I have a complex pad with combined shapes. However, when this footprint is used, the ratsnest is drawn to the center of one polygon, and I can’t make the connection anywhere else on that pad.
Can I define in the footprint where the ratsnest will point to?
Can I connect anywhere to the pad?
You can add pads with the same pad number inside that larger custom pad.
Excellent. This works, even though there is some weirdness: When I do “Edit Pad as Graphic Shape”, then add another pad,the context menu will not show “Finish Pad” but again “Edit Pad as Graphic Shape”, as if adding a pad exits automatically the graphic shape editing. However, the result works.
The pads aren’t fused together in this way. There’s the old custom pad and the new pads are independent. The same number causes them to belong to the same net, and when they overlap (enough), KiCad sees them connected. Adding several normal pads together, with the same number, is one way of creating a custom shaped pad. From the viewpoint of the router etc. it just has many anchor points.
That’s pretty much the definition of the name. “Edit PAD as Graphic Shape”. One pad has one graphic shape.
Using multiple pads with the same number in a footprint, is interpreted in KiCad in such a way that you have to connect them all together. This is used extensively in for example footprints with thermal via’s (Just search for “thermal” in the footprint libraries).
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