Comment 5 for bug 594013

Hi Nick, you're totally right, IPC-2581 standard costs $160 to download from the IPC website (the same is true for IPC-D-356 netlist standard which KiCad supports)

That said, IPC-2581 is an open, neutral industry standard, and it's free for anyone (individuals or corporations) to join the IPC-2581 consortium and get access to latest specification drafts.

If you guys ever change your mind about adding support for IPC-2581, but cost of purchase is a barrier for developers getting access to the standard, please PM me.

(Full disclosure - I work for a manufacturer that's using IPC-2581 to automate the factory, and we would LOVE to be able to accept IPC-2581 data from our KiCad customers!)