Hello!
I’m using the PCB editor right now, and I would like to draw the outline of the board.
I can draw it with the line and curve tools in the image below.
Problem: the rectangle, circle and polygon tools don’t work.
Am I missing something?
Ideally a rounded rectangle would be great.
Thanks for any hint.
R
Hello!
Sorry guys, I found the trick: I was clicking a point and dragging the mouse. The right way to do it
is: click & release first point, move to second point (diagonal), click & release second point.
Just in case it helps somebody else.
That said, I would appreciate a “corner radius” option in the shape info panel. Maybe in a later
version?
R
And don’t forget to switch to the edge cuts layer first. I usually forget half the time.
Mine all work.
and a few chars.
Works on User Drawings also. Selected wrong grey for testing 
Draw one 90° arc and duplicate 4 times then use R for rotate.
Hello!
Draw one 90° arc and duplicate 4 times then use R for rotate.
Yes, I know there are workarounds to do this, but crating 4 round corners doesn’t give
you a cornered rectangle. Or does it? I mean, without linking all the corners by hand with
straight lines, whiich is basically what I’m doing.
What I would like to have:
R
Peter Dalmaris taught me a trick, but using the straight line tool. Draw the rectangle using the line tool. Select one of the lines using R-L sweep, then shorten using the handles. Draw a quarter circle using the arc tool. Repeat for the other corners.
It works a treat when the edges and arc centres are on the grid.
But feel free to put in a Gitlab feature suggestion.
With the R-L sweep, choose a line, then shorten it using the handles. Using the line tool, draw the rectangle. Use the arc tool to draw a quarter circle. Same with the other corners.
Hello!
Thanks for your replies. To come back to what I wrote above:
So again, yes, there are many ways to do this, I already do it but thanks for the suggestion. Now for what I was asking and in order to be crystal clear, here is a small sequence I have copied from Freecad.
There are alternatives. I have a CNC software that draws directly a square cornered rectangle,
and when choosing the rectangle object, a property box allows to specify a corner radius which is
0 by default. Type a value and you’re done.
I just asked how to do that, and the short reply is that it’s not possible other than drawing or copying any of its components.
R
It’s a problem with Kicad.
Kicad is not really a program for designing shapes. Kicad is more into designing PCBs 
if you are comfortable with FreeCAD I would suggest you to try kicadStepUp workbench
Hello!
Yes, but for very simple shapes implemented on Kicad, that would be a plus. Maybe it’s just me,
but I design all my pcbs without any exception with a rounded rectangle shape. It’s very
handy when designing a box around it. Otherwise if you use a plain rectangle pcb, you have to
cut a more complicated box with mickey mouse ears at every corner.
I’m comfortable with Freecad when designing mechanical parts, boxes etc…
But what I’m asking (dreaming of) is a way to directly have a tiny extra functionality that draws
rounded rectangles. I have the impression it would be faster to write my own utility with PHP.
That should be a matter of half a day. Or maybe try to do it in Python.
R
So do I, I don’t like being poked by PCB corners when handling. But it takes me 5 minutes max to add rounded corners the way I described, when I might spend days obsessing over the design, so I regard this as a less urgent need.
high end pcb sw use MCAD collaborations as I suggested with FreeCAD and StepUp
i.e.
https://www.solidworks.com/media/intelligent-ecad-mcad-collaboration
In v7: context menu → Fillet Lines
And you can give a thumb up for this:
is there a way to add a shortcut to ‘Fillet Lines’ or ‘Fillet Tracks’?
“Fillet Settings” could rather be “Fillet radius” (if that is what it is, or is it diameter?), and the Value field above the Units field.
Hello!
Thanks for your replies!
I just tried, that’s exactly what I want!
I hope it will be resizable in the future, but hey, that’s a good start!
Thanks!
R
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