Is there documentation or a video tutorial somewhere that shows how to use the “Add Microwave Shapes” tools in Kicad 8? I couldn’t find anything that looked relevant or up to date with Google, and clicking on the tools and trying to use them doesn’t seem very intuitive for me.
I don’t know if there is real documentation for it, but the tool seems simple and intuitive enough to be able to use it without a manual.
I just tried some, and the tool seems to have changed significantly in KiCad. Now it creates footprints with pads in some specific shape. I think it did not create footprints before, but I never used these functions for a real PCB so I can’t be sure.
Can you formulate a specific question about this?
Every time I try to add a microwave line it gives an errror “Requested length too small”
Adding the footprints for the Gaps and Stubs seems fine, but how do you connected them to anything? Do I have to pull them back into the schematic to add nets?
Once you’ve created such a microwave footprint, you can select one of it’s PAD’s (don’t select the whole footprint) then edit it’s properties and set a net name.
I guess a big part of the reason these things are in the PCB editor itself is because of “historical reasons”. I don’t like setting net names in the PCB editor much. But once you have created such a footprint, it’s easy enough to load it in the footprint editor with [Ctrl + e] and then save it to a library, so you can connect them properly in the schematic too.
When do you get that: “Requested length too small”? You do write that Gaps and Stubs work.
I can’t comment on v8 (I use v7) but, perhaps this is what you’re looking to understand - some aspect may apply to v8.
Menu’s, and what things are Called can and do, change with version changes…
In v7, it’s called Tuning and if RIGHT-Click the Menu Icon, a Setting panel pops up. There, you set the Length.
That Length needs to include the Track Length plus any (anticipated) added lengths that will arise from the Tuning…
As you start to drag on the Track (to tune it), the length is displayed with msg informing if it’s shorter or longer (too long). If Tuning Pairs of Tracks, [SEE BELOW Screenshot) from old post so, “vid shows it” does not apply to video below]
Thanks, that makes more sense to me now. You have to specify a line length longer than what you drew with the tool, and it creates a squiggle to match the length. For some reason I thought this was to create a microstrip line with different properties.
Is the only reason you would use “Add Microwave Line” over just using the length matching tool is that it creates a footprint that you can more easily move around?
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v7 does Not have that Add Microwave Line tool so, I can’t answer question…
Oops! Getting too old… I re-discovered v7 does have that Tool in the main Menubar… I’ll play with it see what it does and answer question…
ANSWER: Yes, it does Create a Footprint. User can Right-Click>Properties>Edit (Lib footprint or just the placed footprint) and Save it. If not saved, it’s not saved.
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