Hello!
I have a problem with a footprint library I just made. It’s a barrel jack, and I didn’t find the SMD version. The yellow point is a hole for a centering pin. First question: is this representation intended or is it a bug? If I had to draw a hole, I would draw it hollow, not like this.
Next problem: I have added the footprint to the symbol which is in my schematic, generated the next list and read the netlist to get it to the PCB. If I move the part with M, it moves fine. Now if I edit (with E) and change the coordinates, I was expecting the whole pattern to move, but only the hole moves (see second picture). Am I missing something?
How would you show hollow?
In the legacy(default) canvas you can change the color in the render dialog under “non plated”. (Does not seem to work for open gl canvas. There it seems to be displayed as light blue no matter what i set for its color. This seems to be fixed in the recent development builds.)
You need to edit the coordinates of the Footprint not the coordinates of the pad.
I would just show a hollow circle (i.e. not a filled circle like the yellow point above), so that you can see the background through the hole. If you have a PCB on your desk, you should see your desk through the hole.
You need to edit the coordinates of the Footprint not the coordinates of the pad.
I have the impression we don’t talk about the same thing. I’m talking about a finished footprint that I’m trying to move in the PCB editor (not in the footprint editor). When moving a footprint, usually all its parts move together, except if you move the name or the value that may be moved independently. (i.e. usually, you don’t move only the centering hole of a connector, it should follow all the other parts). So I’m surprised that I can move only the hole when using the E command of PCB editor to move it.
If you edit the pad settings, the pad will be affected. (Only the pad)
If you edit the footprint settings the footprint will be affected.
I don’t know how it works in the default (legacy) canvas but in open gl the following workflow will do what you expect: (The open gl canvas is the new canvas with a lot more features. It is not only a different render engine. Switching between canvases is done in the view menu)
Left click on the silk outline. This should result in the whole footprint being selected. If a disambiguation dialog comes up make sure you select the footprint. (There will be some message about footprint: [Reference])
Then press e to open the footprint properties dialog.
Edit the position fields there.
In contrast if you leftclick on the pad to select it before pressing e, the pad properties dialog will open. If you then change the position of the pad it will only affect this one pad.
Thanks for your reply.
Indeed, I tried to move other pads (even from standard libraries I didn’t write myself), and I can move any pad of any chip. I’m not against a canvas with more features, but does it make sense to be allowed to move a single pad of a chip?
I have the impression that this might lead to some errors, especially if the move is small. It may lead to think you are moving the whole chip and in fact you move only one pad.
Anyway, I will move withe E command with extreme care.
Will this be changed in the future?
The “normal” move command(s) will not move only pads. (Unless you allow it in the footprint properties via the move and place option set to “Free”. The default is Lock pads which means the move dialog does move the complete footprint even if you try to move the pad alone)
The pad settings are however a different story. To be honest i am not so sure it is a good idea to allow editing the position there as well. Might be worth creating a bug report about this if it does not already exist.
(Just tested it in a recent nightly. This behavior is unchanged)
This behavior affects all canvases. I just don’t know how to reliably get to the footprint properties dialog in the legacy canvas. (I never really used that canvas.)
Thanks for your reply.
Yes, indeed, moving with the mouse for instance moves everything as one piece, like on all editors I have used.
I have opened the footprint library and the properties. They were set to free (I suppose the default is free, because I didn’t change it. I wasn’t even aware of this feature), so I have changed to lock pads. However, the edit command in PCB editor still moves only the hole.
This behavior affects all canvases. I just don’t know how to reliably get to the footprint properties dialog in the legacy canvas. (I never really used that canvas.)
