I have created a simple circuit board in KiCAD with four pads to each of which a cable is to be soldered. The connections are all on the front side. On the back side I have added another pad (for measuring) for each lane, over which I now want to run the connection.
But the later connecting of the trace over a set via does not work. It simply cannot be connected, no matter whether the via is set during the trace drawing with “v” or individually as a free-standing via.
Do you have a schematic, or are you directly trying to draw a PCB?
KiCad does not work well without a schematic. With a schematic you can also use test points as holes and these have a pad (different sizes and hole sizes) and they also have a cutout in the solder mask. Via’s will be covered by solder mask and are not really recommended to be abused.
There is a schematic in which (there are only 5) components are also connected accordingly. The vias should not be used as a test point but only make the connection for a free area where I have removed the solder resist. So I make the connection actually only longer.
Here is a simplified representation with a connection. I will try to explain the problem again.
Number 1 is connected to number 2 according to the schematic. The connection should not be made directly on the front side, but via a route on the back.
At points 4A and 4B a via is to be created that connects the rear and the front.
The normal connection according to schematic 1-2 should now be “extended” and the connection would be:
1-4A-3A-3B-4B-2
Where 1 and 2 are the component connections on the front side, 4A and 4B each a via and 3 the connection on the back side with the two ends (3A and 3B).
Connection 3 is “bare” at one point on the back side, i.e. without solder stop.
I think I understand what you want do, you wish to have points on your PCB that can have a wire soldered to them at some point and you don’t want to solder to the components. I think the way to do it is to include these points on your schematic as ‘Test Points’ then they will become nets in there own right (Kicad understands them) and you can do with them as you will, what you place on the PCB as 'Test Points ’ is up to you they can be thro holes or just pads of any size or shape you need. If you just plop a via down on the PCB Kicad won’t let you connect to it because it knows nothing about it. If you were too place a via on a ground plane then that via would be connected to your ground net and anything that is supposed to be at ground will connect to it. I may have the wrong end of the stick here but I hope this helps !
Andy
That is why I used
I accidentally discovered a method to write a short answer. A row of many? is converted to 3 ? but meets the minimum character number requirement. May be it works also for other characters (space ?).
