BOM variants cannot swap parts or footprints per board
BOM variants only allow pin-compatible symbol swaps, and variant footprints are placed in parallel, so true variant boards cannot be built.
Tier II · Emerging Problems that are still building up.
4 public reports · first reported 2 October 2026 · last reported 2 October 2026
What's going wrong
KiCad users designing board variants find that the new variant system only swaps symbols that share pin count and position, which limits how much a part can differ between variants.
AI-assisted: written with the help of AI from the reports. The idea report has the full summary.
In the idea report
- The full summary.
- The products the 4 reports are about, and how many came each month.
- Related problems.
No business has been found with this problem yet, so the report has no contacts. All sales are final — no refunds. Pricing.