You have a zone in the Edge.Cuts layer. You must use lines.
I thought I did use lines. I sure know why beginners (me) have such a hard time with KiCad. The fact that I do not have an associated schematic makes it worse and all of the tutorials I saw just assumed a schematic would be drawn first and used. No tutorial I was able to find addressed basic freehand drawing.
OK. Once I was planning to create videos showing how to draw simple and more complex outlines, but the project has stalled. I understand there are things to learn. With the latest stable version itâs not too difficult when you know a couple of tricks.
What are those tricks?
Maybe the most basic is to use as coarse grid as possible. (See above the comments by @John_Pateman.)
The second is to select âLimit graphic linesâ option in pcbnew preferences and/or learn to hold Ctrl down when you draw. Then you will have either free angles or N*45 degrees angles only.
The third is to learn to use snapping, holding down Alt (or AltGr, i.e. Right Alt, depending on your system) when drawing. Then you can snap to existing end points of lines etc. To be exact, Alt disables snapping to grid points and only the special points are left.
Selecting and moving existing lines is of course important and very basic, as is dragging an endpoint of a line to a new location, using Ctrl or Alt or without.
Yes there is, however it wonât give you that large a cutout.
I already mentioned all you need to do is draw those âcutoutâ-lines on/as the Edge.Cuts layer.
Then check with the 3D Viewer.
One more: itâs pretty easy to do large scale and small scale at the same time if you use zooming/panning with the mouse wheel. For example 100.01mm horizontal line can be done this way using 0.01mm grid:
- Zoom with the wheel so that you see large area inside which the 100mm line will fit.
- Start drawing a line, hold down Ctrl to keep it horizontal.
- Look at the bottom of the pcbnew window, you can see the length of the line. Draw until the line is approx. 100mm.
- Release Ctrl. Keep the mouse where it is and use the wheel to zoom in.
- Press Ctrl down again and keep drawing; itâs easy to make smaller adjustments to the line length.
- Repeat 3 and 4 if necessary.
- Zoom out again.
This isnât necessarily âbasicâ anymore, but once you learn it, it comes pretty much naturally.
I just deleted my cutout that you say was a zone. I then tried using a polygon to draw it back on the edge cut layer. It placed it there but 3D viewer still says it is not a cutout.
In 5.1.2 you can draw a âgraphic polygonâ to egde.cuts and it will be automatically converted to lines. Zone doesnât work at all. Using graphic lines works always.
Take this as a start.
It is so simple, that Iâm having problems to see where your roadblock is.
Nick
Cutout.kicad_pcb (3.0 KB)
Remember also to refresh the zone fills with B. Otherwise you will see copper instead of a hole in the 3D view.
Got it. Now I have to figure out how to put in the 4 countersunk mounting holes for the LCD display and then the silkscreen printing.
The second part of this is the side panels since they are somewhat keyed rather than just rectangles that will be fun. The back panel also has several holes for connectors. The keys have to fit together so the side panel boards can be soldered together to make a box and that brings up one more question. In the places where the panels get soldered together the silkscreening is removed to make a pad for soldering. How is that done?
Thank you for your help.
Some other problems with your design: you should use the page area. Donât place things in the limits of the possible drawing area. If you donât like the red page outline you can tick off Worksheet in Layers Manager->Items.
You have two identical copper zones in F.Cu. Only one should be needed.
The corner holes arenât aligned. Use more coarse grid (do you really need 0.25mm accuracy?) and they will be more easily aligned.
Make a keepout zone in the solder mask.
Nick
Make sure the line ends do connect, otherwise the viewer wonât be able see them as connected hence no shape do draw.
Also make sure you use the draw line funtion, NOT wires.
To be honest this is 3D design which would be better to make in 3D software. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIskmuSXbyY from KiCon 2019.
That said, itâs of course possible to do this in KiCad, but you have to carefully calculate everything and do double and triple checks. Print out the board outlines 1:1 and make cardboard models.
If the copper covers the whole boards you have to make openings in Mask layers to uncover the copper. Draw graphics on the layer.
Just a dummy example what a cutout can look like.
No, thatâs wrong. Thereâs graphics in a Mask layer where copper is exposed. A keepout zone would cover the copper with mask.
EDIT: I may have misunderstood. âKeepout areasâ are for copper layers. A graphic polygon or a zone creates graphics in a mask layer which then exposes copper.
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You are right. It is called âZone Outlineâ in F.Mask.
Thatâs how I make that shiny text on PCBs.
Nick
This is already offtopic, but yeah, these look cool. Itâs also possible to put text directly in the Mask layer. Mask can be even more accurate than copper for small features, and it doesnât disturb copper zones.