Please see attached images. I’m trying to make a faceplate for a multi-board project in kicad. I have 3 projects setup. One for the main circuit board which I exported as a step file and imported into the front-board so I can make sure the pins line up. Then I exported the front-board as a step file so I can make sure all the audio jacks line up with the wholes in the faceplate. Everything looks good and everything lines up great in the 3d model viewer. However, when I print it all out to paper using ther 1:1 ratio setting I get weird reults. The top set of audio jacks all line up with the holes in the faceplate but the bottom set of jacks do not. So should I be concerened about this? Can I rely on the 3d model to be correct even though what gets printed out isn’t correct? What could be the cause of this?
I don’t know about the 3D issue.
But to check the alignement, you can select everything on one PCB, Open the other one and paste.
So you can have the 2 pcb on the same file temporally to check if everything is OK.
Get a steel rule and measure the furthest holes/jacks in each set of printouts, find which one is wrong compared to the PCB layout. If they are both correct then your PCB layout is wrong, if one of the printouts is wrong well, figure out why and fix it. I often print to PDF first at 1:1 then send the PDF to print at 1:1.
If I look at the 3D view, then the audio plug connector is assymetrical and the 8 on the bottom are rotated 180 degrees compared to the top 8 connectors. Can that be the issue?
Also, this old article I made may have some interesting details:
I don’t know what your printer is or what settings you used for it, however I’ve seen similar problems with printers. What I do is draw marking (like on a ruler) then print and check it against a real ruler in both the X and Y directions. If there is a problem, then I set the scale in the printer setting to resolve (as best as the setting allow).
To be clear, I’m suggesting the issue may be in the printer/printer settings and not KiCAD.
