stripboard

Design stripboard (protoboard / veroboard) circuit layouts in Python, and render them to a PDF you can solder from — plus a silkscreen label, laser g-code, an SVG, a 3D-printable label, and a 3D-printable carrier.

Stripboard is prototyping board with parallel copper strips running across one face. You place components on the grid, cut the strips where two nets must not share one, and add jumper wires where a net has to cross between strips. Doing that on paper is tedious and easy to get wrong. This library lets you write it down instead:

from stripboard import project

def draw(sb):
    sb.text(1, 'A', 'BLINKER')
    u1 = sb.dip(6, 'F', 3, 4, '555', pins=['GND', 'TRIG', 'OUT', 'RESET',
                                           'CTRL', 'THRESH', 'DISCH', 'VCC'])
    r1 = sb.resist(13, 'F', '10K', l=3)
    led = sb.led(16, 'N')

    sb.net('VCC', u1.pin('VCC'), u1.pin('RESET'), r1.pin(1), color='r')
    sb.net('GND', u1.pin('GND'), u1.pin('CTRL'), led.pin('K'), color='k')
    sb.autoroute()

project(draw, name='blinker', width=18, height='T')

You declare what is electrically true and autoroute() works out the copper — which strips carry which net, where the jumpers go, and which tracks to cut. Or route it yourself with jumper() / link() / cut() / trace() and keep full control. Both workflows are in examples/.

No runtime dependencies. Pure standard library, including the PDF writer and the autorouter.

Install

pip install stripboard

Requires Python 3.12 or newer.

Getting started

stripboard new my-board     # scaffold my_board.py in the current directory
python my_board.py          # -> my_board.pdf

Edit draw(sb), re-run, look at the PDF. When the layout is right, flip designing = False to get the build sheet.

Output

project() decides what to emit from its keyword arguments:

Cut lists use original board coordinates with alphabetic rows (A–Z, then AA, AB, …), and list each cut once in declaration order. Between-hole cuts keep their fractional columns, e.g. A7.5. When exporting a PDF directly, use sb.gen('board.pdf', cuts=True) to export cuts for the last board drawn.

The three views on the build sheet are the three ways you actually look at the board: FRONT as you place components, BACK mirrored as you cut tracks and solder, and DESIGN with each net flood-filled in colour so you can check connectivity by eye.

Coordinates

A 1-based integer grid. Columns are numbers running along x; rows are letters ('A' = 1 … 'Z' = 26) or plain ints, running along y. Copper strips run horizontally, so two pins on the same row are already connected — that is the whole trick of the format, and most of the design work is deciding where to break it.

Board sizes take either spelling: width=18, height='T' is the same as width=18, height=20.

Routing

Every part builder returns a handle whose .pin(name) gives a netlist reference:

u1 = sb.dip(6, 'F', 3, 4, '555', pins=['GND', 'TRIG', ...])
sb.net('GND', u1.pin('GND'), c1.pin(2), color='k')   # a whole net at once
sb.connect(u1.pin('OUT'), r3.pin(1))                 # or one edge at a time
result = sb.autoroute(seed=0)

autoroute() returns the solver's result — status, cost, per-net status, validation — and draws the jumpers and cuts it chose. Pass locked=False to a part builder to let the solver place that part too, and it will be drawn wherever it lands.

To place a crossing yourself and have the solver route around it, use link(x, y1, y2) rather than jumper(): its two ends are pins and its span is a keep-out, so hand-placed and autorouted copper can share a board.

The solver lives in stripboard.router and is usable on its own; see docs/router-spec.md.

Development

git clone https://github.com/Stocko-2073/stripboard-py
cd stripboard-py
pip install -e ".[dev]"

pytest                  # fast suite
pytest -m ''            # everything, including the solver tests
ruff check src tests
mypy

Licence

MIT. See LICENSE.