I found I could import the board with a 0,0 reference and have the grid dead on but I can’t seem to move it into the drawing area or turn off the template. Where the board is sitting is where I needed it to be in relation to 0,0, when I move it into the drawing area and set the origin point for the grid it doesn’t set it to 0,0.
Thanks for looking.
DualHat.kicad_pcb (43.8 KB)
When you import the DXF you specify the location on the pcbnew grid where the DXF’s (0,0) point will be placed. The upper left-hand corner of the pcbnew grid is (12,12). To see where the DXF has its (0,0) point you need to check it in a viewer like librecad. If you ever manually move the outline things are much more complicated so it’s best to get it right at the start.
I strongly suggest to use drill holes for those mounting holes… milling them will screw with their accuracy.
Personally I’d have done that as a footprint and redrawn the simple outline in pcbnew once placed…
z_RPi_DualHat_NPTH.kicad_mod (2.1 KB)
Killing more time I found block select and arrow keys will move the block on grid. Experimenting I was able to subtract the boards origin from KiCads unmovable grid to place the board center of a ‘drawing frame’. I say unmovable since the tool on the right panel, bottom says it sets the grid origin and it does leave some sort of target but the grids origin appears to be fixed to the drawing template/page top left corner. I exported the targets for the mounting holes and pin one/center of connector as crosses to allow placing a ‘pad’ type ‘mechanical’ with clearance and the connector just to discover I can’t find any means to place the pad. There doesn’t appear to be a ‘pad’ tool. The menu option Dimensions/Pads allows me to define a mechanical pad but in the Help or poking the menus I’ll be damned if I can find the means to place the defined mechanical pad with a drill of 2.75mm and clearance of 6mm.
I think you need to accept that KiCAD has got a fixed origin at the top left of it’s frame area and that if you want to do ‘accurate’ stuff you have to learn to use the relative coordinate readout + snap to grid.
grid:
If you [right-click] at an empty area of the pcbnew drawing area there will be a context menu.
2nd from the bottom of that list is the grid select menu… I usually place components with 0.25 mm grid, draw outlines/etc. with 0.5 mm and adjust placements of components if needed at 0.1/0.05 mm accuracy.
relative coords:
If you start to draw a line/want to move a component select the grid size you want to be on. Then start by clicking on the component or set the first point of a line, then hit [SPACE]… the relative coordinate readout to the right of the absolute one will reset to (0,0).
Now either use the mouse or arrow keys to move to the next/desired relative coordinate and drop the part/set a new line point by hitting [ENTER] or do it with the mouse button. For higher resolution than 0.2 mm and without zooming in I usually just use the keyboard at this stage.
I really don’t understand peoples fixation on absolute coordinates - the relatives work really well.
Make a footprint, then place it.
pcbnew doesn’t have the ability to create ‘arbitrary’ pads/structures in the way you expect it to.
That’s why I suggested the approach with the complete footprint further up, which allows you:
Read here:
