PCB ReTrace

Digitize, document, reverse engineer, and generate schematics for printed circuit boards entirely in your browser.

Launch PCB ReTrace | Examples Gallery

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🔍 Overview

PCB ReTrace is a local-first web application designed for electronics engineers, repair technicians, and hardware hackers. It helps you move from a physical PCB to a digital representation using only photographs.

It runs 100% client-side using HTML5, Vanilla JS, and WebAssembly. No data is ever uploaded to a server.

✨ Key Features

• BOM Management: Map components on board photos to a digital Bill of Materials.
• Visual Inspection: View multiple board layers (Top/Bottom) simultaneously.
• Computer Vision Stitching: Automatically align close-up macro shots with wide-angle reference photos using OpenCV.
• X-Ray View: Manually stitch Top and Bottom images to trace vias and through-holes across layers.
• Netlist Tracing: Click-to-trace connectivity and export to KiCad compatible netlists (.net) and SPICE netlists (.cir).
• Schematic Generation (Schema ReTrace): Generate and route schematic diagrams from traced nets.
  • Interactive Editing: Drag components, rotate them, and replace symbols.
  • KiCad Libraries: Import .kicad_sym libraries or ZIP archives to assign standard symbols to components.
  • KiCad Schematic Export: Export a generated schematic diagram to a KiCad compatible format (.kicad_sch).
• Integrated Tools:
  • Resistor Color Code Decoder (3-6 bands)
  • Inductor Color Code Decoder
  • Air-core Coil Calculator
• Privacy First: All data is stored in your browser's IndexedDB.

🚀 Getting Started

Online

Simply visit the GitHub Pages deployment.

Offline / Local Development

Since the project uses no build tools, you can run it directly from the source:

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/dev-lab/pcb-retrace.git

2. Navigate to the docs folder (where the source code lives):

   cd pcb-retrace/docs

3. Open index.html in your browser.
   • Note: Some features (like Camera access) require a secure context (HTTPS) or localhost. For best results, use a simple local server like Python's http.server.

🔗 Sharing & Deep Links

You can easily share a reverse-engineered device setup by hosting an exported ZIP file on a public server (like GitHub Pages) and creating a deep link.

Append ?import={URL} to the studio address: https://pcb.etaras.com/studio.html?import=https://example.com/my-device.zip

(Note: The hosting server must support CORS by sending the Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * header).

📂 Project Structure

This project follows a "Build-Free" architecture. All source code is located in the /docs folder to support GitHub Pages directly.

• docs/studio.html: The main application entry point.
• docs/schema.html: Standalone schematic generation and netlist visualization.
• docs/guide.html: PCB ReTrace User Guide.
• docs/resistor.html: Resistor Color Code Decoder.
• docs/inductor.html: Inductor Color Code Decoder.
• docs/coil.html: Air-core Coil Calculator.

⚖️ License & Commercial Use

This project is Dual Licensed:

1. Open Source (AGPLv3): Ideal for hobbyists, educational use, and open-source projects. You are free to use and modify the software, provided that any modifications are also made open source under the same terms.
2. Commercial License: For proprietary use, internal corporate deployment without copyleft restrictions, or integration into closed-source workflows, a commercial license is available.

Please see LICENSE for details.

For commercial licensing inquiries, please contact: Taras Greben taras.greben@gmail.com.

📦 Third-Party Libraries

• OpenCV.js: Computer Vision (Apache 2.0 License)
• zip.js: File compression/decompression (BSD 3-Clause License)
• WireBender: Schematic generation/routing library (AGPLv3 or Commercial)
• Adaptagrams: Used by WireBender via libavoid, libcola, and libvpsc (LGPL 2.1 or later)
• KiCad symbol libraries: Redistributed symbol data bundled as assets/kicad-symbols-master.zip

See THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md for full text.