Creating arc shaped tracks, 2024 edition

[squiggle]

Continuing the discussion from Creating arc shaped tracks:

@eelik

KiCad 5.1 doesn’t support arc shaped tracks. The only way is to convert them to short straight segments in one way or another, or use a scripted plugin which creates segmented arcs … or use some other roundabout way like drawing a track alongside a curved edge cut line.

Version 5.99 (the unstable development version leading to v6) on the other hand supports arc tracks natively.

I’m using KiCAD 7.0.10 and I still don’t see options for this. Is there a way to do this yet? I can draw arcs, but assigning them to a net seems impossible.

I don’t want to use plugins.

[jmk]

There is some support, but it is basic. Arcs only, no beziers.

While drawing track, Right Mouse Button > Track Cornering Mode or hotkey Ctrl + /.

[mf_ibfeew]

If you rule out plugins I see 3 options left:

• drawing tracks right from the start with a 45°/90° round corner mode (see @jmk)
• after placing a track: select two neighboring tracks, RMB-click–>context menu–>Fillet tracks. This creates a arc-segment which connects both tracks
• working with the nightly development version v7.99. These version introduced the feature to assign every graphical copper item to a net: Post-v7 new features and development news - #24 by craftyjon
• waiting for the release of kicad v8 to get the last feature officially

[BlackCoffee]

@squiggle

but assigning them to a net seems impossible.

See my attached video…

[paulvdh]

Support for this is still very minimal in KiCad.
You can use the Create from Selection / Create Tracks from Selection to turn a selected graphical arc in to a track, but this also turns the “arc” into a “fillet”. With such a fillet it is difficult to keep it’s center at the same location when you change it’s radius. It’s one of those things that I sometimes think about for making a feature request on gitlab for improvement, but before I do that I first have to get acquainted with KiCad V7.99. Apparently it’s possible to assign a net name to graphical objects in KiCad-Nightly, and that would already be a noteworthy improvement in this area. But I’ve just gotten a recent V7.99 working and I have not yet had time to experiment with this.

[squiggle]

Great news: KiCAD 8.x is out, and it supports this natively.

Just select an arc or other shape, press E for properties and select a net from the list.