You’ll no be able to do raytraced 3d renderting or physics simulation with it but you will have everything needed to model your case.
Just check if they still have .STEP file export support though (I have a paid version since a few years now).
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Yup: GitHub - adamws/kicad-kbplacer: KiCad plugin for automatic keyboard's key placement and routing
It should be installable via the plugins interface in KiCad itself.
I’ve used it before and it’s pretty awesome, tho it is somewhat finicky about the format it wants. I had to copy out of the “raw data” section to get it to work.
You have to have the parts already on the PCB layout (with the same name prefix), but beyond that it will do the positioning for you. Also will include diodes or other components (like per-key LEDs).
It does have the ability to automatically route, as well, but I’ve never used that before.
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A lot of other things have come up lately so I still haven’t had a lot of time to spend on this project. But thanks for all the suggestions so far. Lot of good info for sure. 
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Anyone interested in a Keyboard design journal club?
In academic circles, the best way I have found to “passively” learn is to have a rotation of “speakers” talking about topics that are recently interesting in their field.
Maybe we can get a group of 5-10 people thinking of designing their own keyboards together, then combining everyone into a mailing list/monthly zoom call and share our progress?
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