How an AI actually draws a PCB inside Altium and KiCad

Two approaches, and the difference shows on the second machine

The fastest way to wire an AI into an EDA tool is to drive the interface: find the window, click the menu, send the keystrokes. In a demo video it looks perfectly workable. It falls apart on the next machine — a new Altium version renamed the menu, a different screen resolution moved the control, or the user happens to have a modal dialog open. Worse, it can click the wrong thing: close the main window, or leave the scripting engine stuck behind stacked modal dialogs until someone restarts the tool by hand.

The other approach is to let the EDA tool expose an interface: every AI action is a call, executed by a connector running on your machine. It costs more up front, because each action has to be implemented, but it is testable, replayable and deterministic. ONEPASSPCB took that route and made never simulating input at the OS level a hard rule.

What the AI can finish on its own

From a requirement to a reviewable project, the AI can create parts and symbols, wire nets, assign designators and values, place components, define the board outline, run the autorouter, and run design rule checks while explaining each violation. All of it lands in the project file you have open, so you can stop and take over by hand at any point — there is no merging between the AI version and your version.

Autorouting is where a run finishes with nothing to show

Autorouters usually work in two stages: route, then optimize. In practice the crash tends to happen during optimization, by which time the output file may exist but contain nothing. If success is judged by does the file exist, the failure is deferred until the import step and surfaces as an error message nobody can read.

The right check is whether the file contains an actual routing result. If it does not, say what to do next: disable the optimizer and run again, or run DRC first to clear overlapping courtyards — overlapping pads are the most common trigger for an optimizer crash.

Getting started

Create an account, download the connector for your tool (Altium Designer and KiCad have separate, independent ones), double-click to start it, pair it with the code shown in the browser, then open your project and start describing what you need. Your project files never leave your machine.

For the sourcing half of the job, see why the same part gets such different prices from different distributors.