Hey everyone, what’s the correct way to dimension my board size? I use the edge cut layer to define my board layout, but it seems like it’s not recommended.
Thank you!
Just use another layer where the text doesn’t do any harm, maybe “Cmts.User” or “F.Fab”.
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Thanks! F.Fab worked. I also had to make sure I change my working layer.
That said, is it possible to snap to an object? Rather than the grid? My board corners are never on grid dots.
Not yet.
It’s a bit odd that the board outline should not be aligned to the grid. At least for straight lines that should always be enforced. It gets tricky with arc segments.
The way the grid is displayed depends on the zoom level, not all grid points are always shown. If you zoom in, those lines should be on grid.
Not sure if this is obvious to you but…
You can also change the grid size to match your current needs. If your board size is different from some multiple of the current grid then you can easily change the grid.
you can also turn on/off snap to grid, I believe.
Do you know how to turn off the snap? I can’t find it 0_0. Thanks!
I don’t think you can turn “off” the grid, however I could be wrong about that. What you can do though is make the grid really small, which essentially eliminates the “snap” feature. You can use the user defined grid by clicking on the grid drop down in the top middle of the screen in PCBnew and choosing user grid. The user grid preferences can be set by dimensions->grid.
Hope that helps.
Just because one “Believes” it can be done, dosen’t make it reality 
b1gtuna has it right… just make the grid a very fine pitch and then place your component.
another thing to try (this takes some math calculations) is to roughly place a component or outline and then right click on it and “E” edit the various properties of that item by changing the “numbers” for dimension and offset,etc.to your liking.
Yep… I just tried it. By setting the grid very large and then drawing an “edge cut” line for board outline. This indeed was forced to snap to the given grid size. I then was able to right click and Edit the parameters to values that did not fit the grid. When I saved this and went back to the board the edge cut was now in between the current grid marks. Something I could not have done otherwise.