Route circuit boards with Apple Pencil.
PCBPad is a native PCB editor for iPad and Mac. Draw from pad to pad and the stroke becomes a clean track; the tracks in the way move aside. It works offline, needs no account, and keeps your files on your device.
Coming soon to the App Store. iPad with iPadOS 18 or later, or a Mac with Apple silicon. Apple Pencil is optional: without it, one finger draws.
Why it's different
Drawn, not clicked
The Pencil draws and your fingers navigate. The clean-up follows your hand, is checked against pads, holes and keepouts, and tells you if it still touches one.
Private by design
No account, no login, no server, no analytics. The app makes no network requests. Your boards never leave the device unless you send them.
Your KiCad files
It opens and saves .kicad_pcb and .kicad_sch directly. Only the bytes you change are rewritten, so the file goes back to KiCad as it was, plus your edits.
What it does
Route
- Tracks from strokes, on the grid, at 45°
- Push and shove, and routing around what cannot move
- Differential pairs from one stroke, serpentine length tuning
- Vias, including blind and buried
Start a board
- Outline by stroke, then corrected with numbers; DXF import
- 1,901 footprints and 15,123 symbols from the official libraries, offline
- Nets declared by tapping two pads, and a ratsnest of what is left
- Copper pours with a real fill, via stitching, keepouts, text, logos, dimensions
- A footprint editor for the part no library has
Schematic
- Wires that stay attached when parts move
- Multi-unit parts, hierarchical sheets, a symbol editor
- Compare schematic and board, apply after a preview
Check and make
- Design rules as formulas, with limits from three fabricators' published capabilities
- 3D view, STEP and STL
- Gerber X2, Excellon, BOM and pick-and-place in one ZIP, read back and previewed before you send it
- Panels of several boards
Price
PCBPad is free during the preview, and the pricing isn't decided yet. If a paid plan ever comes, opening your boards, viewing them in 2D and 3D, and checking them with the design rules and the ratsnest will stay free. And your work is always in standard KiCad files, never locked inside the app.
Honest limits
- The 3D view shows component bodies as blocks sized from the package name, not real models.
- Board text uses a public-domain stroke font, so it does not match KiCad glyph for glyph.
- There is no autorouter, and none is planned.
- Always open the manufacturing files in your fabricator's viewer before you order.
In italiano
PCBPad è un editor di circuiti stampati nativo per iPad e Mac, pensato per la Apple Pencil. Disegni da piazzola a piazzola e il tratto diventa una pista pulita a 45°; le piste in mezzo si scostano. Funziona offline, non chiede un account e tiene i file sul tuo dispositivo. Apre e salva direttamente i file .kicad_pcb e .kicad_sch, riscrivendo solo i byte che cambi. L'app è anche in italiano.
È gratuita durante l'anteprima, e il prezzo non è ancora deciso. Se un giorno arriverà un piano a pagamento, aprire le proprie schede, guardarle in 2D e in 3D e controllarle con le regole di progetto e il ratsnest resterà gratis; e il lavoro sta sempre in normali file KiCad, mai chiuso dentro l'app.
In arrivo sull'App Store; beta e novità su r/PCBPad · Assistenza · Privacy