# Flexible for Schematics - PCB Design Next to Your Code

Flexible for Schematics opens KiCad, EasyEDA, Eagle and Gerber files in JetBrains IDEs: schematic and PCB editing, a 3D board view, part search and export.


We build ESP32-based devices and boards that go to manufacturers like JLCPCB and PCBWay. The firmware side lives happily in Flexible for Arduino. The board side, though… switching between KiCad, schematic viewers, BOM generators, part search databases and the IDE eats a lot of time.
So we brought the PCB workflow into the IDE: Flexible for Schematics.
What it does:
Opens the formats you have: KiCad (schematics, boards, symbols, footprints), EasyEDA JSON, Eagle XML, and Gerber/Excellon. Every edit writes back to the source file. A canvas with select, wire, label, note and measure tools, plus undo and redo. A 3D board view in software - no GPU, no browser. It pulls real part models from the KiCad 3D library by footprint name, and from EasyEDA for parts with an LCSC code. A stacked Gerber view that finds every layer in the folder, with color, opacity and solo per layer. Part search across JLCPCB, LCSC, the KiCad library, EasyEDA and Nexar, with stock and price tiers - plus a cost tab with BOM pricing and CSV export. Checks: electrical rule checks (unconnected pins, duplicate references, missing footprints, floating power pins) and a built-in DC solver that shows net voltages and currents. An autorouter (A* on a grid, two copper layers, IPC-2221 track widths). Export profiles for JLCPCB, PCBWay, Eurocircuits, OSH Park and Aisler: Gerber, drill, BOM, pick-and-place, zipped. Sticky notes that live in a separate .notes.json, so your manufacturer files stay clean. A “bake” action writes them into the file if you want. AI: a chat with slash commands (/bom, /erc, /parts and more) and an MCP server, so an agent can read the netlist, run the ERC or export manufacturer files. The number I like most: in 2026.1.4 the 3D view got about eleven times faster - from 390 ms to 35 ms for a finished picture of the test board. It’s a z-buffer rasteriser now. It reads lighting from a table instead of computing square roots and powers for every pixel, and it reuses its picture between frames.
And one fix worth knowing about if you tried an early version: four- and six-layer boards lost their inner layers on save, because the writer only wrote the two outer ones. Fixed in 2026.1.4 - so please update.
The limits: the autorouter is grid-based and handles two layers. Nexar search needs an API token. And a part without a 3D model keeps its drawn shape in the 3D view.
Get it here: plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/34182-flexible-for-schematics
Cheers, Paul