I’ve got an odd layout where I have two overlapping footprints, with the idea that only one will be populated. Some solder pads have silkscreen on them. In addition to a lot of errors, I’m worried that some board house might actually print the silkscreen on the copper pads. is there a way to easily avoid this in KiCad?
My experience of JLC is that they automatically do NOT print silkscreen where it would clash with a pad: I guess it gets “or-ed” with the solder mask. (Via’s don’t have that issue, they have soldermask over them, and can therefore also have silkscreen on them)
1 Like
Yes, some manufacturers do that. Others don’t. Personally I do not like it if manufacturers modify your gerber data and send you something different from what you have ordered. Other people like to lean on their experience and are grateful the PCB factory corrects the mistakes they made.
A third common option is that PCB’s get delayed for some time until potential ambiguities are resolved. All three options have their up and down sides, and in the end, everything you can do to avoid ambiguities helps getting your PCB’s quicker and with a more consistent quality (for example when you change manufacturer). Also, companies such as Aisler out source the actual production, so even when ordering from the same company, you may get slightly different results.
If you must have both footprints on the PCB then why don’t you modify the foot print(s) so they don’t have overlapping silk on pads ? Then all your problems go away . . .
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.