BoardRipper
Web-based PCB boardview viewer for board-level repair. Eleven boardview formats and the matching PDF schematic, side by side, in a browser. GPU-accelerated rendering, dockable panels, self-hosted via Docker. Free, AGPL-3.0.
A polished overview with screenshots lives at https://www.ripperdoc.de/boardripper/. This README is the developer- and operator-facing companion: stack details, Docker setup, build instructions, license notes.
Bring your own files. BoardRipper is the viewer only — it does not ship with any boardview files, schematics, or PDFs. The bundled board database is reference metadata (board numbers and device models), no copyrighted content.
Features
- GPU-accelerated rendering — PixiJS v8 / WebGL, 10,000+ components at 60 fps on a modern GPU. Bench-tested down to Intel HD 4000-era integrated graphics (10–30 fps).
- Eleven board formats — see table below. Both
.cad and .brd are shared extensions; BoardRipper sniffs file content to pick the right parser.
- PDF schematic, in sync — pan, zoom, text search, bookmarks, night mode. Right-click a net on the board to search it in the schematic.
- Multi-board tabs — open several boards at once, switch between them.
- Multi-layer support — show/hide top, bottom, and inner layers independently. Butterfly mode shows top and bottom side by side.
- Net highlight — click a pin and the whole net lights up across the board. Chain-adjacent mode walks through neighbouring nets too.
- Touch input — pinch-zoom, drag-pan, tap to select. Usable on a tablet at the bench.
- Customizable colors — per-net rules by name pattern (e.g.
GND, VCC, PP*), per-component-type fills (R / C / L / U / Q / D / J), per-layer colors, label / pin / outline tuning. Live preview before applying.
- Multi-line search — each line is an extra AND-filter, useful when a component carries value and voltage on separate label lines (
20uF ⨯ 10V ⨯ C12*).
- Drag-and-drop import — drop a board file or a folder onto the window and it loads. To persist drops across container restarts, mount a writable folder at
/library/incoming (see Docker setup).
- Board library — scan folders, browse by board number or model. Filenames are auto-sorted; board numbers, manufacturers, and revisions are parsed automatically.
- Board database with heuristics — a bundled reference DB maps board numbers to manufacturer / ODM / laptop or phone model and groups boards by device.
- PDF auto-link — boards and their schematics get matched up automatically when both are present in the same library.
- IndexedDB cache — re-open without re-parsing.
- Self-update — one-click signed update from the toolbar. No GitHub token required; updates are signed with an offline Ed25519 key and verified by the running container before install.
- Panel system — Dockview: dockable, floating, and popout-to-new-window panels.
- Component Info (pins list, metadata)
- Net List (searchable, click to highlight)
- Search Results
- PDF Viewer
- Settings (live preview mockup, per-net color rules, label/pin/outline tuning)
- Debug Panel (scoped log viewer, frame-time)
- Electron desktop wrapper — standalone macOS (universal + legacy) and Windows builds.
| Format |
Extension(s) |
Description |
Spec |
| BVR1 |
.bvr / .bv |
Tab-delimited boardview, coordinates ×1000 → mils |
BVR_FORMAT.md |
| BVR3 |
.bvr / .bv |
Keyword-value boardview, relative pin coordinates |
BVR_FORMAT.md |
| BRD |
.brd |
Apple / Mac repair, bit-rotation obfuscated binary |
BRD_FORMAT.md |
| BDV |
.brd / .bdv |
Plain-text boardview (BRDOUT / NETS / PARTS / PINS / NAILS) |
BDV_FORMAT.md |
| BDV ASC |
.bdv |
Honhan / Tebo-ICT obfuscated multi-section ASC (line-key cipher) |
BDV_ASC_FORMAT.md |
| FZ |
.fz |
ASUS, RC6-encrypted, zlib-compressed |
FZ_FORMAT.md |
| GenCAD |
.cad |
GenCAD 1.4 PCB interchange (text) |
CAD_FORMAT.md |
| Mentor Neutral |
.cad |
Mentor Boardstation neutral file (Samsung / Quanta / Compal exports) |
MENTOR_NEUTRAL_FORMAT.md |
| XZZ |
.pcb |
XZZ PCB, DES-encrypted boardview |
XZZ_FORMAT.md |
| TVW |
.tvw |
Teboview binary, multi-layer + traces + drill data |
TVW_FORMAT.md |
| Cadence Allegro BRD |
.brd |
Cadence Allegro PCB binary, v16.x / v17.x / v18.x |
ALLEGRO_BRD_FORMAT.md |
| ↳ Allegro v15.x |
.brd |
Same parser family, partial coverage, still in beta |
ALLEGRO_V15_FORMAT.md |
Keyboard shortcuts
The full, always-current list lives in Settings ▸ Shortcuts (and on the home-screen Getting Started card). The headline shortcuts:
|
|
| Open board / PDF |
⌘O / ⌘P (Mac) · Ctrl+O / Ctrl+P (Win/Linux) |
| Find (selection-aware) |
⌘F / Ctrl+F — prefills PDF search with the selected component or net |
| Pan board / PDF |
W A S D or Alt+arrows |
| Rotate board |
Q / E (CCW / CW) or ⌘← / ⌘→ |
| Mirror board |
⌘↑ / Ctrl+↑ |
| Flip layer (top ↔ bottom) |
Space |
| Zoom in / out |
Shift+W / Shift+S (centred on canvas) |
| Toggle Library sidebar |
~ — the physical key left of 1 (Backquote / IntlBackslash); works on US, German, and most other layouts |
| Jump board ↔ PDF |
Tab |
| PDF page nav |
PgUp / PgDn (or ⌘↑ / ⌘↓ on Mac) |
The keyboard pan and zoom step sizes are configurable in Settings ▸ Navigation ▸ Keyboard pan / zoom. The right-click context menu adds a top-row icon strip with Copy net / Copy part / Search net / Search part (board) and Copy / Search Web (PDF text) — search opens Google in a new tab.
Layout note. WSAD/QE/Shift+WS bind to the printed letter on your keyboard, so on AZERTY layouts the keys are physically Z/Q/S/D rather than the W/A/S/D positions — a layout-aware remapping is on the roadmap. The ~ library toggle is layout-independent.
Stack
| Layer |
Technology |
| Rendering |
PixiJS v8 + pixi-viewport v6 (WebGL) |
| Frontend |
React 19 + TypeScript + Vite 7 |
| Panels |
Dockview v5 |
| Backend |
Go (net/http stdlib) |
| Container |
Docker multi-stage, scratch-based, ~25 MB image / ~13 MB compressed |
| Desktop |
Electron (macOS universal + Windows) |
| Tests |
Playwright (Chromium headless) |
Quick start
BoardRipper is primarily a server you run on a NAS or host machine and access from any browser on your network. Standalone binaries and desktop Electron wrappers are available as alternatives.
Docker (typical deployment)
docker compose up -d
# → http://localhost:8081
Or pull directly:
docker pull ghcr.io/alexeyinwerp/boardripper:latest
Mount your board-file folders under /library to expose them in the Library panel — see Docker Setup below.
Build from source
git clone https://github.com/AlexeyInwerp/BoardRipper.git
cd BoardRipper
# Build the frontend bundle:
cd src/frontend && npm install && npm run build && cd ../..
# Run the Go server pointing at the built bundle:
STATIC_DIR=./src/frontend/dist DATA_DIR=./data go run ./src/backend
# → http://localhost:8080
The released artifact is the Docker image (above) — no per-platform standalone binaries are published. If you need a portable binary, build the Go server with CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o boardripper ./src/backend and ship it next to the dist/ directory and a STATIC_DIR= env var. Self-update only works in Docker (it needs the host’s Docker socket).
Development
# Frontend (hot reload)
cd src/frontend && npm install && npm run dev # http://localhost:5173
# Backend (separate terminal)
cd src/backend && go run . # http://localhost:8080
Docker setup
docker-compose.yml
services:
boardripper:
image: ghcr.io/alexeyinwerp/boardripper:latest # or build: .
# The image ships USER 65532:65532 (distroless `nonroot`) so a hypothetical
# RCE doesn't own your bind-mounted /data. The default `docker compose up`
# flow creates ./data as root on Linux hosts (Docker daemon runs as root),
# which UID 65532 can't then write — the container exits at databank.Open
# with "unable to open database file". Override to root for the compose
# path, matching what NASdeploy.sh already does. Alternatively, remove this
# line and either (a) `chown -R 65532:65532 ./data` before `up -d`, or
# (b) switch ./data to a named volume — Docker initializes named volumes
# from /data inside the image (pre-chowned to 65532 in the Dockerfile).
user: "0:0"
ports:
- "8081:8080" # access at http://your-host:8081
volumes:
- ./data:/data # uploaded board files + cache persist here
# Your library: mount EVERYTHING read-only (:ro) by default.
- /path/to/MacBooks:/library/MacBooks:ro
- /path/to/iPhones:/library/iPhones:ro
- /path/to/Schematics:/library/Schematics:ro
# The ONLY writable mount the container should ever see:
- /path/to/incoming:/library/incoming:rw
# Docker socket (required for self-update — see Self-Update below):
- /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
environment:
- PORT=8080
restart: unless-stopped
deploy:
resources:
limits:
memory: 1024M # pdfium/wazero pool; 512M boot-fails with SQLite OOM at databank open
# environment also accepts:
# - PDFINDEX_POOL_MAX=2 # max concurrent pdfium/wazero PDF-index workers;
# # reduce to 1 on a NAS with <1 GB free RAM
Volume mounting
The Library panel browses the /library directory inside the container. Mount your board-file folders as subdirectories of /library:
-v /nas/boards/MacBooks:/library/MacBooks:ro
-v /nas/boards/iPhones:/library/iPhones:ro
-v /nas/schematics:/library/Schematics:ro
-v /nas/incoming:/library/incoming:rw
These appear as top-level folders in the Library panel. Use :ro for read-only by default. /library/incoming is the only path BoardRipper needs to be able to write to — that’s where drag-dropped files land. The container does not need write access to your existing board folders, your schematics, or anything else.
Synology NAS (DSM 7.2+)
- Download
boardripper-<version>.tar.gz (or latest.tar.gz) from https://www.ripperdoc.de/boardripper/releases/
- SSH into your NAS and load the image:
docker load < boardripper-docker-<version>.tar.gz
- Create the container:
docker run -d \
--name boardripper \
-p 8090:8080 \
-v /volume1/docker/boardripper/data:/data \
-v /volume1/your-boards/MacBooks:/library/MacBooks:ro \
-v /volume1/your-boards/iPhones:/library/iPhones:ro \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
-e PORT=8080 \
--restart unless-stopped \
ghcr.io/alexeyinwerp/boardripper:latest
- Open
http://your-nas-ip:8090
Self-update
BoardRipper can update itself when running in Docker:
- Click the version badge in the toolbar to check for updates.
- If an update is available, click Update & Restart.
- The container pulls the new image and restarts automatically.
Requires:
- Docker socket mounted (
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock).
The signed release manifest is fetched from https://www.ripperdoc.de/boardripper/manifest.json and verified against an Ed25519 public key compiled into the running binary before any I/O on the body — a hijacked mirror cannot deliver a forged update. Once the manifest verifies, the image itself is pulled by content-addressed digest from ghcr.io/alexeyinwerp/boardripper@sha256:…; the signed tarball mirror is the fallback if GHCR is unreachable. The pipeline also enforces a monotonic counter (replay defence), a 30-day freshness window, a 90-day expiry, and a min_supported_version downgrade defence. See docs/RELEASE_RUNBOOK.md for the maintainer-side release procedure.
Drop-to-update fallback
For installs that can’t reach the registry or the mirror (firewalled networks, air-gapped shops, recovery from a broken self-update):
- Download
latest-update.tar from https://www.ripperdoc.de/boardripper/releases/latest-update.tar (signed bundle: manifest + signature + image, ~13 MB).
- Drag the file anywhere on the BoardRipper UI.
- Confirm the prompt; the running container verifies the signature, applies the update, and restarts.
- The browser reloads after ~30 s.
Same trust envelope as the in-app updater — the manifest signature is what grants trust, the file itself is treated as untrusted bytes until verification passes.
Manual update
docker pull ghcr.io/alexeyinwerp/boardripper:latest
docker compose down && docker compose up -d
Or with a downloaded tarball:
docker load < boardripper-docker-<new-version>.tar.gz
docker compose down && docker compose up -d
Older versions
Historical releases live at https://www.ripperdoc.de/boardripper/archive.html — Docker tarballs and signed drop-bundles for v0.19.0 onward, with per-version source links for everything older. The GitHub Releases page intentionally lists only the current release; the archive is the canonical “give me an older version” landing page.
A handful of versions are also kept on GHCR (v0.19.0, v0.19.5, v0.20.5, v0.20.8) for direct docker pull — see the archive table for which ones are still pull-able vs. tarball/source-only.
Electron desktop wrapper (optional)
Prebuilt Electron wrappers are published with every release (BoardRipper-macOS-universal-<version>.zip, BoardRipper-Windows-x64-<version>.zip). They run the same Go backend + React frontend inside an Electron shell. The Docker / server path is the primary way to deploy BoardRipper; the desktop wrapper is here for single-machine use.
The wrappers are unsigned, so macOS Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen will warn on first launch:
- macOS — after unzipping, run
xattr -cr /Applications/BoardRipper.app (or wherever you extracted it), then double-click. On macOS < 15 you can also right-click → Open → Open once, or use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway after the first failed launch.
- Windows — SmartScreen shows “Windows protected your PC”. Click More info → Run anyway.
Building the wrappers locally
cd desktop
npm install
node build-all.mjs # builds macOS universal + legacy + Windows
node build-all.mjs --mac # macOS only
node build-all.mjs --win # Windows only
Output in desktop/out/ (macOS), desktop/out-legacy/ (macOS legacy), desktop/out-win/ (Windows).
License
BoardRipper is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). See LICENSE for the full text.
This project incorporates code derived from KiCad (GPL-3.0) — specifically the Cadence Allegro BRD reader in src/frontend/src/parsers/allegro/, transliterated from KiCad’s pcbnew/pcb_io/allegro/ C++ source — which is why AGPL-3.0 was chosen: it is compatible with GPL-3.0 and additionally closes the “SaaS loophole” by requiring source availability to users who interact with a hosted instance over a network.
For a complete list of third-party sources, libraries, and attributions, see THIRD_PARTY.md.
Credits & references
BoardRipper exists because of the reverse-engineering work already done by the boardview community. Each entry below was consulted during development; full attribution and license details are in THIRD_PARTY.md.
Parser references
- KiCad (GPL-3.0) — Cadence Allegro BRD reader, transliterated to TypeScript. The reason BoardRipper as a whole is AGPL-3.0.
- OpenBoardView (MIT) — reference implementations for BVR1/BVR3, BRD (Apple), BDV (plain-text), BDV ASC (Honhan / Tebo-ICT), FZ (ASUS), GenCAD, XZZ.
- eagleview by Pavel Kovalenko (MIT) — TVW / Teboview parser source.
- brd_parser by Jeff Wheeler (MIT) — cross-validation reference for Allegro block layout.
- piernov’s Honhan BDV gist & OpenBoardView issue #2 — identified the BDV ASC signature and line-key cipher.
- Mentor Boardstation Neutral — original reverse engineering, no third-party code or text incorporated.
- Cryptographic standards — RC6 by Rivest/Robshaw/Sidney/Yin (FZ), DES / FIPS PUB 46-3 (XZZ). GenCAD 1.4 has no canonical online specification — see docs/formats/CAD_FORMAT.md for the BoardRipper interpretation.
Rendering & runtime
Backend
Desktop
Corrections and missing attributions are welcome — open an issue, or email [email protected].
About this software
BoardRipper is not hand-written. The codebase — parsers, renderer, panels, backend — was generated with Claude Code, working from format specs and reference implementations from the boardview community. I review, test, and direct it; the lines of code came out of an LLM.
Treat that as you would any AI-assisted software: it works on the boards I’ve tested, it has bugs I haven’t found yet, and the right level of trust is “a useful viewer, not a forensic tool.” Bug reports welcome.
Feedback
If BoardRipper saves you time, buy me a coffee.
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