Kicad lets me place this track, but i suspect that it is not connected as there is no via. Is my interpretation correct?
If there is no pad on the back it is not currently connected.
As you have guessed already you need to add a via.
If you run DRC it and after that run list connected kicad will nodify you that there is no connection for this pads.
Right.
The track is not connected. The green track is on one layer and the red pad on another layer. The green RXD track can also pass under the TDX pad without making any contact.
Trace the tracks on the top (red) layer or make a via (outside the pad is preferred. I don’t use vias on pad unless it is mandatory).
thanks. That is what I thought. Its just that the normally if your wire does not connect then kicad does not draw it… i.e. there is an error. but here the air wire disappears, and it lets you place it. (or i guess that the airwire just going from back to front is a single point so its not connected). Its equivalent to just stopping short.
thanks for the help
To be honest we all made an assumption here. (A reasonable assumption but it is still an assumption.)
We assume that red pad means it is on one side and green tracks are on a different layer.
All of this can be configured. (One can change the color for pads independently from the color of tracks.)
Without seeing the setup of the layer and render options taps we can not be sure.
I bet it has zero lengths. What does DRC tell you?
That assumption is true. red top, green bottom. the default
via’s have to be added manually.
You can add a via with pressing “v” while drawing a pcb track.
And if you didn’t know this yet you are probable pretty new with KiCad.
Read the “getting started manual”. It will guide you through the steps needed to get a complete design going in quite an effiecient way.
http://docs.kicad.org/stable/en/getting_started_in_kicad.html