It’s a coaxial connector with a center pin and side pins. The idea is that it sits on the edge, and while I got the side and center pin, when I do my board layout, I have to align my board outline to go around the empty space to ensure that I can fit in the part. I was wondering if there was a way to include keepout zones or no fill zones of the sort so that when I automatically use the footprint, that section will be left empty so I can fit my part in? I looked at the SMD pads, thinking that the ‘Connector’ Pad type would work, but I don’t think it really does.
(I haven’t followed the development work related to this topic very closely, so anybody with current knowledge is welcome to correct my statements.)
There are quite a few connectors which include edge cuts in their footprint design, or at least they are intended to mount with a specific distance from the board edge. Unfortunately, KiCAD (as I recall) does not support this behavior in the current version.
In version 5, KiCAD displays Edge Cut information in the Footprint Editor but there is no way to directly create Edge Cuts in the editor. You can, however, attack the footprint file with a text editor (external to KiCAD) and modify or create Edge Cut lines within a footprint.
A similar situation exists for zones: the current footprint editor does not allow you to place a zone within a footprint. A viable workaround in many situations is to create a copper area with surface-mount pads. Set the Zone Connection attribute to “Solid” so your copper areas get seamlessly included into larger Fill Zones. You can include shapes on the associated Mask layer if you want soldermask over the pad, or part of it.
I believe both Edge Cuts and Zones will be supported in the V6 Footprint Editor. That is probably a year to 18 months away, though these features may be in Nightly Builds sooner.
Dale
P.S. - There is extensive discussion and explanation of the problems related to Edge Cuts within footprints at Footprint Editor Lacks Edge.Cuts Layer . If I understand correctly, it comes down to merging the Edge.Cuts information from footprints into Edge.Cuts information already defined for the PC board.
I love Connectors (I have patents on some and couldn’t resist the temptation of jimmying-up a model…).
As previously posted, there are ‘problems’… But, there’s usually a work-around for those with enough curiosity and time).
I modeled it in FreeCad and did not fuss with exactness of the graphics. Geom is correct. mmcx.FCStd (114.7 KB) mmcx.step (48.5 KB) show1.kicad_pcb (5.3 KB)
The cutout is made on the PCB in the Edge-Cuts layer (thus, has nothing to do with the Model/Footprint).
I did not include the corner-relief’s.
NOTE: My drawing below, Diameters are expressed as Radius’ (not dia)
Click Images to expand to full view.
