I’m using this standard footprint from the default library. ( I had stick with Version 5.1 for this design because the Replicate Layout plugin is not yet available for 6.0)
Every instance of a capacitor using this 0402 footprint results in a DRC “Pad too close to pad” error:
Can’t find the inline Image function so this is a link
What am I doing wrong? Other capacitors (0805 ) on the board pass DRC as expected. I have not modified the design rules in Board Setup.
What are your global clearance settings? 0402 chips have pads approx 0.5mm apart which may be less than your clearance rules allow.
I do not have KiCad V5 installed anymore.
The most likely cause is indeed what John wrote just before me.
0402 is quite small and pads are close together, and they have to fit within the overall design rules you set for the net classes.
If I design a 50mm by 50mm PCB full of SMT footprints and then set my design rules to a clearance of 15 centimeters then I would also get lots of “pad to close to pad” DRC violations. 
Are you sure, have you tested? It was ported to v5.99 and the purpose is that it’s compatible with v6. You just have to download it from the 5.99 branch, https://github.com/MitjaNemec/Kicad_action_plugins/tree/5.99_test. If it doesn’t work, I can take a look.
Thanks for the reply - I guess I don’t know where Global Clearance Settings are? Unless that is under
Board Setup / Design Rules / Net Classes / Clearance? For my Default Net Class I have 15 mils clearance. What are the “normal” rules for fabs like JLCPCB? If I reduce the clearances will it cause issues with their checks? This is not a space constrained design - maybe the best option is to change the caps to 0805?
But I do want to learn how to make these settings for the future, so thanks for your help!
@eelik - thanks for the tip. I had seen the 5.99_test repo, but I looked through the Issues and found
MitjaNemec commented 11 days ago
Thanks for the report. I am in the process of refactoring/porting the plugins to V6 and integrating them in “Plugin and Content Manager”. When I come to Replicate layout, I’ll take care of it."
so I though the Replicate had not been done yet. Maybe that means it works in some cases but the specific bug reported is still present.
I was unclear how to install this into V6 since the entire plugin interface has changed.
Yes, that’s it.
I’ve got no idea what a “mill” is 
and taking 15 of them won’t change that.
But it just may be more than half a millimeter.
That specific bug (https://github.com/MitjaNemec/Kicad_action_plugins/issues/145 if that’s what you mean) is probably not related to version changes. I once ported Replicate Layout for 5.99 and I don’t know if the relevant portions of the KiCad python API has been changed after that. You should try it with your design.
The old style should still work. You just have to do it manually. The new PCM allows packaging and installing plugins so that the user doesn’t have to know or do anything except install with the GUI, but in the background the installation procedure works the same way.
@eelik, thanks for the link. I’m still unclear how to manually install plugins in Kicad 6.
First I did a search on the phrase “manual install plugin in kicad 6” and limited to 1 month.
I didn’t find too many articles, but there was one:
Manual installation
Download the latest release ZIP file from https://github.com/AislerHQ/PushForKiCad/releases, within KiCad open the “Plugin and Content Manager” from the main window. Install the ZIP file using “Install from File…” a the bottom of the window.
When I went to the Kicad 6 Plugin interface I noticed that pcb_action_tools was now available. I installed it, but I see that it does not yet include Replicate.
Going back to the manual installation, I found the option “Install from File.”
I downloaded “ReplicateLayout-master.zip” from the github link you provided and selected it from the “Install from File” dialog. Kicad gave the error “Archive does not include a valid metadata.json file”.
What did I miss?
The manager GUI can install from net or from a local file. In both cases it must be a certain kind of zip file, having a metadata file.
Fully manual installation means you copy the file structure into the plugins folder without the help of the KiCad GUI.
For manual installation the old instructions in https://github.com/MitjaNemec/Kicad_action_plugins/tree/5.99_test are still valid, but I’m not certain about the folder used by KiCad v6. You can find that folder from Preferences → PCB Editor → Action Plugins → the folder button.
I just noticed that the package is here: https://github.com/MitjaNemec/ReplicateLayout/releases
Download the -pcm.zip package and use the Plugin and Content Manager → Install from File. Then open the PCB Editor and the plugin should be in Tools → External Plugins.
EDIT: it has now been added to the PCM, so there’s no need to handle files manually.
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