If I recall correctly, the KiCost project learned a hard lesson about the ephemeral nature of things on distributors’ web sites. Links to manufacturers’ web sites seem to have a somewhat greater life expectancy but many of them won’t provide models or footprints until you create an account and present your pedigree.
Yeah, that may be the most practical approach. Something like:
The KiCAD standard libraries do not have footprints, or 3-D models, for this family of parts. There are too many subtle but significant variations among components produced by companies who manufacture this type of component. Please consult the manufacturers of the components specified in your design to obtain 3-D models and recommended footprints. KiCAD does not have any more information about these items. No footprints. No models. But have you noticed that people will read all the way to the end of this notice, even after they have been told that there is no reason to do so?
I think I misunderstood again - Mouser isn’t providing KiCad parts as download, right?
You meant that there are the dimensions in the datasheet and there is maybe a 3d model in a generic format, right?
The following is not meant to be rude or demeaning or patronizing in any way. I don’t know how many boards you plan on doing in the future so it may not even apply. If you do stick with it though you will realize at some point that the time you spent on this thread is much more than you would have used learning to make simple footprints. The learning curve for any complex programming seems overwhelming to start. Kicad is no exception. That’s where the libraries are really helpful. One less thing to learn in the beginning. But once learned it’s no big deal.
For this thread, I also want to get to know how things working in the community. Also I wanted to know why there is a hurdle for putting a ‘standard’ part in the library (and yes you folks made your point on that, on which I just can partly agree). Also I do not completely exclude to contribute in the future.
Specifically regarding this topic a big problem would be if a lot of KiCad users spending time making footprints and 3d models for his own projects, but noone else benefits from it.
Don’t you think that is a bigger waste of time?
So, I think the time on a topic is well spent when maybe someone can take a new approach.
Regarding the discussion on how ‘standard’ that part is… I would just take the 5? most common variants. Bring the key values in the desription. For this part there are 2 important key values I guess: grid dimension and pin diameter (sorry for my english) and wasn’t that it?
If the board designer ignores this two values and wonders why his parts aren’t fitting in the end, how is that a problem of the KiCAD library maintainer?
But I’ll checkout the library loader you posted which will maybe make this thread redundant for me
What if the part does fit but the courtyard in the footprint is the wrong size/shape and there’s not enough room to attach the mating connector? The board designer would be quite upset then, having manufactured and populated boards only to find out they cannot use them. The footprint for a part has to take into account more than just the holes in the board and pads around them. For example a 3-pin Phoenix Contact terminal block I use has three normal pins and also three plastic pins which provide mechanical strength; most of the imitations of that part don’t have the plastic pins, so if I’d used a footprint made for the ‘most common’ (also cheapest) version of the component my parts would not have fit in the board, although I would have been able to find that out before manufacturing.
Unless parts from different manufacturers are completely physically compatible, they can’t share a footprint.
For the part discussed here there are only a handful of mating connectors, unisolated, isolated, don’t know what else. If someone ultimately wants to connect some thing mega-exotic plug to my circuit, than that’s his problem
Of course, different story for more complex parts.
Yes, as you stated, you will most probably find out those errors before manufacturing.
At least on my layouts (and I do not make a living of it, so I’ve got quite some time to be careful if I want to) I go over the complete thing before manufacturing and will notice if, for example, a hole is missing for a plastic pin.
I tried the mouser library loader thing and it works well.
It bothers me though, that the componentsearch shows that supposedly there is a 3d model where there are none, for real.
So thank you jos for your models !
A distributor that I use a lot, Digikey, also has a KiCAD component library on github, I haven’t used it but they have a reputation for offering a lot of support so I would tend to keep an eye on it:
I don’t know whether the part you’re talking about is in there, it’s generically referred to as a male quick-connect (or QC) tab terminal, I think there’s .250" and .205" and .187".
