Create PCB mounting holes/pads

[Jeffmon]

Hi to everyone.

My name is Jeff Monegal and I am new to KiCad. I have been trying to figure out how to add 4 PCB mounting holes and cannot see any way to do this. I am using KiCad version 5. Can anyone give me a simple solution to my problem.

Cheers

[hermit]

First thing is to add it to your schematic in some out of the way place. No 100% necessary! but…

Next assign it a footprint.

Then edit the the symbol and edit the footprint entry.

[SembazuruCDE]

The technique that @hermit outlined is how I do it (though I often use my own customized mounting hole footprints that include clearances for the screws, washers, and if using socket-headed tools clearance for the socket tool).

If you really don’t want to put the mounting holes on the schematic (some people don’t like mounting holes on the schematic), you can directly place footprints on the board in PCBNew.

Use the add footprint tool:

Once that tool is selected, click anywhere in the board editor to bring up the footprint chooser. (Ah, the provided mounting hole library is all metric, that is another reason why I make my own footprints, I usually use imperial measure mounting hardware and I don’t know how many millimeters the clearance hole for a #4 machine screw (for example) is.)

Then the selected footprint will be attached to the pointer, left click again to place the footprint where you want it to go. Finally, select the footprint and open the properties with the context menu “Properties” or the “E” key (uppercase or lowercase “E”, it doesn’t matter). Lock the footprint so the next time you make a schematic iteration and update the board your mounting hole doesn’t get removed. Locking the footprint also makes KiCad ask before you move it to reduce the chance of accidentally moving it.

KiCad gives you options. I prefer the mounting holes on my schematics, but neither method is really “wrong”. Choose the technique that works best for you and/or your current project.

[Piotr]

I also (like @hermit) use the hole symbol at my schematic, but I skip the step of assigning footprint.
For all elements (holes also) I use the philosophy the symbol in (my) library define the exact element to be used at PCB. Number of different types of holes I use is limited (in opposite to number of different types of holes used by KiCad users) so my Hole library need not to be too large.

[Jeffmon]

Thanks a lot to all those who replayed. The create a footprint for a hole seems to work OK for me so again, thanks a lot.

cheers Jeff