vskicad

VS Code updates the extension automatically when a new version is published.

Offline install from a .vsix file

$ code --install-extension vskicad-<version>.vsix

Alternatively, open the Extensions view, choose ... > Install from VSIX..., and select the file. To reinstall a build with the same version number, add --force.

2.4 Check

Run KiCad: Show kicad-cli Info from the Command Palette. It shows the kicad-cli in use:

kicad-cli 10.0.5 (PATH): /usr/bin/kicad-cli

The KiCad Preview output channel logs the same detection:

kicad-cli 10.0.5 found via PATH: /usr/bin/kicad-cli

2.5 Uninstall

$ code --uninstall-extension mjlee111.vskicad

To remove leftover temporary files as well, delete the extension's storage folder (§5).

3. Usage

3.1 Opening files

• Opening a .kicad_sch or .kicad_pcb file shows the preview by default.
• To see the file as text, run View: Reopen Editor With... and choose Text Editor.
• From a text editor, use the preview button in the editor title bar, or KiCad: Open Preview to the Side.
• In the Explorer, right-click a KiCad file and choose KiCad: Open Preview.
• The preview updates when the file changes on disk. For a schematic, this includes every .kicad_sch file under the same folder. For a PCB, it includes only the board file.
• Refresh (toolbar or editor title bar) exports again and ignores the cache.

3.2 Schematic and PCB 2D view

Copper, silkscreen and Edge.Cuts are visible at first. Mask and Fab layers are hidden and load when you first enable them, because Fab layers can be tens of MB on large boards.

3.3 PCB 3D view

Click 3D in the toolbar, or run KiCad: Show PCB 3D View. The 3D model is exported the first time you open the tab. This can take tens of seconds on large boards (§7).

Board layers are drawn opaque, as in KiCad's own renderer. Copper under the soldermask is therefore not visible. The status bar shows the number of component models and, if any, how many models KiCad could not find (§6).

3.4 Snapshot

Snapshot renders the current 3D view with KiCad's raytracer (kicad-cli pcb render), with floor, shadows and post-processing.

• A progress notification appears. Click Cancel there to stop the render.
• The image opens in a new tab beside the preview. Choose Save As... in the notification to keep it. The default name is <board>-3d.png in the board's folder.
• Images that you do not save are deleted after 24 hours.
• The rotation and zoom of your view are carried over. Panning is not: KiCad always renders around the board center.
• The image is requested 1920 pixels wide at the aspect ratio of the 3D view. kicad-cli returns a slightly smaller image, for example 1904 x 784 with 10.0.5.
• Components, silkscreen and colors in the snapshot follow KiCad's own 3D viewer settings, not the vskicad.3d.* settings.

4. Configuration

4.1 Settings

Open Settings and search for vskicad.

The vskicad.3d.include* settings make the 3D export much slower and larger. On a small demo board, enabling all of them raised the export time from 0.45 s to 3.2 s and the file size from 0.56 MB to 10.4 MB.

Changing a setting updates open previews, even when vskicad.autoRefresh is off.

4.2 kicad-cli detection

When vskicad.cliPath is empty, the extension tries the following locations in order and uses the first one that runs.

When vskicad.cliPath is set, only that path is used. In settings.json, write Windows paths with double backslashes:

// Windows
"vskicad.cliPath": "C:\\Program Files\\KiCad\\10.0\\bin\\kicad-cli.exe"
// Ubuntu
"vskicad.cliPath": "/usr/bin/kicad-cli"

The path must point to the executable. A .bat or .cmd wrapper does not work, because the extension starts kicad-cli directly, without a shell.

5. Files and Data

• The extension never writes to your KiCad files. It only reads them.
• Exports are written to the extension's storage folder. Each preview tab has its own subfolder, which is deleted when the tab closes.
• Folders left behind by a crashed window, and unsaved snapshots, are deleted after 24 hours the next time the extension starts.
• The extension makes no network requests.

Inside it, previews/ holds the SVG and GLB exports and snapshots/ holds snapshot images.

6. Troubleshooting

Messages appear in a notification, in the preview, or in the KiCad Preview output channel. Show Log in the preview opens the output channel.

Missing component models do not stop the preview. The board itself is still shown.

7. Performance

Measured on Ubuntu 24.04, KiCad 10.0.5, AMD Ryzen 9 9900X with integrated graphics. Frame times were measured with the preview UI in Chrome, not inside VS Code.

8. Known Limitations

• Only files on a local or remote disk can be previewed. Virtual documents are not supported.
• The PCB preview reacts to changes of the board file only. Use Refresh after changing 3D models or libraries.
• 2D coordinates are not shown. The 2D view is cropped to the board area.
• The snapshot rotation and zoom mapping was established with kicad-cli 10.0.5 and checked with 9.0.9. It may differ in other versions.
• Flatpak KiCad, Windows and VS Code Remote have not been tested (see Supports).

9. License

Copyright (c) 2026 Myeongjin Lee.

Released under the MIT License. The full text is in LICENSE. You may use, copy, modify and redistribute the software, provided the copyright and license notices, including those in §10, stay in place. The software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind.

KiCad is a separate product of the KiCad project and is not part of this software. This extension is not affiliated with or endorsed by the KiCad project.

10. Third-Party Notices

dist/webview.js includes the following open-source component.

three.js (https://threejs.org), MIT License

The MIT License

Copyright © 2010-2026 three.js authors

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.