Drilling a screw hole in a polygon in Kicad version 9.

Friends,
I use Polygon instead of Filled Zone in my design. When the design is completed, I will install screws in the screw holes, but I don’t want the screw heads to touch the copper surface. For this reason, I create holes with Mounthing Hole. But while there is a 1mm gap around the hole created with filled zone, the hole edge is completely copper coated in Polygon grass. The process I want to do is I want an empty space around the hole as in the image on the right. Can you help me with this?

No, a plain polygon can’t do that in an easy way. It’s always totally filled (in which case it makes the holes plated) or just an outline. What is the reason to not use a zone?

Because when I use Filled Zone, the copper connections at the bottom of the components are in small pieces. When I want to connect many components to the same area, I have problems.

But if there is a way, why not.


But when I use Polygon, there is no such problem.

According to the picture, you did not assign a net to the zone. The LEDs are isolated (pins 2).
Additionally, as it seems to me you want to transfer heat, adjust the thermal relief to what you want to achieve.

Zones are the way to go. As nickmBY noticed, you don’t know all the features of the zones yet.

In that image there is no connection between the zone and the D43 & D37 LEDs . . . @Laboratuvar why do you think there should be ? why do you think they are ?

1 Like

As others in this thread have already mentioned in this thread, Indeed use copper zones in this situation. Copper zones connect to other features with the same net name, while automatically keeping specified clearances from other items. So spend some time to learn to work with them.

As others said, Polygons are just that: A polygon. No design rules are checked, shorts can be created, basically: It’s a nightmare if you don’t know EXACTLY what you are doing.

In your case, I assume you want a big thermal connection to the plane on those SMD pads. I would recommend you to check the pad connections: You can go full solid (now selected), or go for thermal reliefs and increase the width (by changing thermal spoke width). (see image for reference)


(image from project I am currently designing, I know not all settings are correct yet)

Note that if you copper is imbalanced (looking at the flimsy lines on the anode lines) you could induce tombstoning, so I would recommend looking that up/increase the line widths there too :slight_smile:

the copper connections at the bottom of the components are in small pieces

Background on “Thermals” (mentioned several times in above answers):
Sometimes it is preferable not to have a solid connection between a large zone and a pad because it can cause uneven heat flow in soldering (E.g. hand soldering can become very difficult if a large copper zone pulls away all the heat from the soldering iron.).
Therefore, connections are made by narrow bridges that don’t conduct heat as easily as a solid connection.
Example for “thermals” on a pad:
image
Viewing the properties of the zone, it shows like this:
image

Changing it to “solid” gives the following result, the pad merges into the zone:
image

Note that individual footprints (or even pads) can override the zone’s settings. This may lead to occasional “detective work” depending on the design, but in itself is fairly logical (hierarchy).

Small note: this is not true, design rules are checked. Shorts can be created, but they are checked and will result in DRC errors.

1 Like