How to export KiCAD pick&place position file using kicad-cli

Since KiCAD 7.0, you can use the kicad-cli command line tool to export a pick & place position TSV file from a KiCAD project.

First, find out what the filename of the PCB file is. Typically, if your project is named MyPCB.kicad_pro, your main schematic file is named MyPCB.kicad_pcb.

Now you can export the position file using

kicad-cli pcb export pos MyPCB.kicad_pcb --units mm

This will output, for example

Loading board

If the PCB file is named MyPCB.kicad_pcb, the position file will be called MyPCB.pos.

You can also set a custom output file name such as out.pos using the -o option.

kicad-cli pcb export pos MyPCB.kicad_pcb -o out.pos --units mm