Hi.
I want to drawing T5-lamp.
I import dxf file T5 drawing to silk screen.
and I have made pad. but I can’t select edge.cuts layer.
I have to cut hole in center.
How should I draw lamp-socket?
Draw the hole you want on any unused layer, for example Eco1.User
Edit the .kicad_pcb file with a text editor and replace Eco1.User by Edge.Cuts
22h ago Rene told me that it can be done (by text edition) in footprint file:
I think it is better to do at footprint level than at PCB level.
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I agree. “Printing” error. In fact I meant kicad_mod. Thanks!
There is no need anymore to resort to a text editor, at least from within Pcbnew you can move stuff to Edge.Cuts. (Read on, the 3rd screenshot is the money shot).
Note this screenshot where only the Edge.Cuts layer is active.
I made this screenshot after:
Pcbnew / Edit / Edit Text and Graphic Properties and then in “scope” selected “[ ] Footprint Values” and “[ ] PCB Text items” and in “Action” selected to move them to the Edge.Cuts layer.
This dialog has plenty of options for different situations:
In the case of OP however, the cutout is clearly a part of the footprint, and should therefore be a part of the footprint.
Only then I realized Were talking here about the Footprint Editor.
First I panicked, then I though, Hey, if you can move stuff to Edge.Cuts in Pcbnew, and load a part from the PCB into the Footprint editor…
So, with the method described above I changed all “graphic items” of a random transitor footprint (Only for Q102) to Edge.Cuts, and then hit [Ctrl + e] to open that particular footprint in the Footprint Editor, and Voila:
All graphical items are on the footprint layer, except one purple line which I moved back from “Edge.Cuts” to “B.SilkS” in the Footprint Editor. So with a bit of shuffling around on layers it can be done without a text editor.
Good to know, but as footprint editor accepts lines at Edge.Cuts the best would be it just to allow to draw on it. In my opinion for such change it can be made an exception to allow changes in user interface even without changing the version number from 5.1 to 5.2.
you can use StepUp for footprint generation (edge cuts allowed)
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Yes of course.
Main problem with this is (lack of) manpower.
And on this level there are 100’s of small things that are known and sort of waiting for an interested programmer to be implemented.
In one of the earlier KiCad V5 versions there was a very flexible, but chaotic looking layer swap and copy window in Pcbnew, which seems to have been replaced later with a simple but limited “layer swap” functionality.
Pcbnew / Edit / Swap Layers currently only does copper layers, while during a short time it also had all other layers, but weirdly had no function to copy or swap between a copper and a non-copper layer. This was probably done because DRC can not handle a lot of graphical items such as for example text. Good GUI design is an art in itself, and the most Intuitive GUI’s to use often were the most difficult to design.
Good to know, but to use StepUp for it is currently at least not simple for me.
I spend whole day before yesterday having at one screen opened your cheat-sheet and at the other my cheat-sheet in a form of spreadsheet. I have listed there all StepUp buttons and I’m trying to collect information about their working. After writing all I could understood from your cheat-sheet (I didn’t analysed the linked demos yet) i have 2/3 of buttons without any my description and 1/3 with some description.
The reason - absolutely no practice in FC. For example I even can’t imagine how designing footprint in FC I can specify for each layer my current picture should go. Should I add many sketches and just give them the KiCad layer names (I didn’t checked if I can name sketchers) and it will be enough. Till now I only understand how from many sketchers you can build a solid 3D. But how to make one sketcher being a CrtYd picture and the other being the Edge.Cuts, and how to define pads - should I generate them as 3D from a sketch.
I need to have at least a floggy picture of what and how to do and currently have no.
So at that moment it would be much simpler for me to:
- edit text file, or
- to use the way-around through pcb described by paulvdh.
in the StepUp Demo Menu there are plenty of example files you can start of…
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It is also in my plans. Time doesn’t want to be made of rubber 
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