Cut lines on Silkscreen for manual separation

[storepeterdk-afk]

Is there a way to have Kikit make a panel where the original board outlines is put on the Silkscreen, and Edge.Cuts is just a rectangle covering the whole panel. Hence I would need to seperate the designs manually.

Because:

I recently made a panel with 10 small boards of 5 different designs using https://github.com/fl4p/kikit-packer and ordered it from JLCPCB

kikit panelize  --layout 'plugin; code: kikit-packer.py.Plugin; input: boards.yaml' \
	--cuts mousebites  \
	ch32v_3x7segment.kicad_pcb \
	boards.kicad_pcb

JLCPCB wanted a sur-charge 6 times the initial total cost, for this.

JLCPCB explains on the web-site that it is due to extra handling and suggest a rectangular design without vcuts/mousebites to aovid the added cost.

So I hand edited the kicad_pcb file made by Kikit:

• removed the mouse bites,
• moved the individual design edges to the Silkscreen
• made a new board outline on Edge.Cuts

JLCPCB accepted the new simpler design, and my board is now on the way.

It would be nice if I did not have to hand edit the result, and Kikit could do it.

I tried

kikit panelize  --layout 'plugin; code: kikit-packer.py.Plugin; input: boards.yaml' \
	--cuts none \
	ch32v_3x7segment.kicad_pcb \
	boards/boards.kicad_pcb

But this didn't change much

/StorePeter

[mpheyse]

While this might be a useful feature, expect your future boards to get the 6x cost back.

JLCpcb is not letting multi-boards get through much anymore. Boards I ran before that had simple mouse bites sub-boards that use to go into product just fine, are now being flagged as "different" designs which isn't allowed on the cheap.

you may need to link your distinct boards with copper traces that get cut away, so that all your boards are 1 design that's dupped only twice in your 10x5 example.