I created a custom footprint for a BGA part. When I go to generate the footprint position file, that part doesn’t show up. Is there something I am suppose to do in my footprint editor to ensure that it does show up?
thanks
I asume you are using version 5.1.5
I guess your footprint has a Through hole or virtual attribute.
Edit the footprint properties, At the bottom-right corner there is a section “Fabrication Attributes”. Select Surface Mount.
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Woohoo, thank you. Yes it was set to through hole but was actually an SMD footprint that I created.
Along continuing on this topic, I am now wondering if the position information for the part is dependent on the center of the part being laid out perfectly symmetrical with the center grid axis? See my layout in this image. The center grid is slight off center and I am wondering if this will affect the position information and screw up the placement when I send this off for fabrication.
The centroid data is relative to the footprint center. Which means if the fab expects this centroid center to be the center of the part body (very likely the case) then yes you will run into trouble.
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It’s very easy to set the “centroid” in the footprint editor. Just select the “anchor” tool and click. Change the grid to smaller first if necessary.
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I generally use the move exactly tool as it is easier to correct strange misalignments (In the past it was impossible to rotate a selection without introducing strange results. Not sure if this has been fixed already). This way i can open the pad properties of a pad, check its misalignment and enter the opposite value in the respective move exactly direction.
And there is another thing to consider when using automatic assembly. One needs to ensure that the manufacturer knows what 0 rotation means for every part. Sadly there is more than one standard out there defining how footprints are made for a particular part with respect to the zero orientation. So one might need to talk to the manufacturer which standards they support. (IPC for example defines two standard zero orientations. The official library uses orientation A which means pin one is at the top left corner)
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It would be great in the footprint editor if it gave you an indication when you moved your cursor to the exact center of a pad. This works for me in the layout tool but doesn’t seem to work in the footprint editor
Depending on what you want to do next, one workaround may be to select the measurement (caliper) tool. It shows the center of the pad.
Yes, that is exactly what I am selecting but I never get the bulls eye target to show like it does in the pcb layout tool. I’m using the latest Kicad on a Mac.
Try Preferences->Footprint Editor->Editing Options: Magnetic pads.
From which tool, I’m not finding that option under the preferences menu either in pcbnew or the footprint editor
Our answers assume you are on KiCad version 5.1.x. If you are not then the answers regarding snap to objects is not valid.
You might also need to set the grid larger or use the alt or crtl key (not sure which) to disable snap to grid (snap to grid has higher priority than snap to object)
Here is my version info:
Application: Pcbnew
Version: (5.1.5-0-10_14), release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.0.4
libcurl/7.64.1 SecureTransport (LibreSSL/2.8.3) zlib/1.2.11 nghttp2/1.39.2
Platform: Mac OS X (Darwin 19.2.0 x86_64), 64 bit, Little endian, wxMac
Doing preferences from the main panel gives me this.
Build Info:
wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,STL containers,compatible with 2.8)
Boost: 1.69.0
OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
Curl: 7.54.0
Compiler: Clang 9.0.0 with C++ ABI 1002
Build settings:
USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=ON
USE_WX_OVERLAY=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
KICAD_SPICE=ON
You need to use the preferences dialog started from the footprint editor (or at least while the footprint editor is open)
Admittedly this is a bit weird. I don’t know of any other application which requires having a subwindow open to change preferences.
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This is the preferences pane from within the foot print editor. Unless I just missed it, I see no reference to “magnetic pads”
You didn’t pay attention to my screenshot above.
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I think I did. I cannot find how you got that dialog to pop up