Creating specific board size

Community
1

It would be nice to have a dialog or in the properties that allowed creation of a given sized rectangle as opposed to doing xy maths. Even as a interim having the xy properties relate to the user grid origin rather then absolute cords.

2

There are plenty of ways to draw a rectangle.
One way is to set your grid to the size of the rectangle (Or some convenient sub division), and then just draw it on the grid.

Another way is to copy the Start Point to the end Point, and then add an extra offset:
image

Another way is to draw a horizontal line, then copy it and rotate the copy 90 degrees and snap the end points together. Make some more copies for the other two lines.

Yet another way is to:

  1. Draw a line (can be any length and direction).
  2. Create an 2x2 array of it.
  3. Drag the endpoint of each line to the start point of an appropriate other line segment so they snap together.

KiCad’s graphical capabilities are not the greatest. I’ts an EDA suite and not a mechanical CAD program. But even so, it’s got plenty of tools to do such trivial tasks as drawing a square.

1 Like
3

Tltr, but:

  1. Set appropriate grid size (found in right click submenu anythere in the canvas), lets say 5 mm if want to have 10 x 10 cm board;
  2. Place the rectangle (found in right side toolbar) on edge.cuts layer. Rectangle size is shown onscreen near mouse cursor on the fly. Draw untill you see 100 x 100 if you want to have a 10 x 10 cm board.

(3. Set grid or origin start point anywhere you wand if needed afterwards)

(Rectangles were not available in v5. v6 does have this graphic, it is a life saver feature)

4

Thanks , my rectangle tool only draws squares ? , afterwards I can move it to shape a rectangle but not during drawing !!

Ah I see I had "limit to 45 degrees switched on "

1 Like
5

Yep, I falled into 45 degree mode several times before accidentally by turning it on by a hotkey. Go to preferences → hotkeys and see (remove/change) hotkey as necessary. I think it is assigned to some common key if migrated from v5, so easily triggered by accident, without user aware of this.

6

I have noticed. The problem is that very often the printed circuit board is a not simple square.

7

This plugin (below) took 10 minutes to create - I have no need for it as I either size/shape them in FreeCad or using Kicad’s tools.

There are plenty of tutorials posted on making plugins…

PCB_Rectangle

8

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