kicad-ipc-rs/docs/PCB_SELECTION_DEEP_DUMP.md

PCB Selection Deep Dump

How to extract maximum data for current PCB selection using kicad-ipc-rs bindings.

Script

Use:

• examples/selection_deep_dump.rs

Run:

RUSTFLAGS='-Awarnings' cargo run -q --features blocking --example selection_deep_dump

What It Collects

• Selection summary:
  • total selected item count
  • per-type counts (type_url)
• Decoded selected items (get_selection(Vec::new()))
• Raw selected payload metadata (get_selection_raw(Vec::new()))
• Human-readable selection rows (get_selection_details(Vec::new()))
• Item IDs for all selected items
• Item bounding boxes (get_item_bounding_boxes)
• Footprint-level fields:
  • reference
  • UUID
  • position (nm)
  • orientation (deg)
  • layer
  • pad count
• Designator/value pairs from selection text (get_selection_as_string().contents)
• Selection text dump item IDs (get_selection_as_string().ids)
• Pad-level net rows for selected footprints (get_pad_netlist)
• Net graph among selected references (net -> refs)
• Net name to net code mapping (get_nets)

API Sequence (Bindings)

• KiCadClientBlocking::connect
• ping
• get_version
• get_selection_summary(Vec::new())
• get_selection(Vec::new())
• get_selection_raw(Vec::new())
• get_selection_details(Vec::new())
• get_item_bounding_boxes
• get_selection_as_string
• get_pad_netlist
• get_nets
• get_items_by_net (best path; may be unavailable)
• fallback: get_items_by_type_codes per type code + local net-name filter

Route/Trace Discovery Logic

Primary:

• Query get_items_by_net with types:
  • KOT_PCB_TRACE
  • KOT_PCB_VIA
  • KOT_PCB_ARC
  • KOT_PCB_ZONE
  • KOT_PCB_PAD
  • KOT_PCB_SHAPE

Fallback when GetItemsByNet is unsupported:

• Query each type separately with get_items_by_type_codes(vec![type_code])
• Filter returned items locally by item.net.name in selected_net_names

Known KiCad 10.0.0-rc1 Behavior Seen

• kiapi.board.commands.GetItemsByNet can return AS_UNHANDLED.
• Script handles this and continues with fallback scan.
• On current session, fallback returned pad-connected items; no extra tracks/vias/arcs were returned for selected net names.

Notes

• Script is read-only.
• Retries are built in for transient API unhandled/timeouts.
• Output is verbose by design, intended for debugging and data mining.