Signex

Open-source, AI-first electronics design automation

Features · Screenshots · Building · Roadmap · Wiki · Contributing · License

Signex is open-source EDA tooling built in Rust with GPU-accelerated rendering and an Altium Designer-quality UI — schematic + PCB editor, 3D viewer, simulation, plugin system. Native file formats (.snxsch, .snxpcb) are line-diffable in git and ~5× smaller than the equivalent JSON.

Migrating from KiCad? The optional signex-kicad-import companion tool (GPL-3.0-or-later, distributed independently) converts .kicad_sch / .kicad_pcb / .kicad_pro files to Signex's native formats one-way. Run it once against your project; open the resulting .snxprj in Signex.

Two editions from one codebase:

Signex Community (Apache-2.0, free forever) — full schematic + PCB editor, 3D viewer, simulation, plugin system
Signex Pro (subscription) — adds Signal AI (Claude-powered design copilot), real-time collaboration, and Signex 365 cloud PLM

Status: Early development — v0.14.0 shipped — the Footprint Editor milestone. The .snxfpt pad + parametric-sketch editor is now enabled: place pads, draw a parametric sketch driven by an Apache-clean Newton-LM constraint solver (19 constraint kinds), and bake to pads / silk / courtyard. v0.14 completes the active-bar tooling (Align / Distribute, Move / Drag, Fill / Region, Text Frame, the selection-filter All toggle) and exposes the full constraint set. The v0.13 clean-room schematic renderer and the Symbol & Library surfaces (unified Active Bar, .snxsym TOML envelope, Library Browser, Pick Symbol / Footprint) carry forward. Join the discussion or check the roadmap.

Features

What works today (v0.1–v0.14):

Open native Signex schematics (.snxsch, .snxsym, .snxprj); migrate legacy KiCad files via the signex-kicad-import companion tool
Full schematic editing: select, move, wire (W), bus (B), label (L), component placement (P), delete, rotate (Space), mirror (X/Y)
Advanced shape tools — Line, Rectangle, Circle, Arc (3-click), Polygon (click-by-click), editable drawing Properties with live preview
Copy/paste, undo/redo (100 levels), save to the native .snxsch / .snxprj format (TOML envelope + TSV bulk blocks, line-diffable in git)
7 built-in themes with customizable theme editor
Altium-style docking panels with drag-to-undock/dock
Active Bar — 13-button floating toolbar with dropdown menus
Context menu, in-place text editing (F2), selection filter
Properties panel with context-aware field editing, Parameter Manager
Multi-window editing (v0.7) — undock any tab into its own OS window and edit it independently; each window keeps its own pan/zoom, selection, and undo/redo history
ERC validation (v0.7) — 11 Altium-style rules including cross-sheet hierarchy checks and net-label conflicts; Messages panel with click-to-zoom
Annotation (v0.7) — four modes, review-and-confirm dialog, lock/unlock per designator, project-wide consistency
F5 net-color palette, F8 ERC, F9 AutoFocus (dim unrelated objects)
Pin connection matrix (12×12, per-cell severity override)
Lasso + Inside/Outside/TouchingLine selection modes (Shift+S to cycle)
Native .snxsch / .snxpcb formats — TOML envelope + TSV bulk blocks, line-diffable, ~5× smaller than JSON, single file per design
60fps pan/zoom on schematics with 500+ components
Output (v0.8) — PDF export with bookmarks + theme palette, Altium-spec BOM preview with column/variant pickers and CSV/HTML/XLSX export, KiCad netlist export, unified Print Preview / Export PDF modal
Multi-project workspaces (v0.8) — multiple projects open side-by-side, per-tab project scoping, accent-tinted active project root
Altium-style dirty tracking (v0.8) — closing tabs never prompts; project-close lists every dirty file with Save All / Discard All / Cancel
Hierarchical sheet polish (v0.8) — Altium-port-style child-sheet pins, per-sheet stroke/fill colours, multisheet style preference
TabPill chrome refactor (v0.8) — 3-sided shared borders, theme-aware inactive fill, drag accent from theme
Apache-clean native formats (v0.9) — .snxsch / .snxpcb are the canonical format; KiCad I/O moved to the optional companion tool
Component library subsystem (v0.10–v0.11) — Library Browser tab, DBLib row model, SCH Library editor, Component Preview, Pick Symbol/Footprint + auto-mount, DigiKey / Mouser / LCSC / JLCPCB distributor adapters, per-library git version control + History panel
Clean-room schematic renderer + Symbol editor (v0.13) — renderer reimplemented against Signex-only specs (docs/RENDERING_RULES.md, IEEE-Std-91); unified Active Bar and TOML .snxsym envelope
Multi-unit symbols (v0.14) — part_count, per-unit body geometry and graphics, unit buttons, two-click rect / line / circle + three-click arc
Footprint & sketch editor (v0.14) — .snxfpt pad + parametric-sketch editor driven by an Apache-clean Newton-LM constraint solver (19 constraint kinds); bake to pads / silk / courtyard; Align / Distribute / Move / Fill / Text tooling; CPU 3D-body extrude preview
Authoritative netlist contract (v0.14) — one connectivity derivation in signex-net (build_netlist / build_project_netlist) consumed by ERC, net-flood, and export; same-name labels + T-junctions merge correctly
Configurable keyboard-shortcut profiles (v0.14) — grouped, searchable in-app editor; menu labels sourced from the command table
GPU schematic render path (v0.14) — signex-gfx aligned to iced's wgpu 27; schematic render module via the shader widget (feature-gated)

What's next:

Version	Milestone
v1.0	Community Preview — schematic-only release
v2.0–v2.2	Community Release — full PCB editor (viewer, routing, DRC, output)
v2.3–v2.5	3D Viewer, Advanced PCB, High-Speed Design
v3.0	Pro Release — Signal AI + plugins + collaboration
v4.0	Unified simulation view with SPICE, EM, thermal
v5.0	Signex 365 cloud PLM

Screenshots

Active Bar with dropdown menus, Selection Filter tags, Properties panel with document options

More themes

Catppuccin Mocha, GitHub Dark, Solarized Light — 7 themes built in, fully customizable

Architecture

A 17-crate Rust workspace (edition = 2024), an acyclic DAG with signex-app at the apex and signex-types as the shared foundation:

signex/
├── crates/
│   ├── signex-app/            # Main binary — iced 0.14 app (panels, dock, canvas, editors)
│   ├── signex-types/          # Domain types — schematic/PCB/layer/theme — NO rendering deps
│   ├── signex-engine/         # Command / patch / undo engine for schematic edits
│   ├── signex-net/            # Authoritative netlist + connectivity contract
│   ├── signex-erc/            # ERC rule engine (+ signex-erc-dsl)
│   ├── signex-sketch/         # Apache-clean Newton-LM constraint solver + sketch schema
│   ├── signex-bake/           # Sketch → footprint bake (pad / silk / courtyard / mask / …)
│   ├── signex-output/         # PDF / netlist / BOM export pipeline (+ signex-bom)
│   ├── signex-renderer/       # Domain types → render primitives (+ signex-gfx wgpu pipelines)
│   ├── signex-library/        # .snxlib component library — port/adapter model (+ signex-library-server)
│   ├── signex-widgets/        # Reusable iced widgets (tree view, active bar, previews)
│   └── signex-3d-model-importer/  # STEP / WRL importer for 3D body attach
└── Cargo.toml

Design principles:

Native .snx* formats first. .snxsch / .snxpcb / .snxprj are the canonical format (TOML envelope + TSV bulk blocks, line-diffable, ~5× smaller than JSON). One-way KiCad → Signex import is an optional, independently-distributed companion tool.
Elm architecture (MVU). iced's state → view → Message → update cycle; view is pure, update is the only mutation site and never blocks — all IO returns as a Task. No process-global mutable state.
Domain logic in domain crates. Types and engines below signex-app carry zero iced/wgpu deps (Cargo-enforced); connectivity is derived once in signex-net and read everywhere else, never re-derived.
Multi-window by default. Built on iced::daemon; every undocked tab gets its own engine + canvas keyed by window id, so two schematics can be edited in parallel without cross-talk.
Nanometer coordinates. i64 nanometers internally; exact in both metric and imperial — no float EPS comparisons for "same point".
Canvas for schematic, Shader for PCB. CPU tessellation for schematics, GPU instanced rendering (signex-gfx, wgpu 27) for large PCB scenes.

Hardware Requirements

Signex uses wgpu for hardware-accelerated rendering and expects a modern GPU with effective Vulkan 1.1 (Linux), DirectX 12 (Windows), or Metal (macOS) support. In practice this means a GPU released around 2014 or later — Intel HD Graphics 4400+, NVIDIA GeForce 600-series and newer, AMD Radeon HD 7000-series and newer, or any Apple Silicon Mac.

Older GPUs that only expose legacy OpenGL may still launch the app via the fallback path, but expect rendering glitches such as overlapping panels and broken layout — these GPUs are not supported.

Building

Prerequisites: Rust 1.97.0 — pinned via rust-toolchain.toml, so rustup installs it automatically; this is also the MSRV (we build and support exactly this toolchain) — and a GPU supporting Vulkan, Metal, or DX12.

git clone https://github.com/alplabai/signex.git
cd signex
cargo run -p signex-app          # Run
cargo test --workspace           # Test
cargo clippy --workspace -- -D warnings  # Lint

Roadmap

Milestone	Version	Status
Scaffold — Iced shell, panels, themes, dock system	v0.1	Done
Parser — KiCad format read/write, domain types	v0.2	Done
Canvas — wgpu pan/zoom/grid, Altium-style camera	v0.3	Done
Schematic Viewer — render all elements, multi-sheet nav	v0.4	Done
Schematic Editor — select, move, wire, undo/redo, save	v0.5	Done
Full SCH Editor — copy/paste, labels, components, Active Bar	v0.6	Done
Validation + Multi-Window — ERC, annotation, pin matrix, undockable tabs	v0.7	Done
Output — PDF, BOM, netlist, multi-project workspaces, dirty tracking	v0.8	Done
Native file formats — `.snxsch` / `.snxpcb` TOML+TSV; KiCad I/O via signex-kicad-import companion	v0.9	Done
Library Browser tab — read-only `.snxlib` table	v0.10	Done
Library & Polish — full DBLib model, SCH Library editor, Component Preview, picker + auto-mount, distributor adapters	v0.11	Done
Symbol & Library — clean-room schematic renderer, unified Active Bar in symbol editor, `.snxsym` TOML envelope	v0.13	Done
Footprint Editor — `.snxfpt` pad + parametric-sketch editor, Newton-LM solver (19 constraints), Align/Distribute/Move/Fill/Text tooling	v0.14	Done
Community Preview — schematic-only editor	v1.0
PCB Viewer — GPU rendering, layers, cross-probe	v2.0
PCB Routing + DRC + Output	v2.1–v2.2
Community Release — full schematic + PCB editor	v2.2
3D Viewer, Advanced PCB, High-Speed Design	v2.3–v2.5
Pro Release — Signal AI + plugins + collaboration	v3.0
Simulation — SPICE, EM, thermal, simulation wizards	v4.0–v4.1
Signex 365 — cloud PLM, BOM Studio, ERP bridge	v5.0

See docs/ROADMAP.md for the detailed version plan.

Documentation

The Signex Wiki is the user guide — installation, quick start, keyboard shortcuts, and feature-by-feature walkthroughs (ERC, annotation, multi-window editing, hierarchical sheets, net-color pen, the library subsystem, the symbol + footprint editors, themes, and more), plus an FAQ and roadmap.

Start with Quick Start to open your first Signex project, or jump straight to Keyboard Shortcuts for the full reference. In-repo docs live under docs/ — see ROADMAP.md, LICENSING.md, and REPOSITORY_AND_CODEBASE.md.

Contributing

Signex is open source and we welcome contributions from everyone — whether you're an EDA professional, a Rust developer, or someone who just wants to help build a better design tool.

Ways to contribute:

Report bugs or rendering discrepancies
Add test fixtures from real projects
Implement a feature from the roadmap
Fix an open issue
Improve documentation

Quick start:

git clone https://github.com/alplabai/signex.git
cd signex
cargo build --workspace
cargo run -p signex-app

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full guide: branching workflow, crate map, code style, and good first issues.

License

Signex Community Edition is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. The main repository contains no GPL-derived code; Apache consumers (anyone embedding or linking against Signex) get a clean Apache codebase with no GPL aggregation in their build closure.

KiCad migration is provided via the optional signex-kicad-import companion tool, which is GPL-3.0-or-later because it implements KiCad's file format with structure derived from KiCad's GPL-3.0 source. The two projects are distributed independently. See docs/LICENSING.md for the full rationale and the audit trail behind the two-repo split.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 1,209 Commits
.github		.github
assets		assets
crates		crates
docs		docs
installer		installer
scripts		scripts
tools		tools
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
.gitmodules		.gitmodules
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
Cargo.lock		Cargo.lock
Cargo.toml		Cargo.toml
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
deny.toml		deny.toml
rust-toolchain.toml		rust-toolchain.toml

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