Cannot change clearance

Layout
1

I am working on a flex PCB layout. My standard track width and clearance for the board is 0.15mm. However, I need to use a connector, which has 0.1mm clearance. I am struggling to connect my tracks to the connector.

Changing the global clearance does not work, for some reason. Even when I reduce the clearance to 0.1mm, KiCAD continues to work with 0.15 (see images). WHY? What do I need to do to really change to 0.1mm? Changing the setting in “board setup” does not change the behavior.

Is there a better way to connect the 0.1 connector?

clearance01
clearance011176×1576 237 KB

2

Have you checked the pad clearance in the footprint editor?

3

thanks, jmk.

I just found the reason for the clearance behavior: the clearance in “netclasses default” was still at 0.15 mm.

What remains is the question in how to properly deal with a 0.1 clearance connector on a 0.15 clearance board.

4

By accident, this is the same problem as in the previous ongoing thread: Smaller clearance near the component.

5

Ha ha, you beat me to post while I was deciding to mention either the other post, or copy/paste my other reply. :slightly_smiling_face:

6

Try Board setup > Design Rules > Custom rules. Top RH corner of newly opened window is “Syntax help”
At the bottom of this help, if there is nothing to suit or modify in the list, is a link to the full documents.

“More Examples” towards the bottom of “Syntax Help” has “BGA neckdown”. This should be the sort of rule you want.

7

@jmk, thank you for your reply. I have tried it out and it works perfectly!

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