I’m sorry, but the Getting Started document isn’t up to date with 5.0, if that is what you meant by doing it again with that version. You can of course follow the document and find out how to do the same steps with 5.0. Actually it could be a good experiment, making you to learn by yourself, which is more effective than just following instructions slavishly.
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I know almost NOTHING about the 3-D viewer (have only used a time or two when I did demos or tutorials) but it may be that the viewer is simulating the board’s appearance when the traces are covered by soldermask. In the real world, sometimes the soldermask DOES make the traces almost imperceptible.
Dale
Most of my boards start by defining the outline (the “Edge.Cuts”, in KiCAD parlance) before I start placing components. Assuming the board has enough acreage to contain all of the components, the only reason you may not want to start by defining the board’s outline is when the tutorial you are following tells you to place a component at a location that is outside the board’s boundary.
Currently (in my opinion) the Edge.Cuts are one of the weakest parts of PCBNew. You can teach yourself about some of these limitations by defining an outline that is not a simple rectangle. For example, add a notch in one of the corners, define a radius at each of the corners (both concave and convex corners), make the board outline a trapezoid or parallelogram, etc. When you are finished, make certain the outline is a closed contour (each of the segment end points are coincident with the end point of the next segment).
Dale
It does try to simulate reality. But only in “realistic” rendering mode. If this is turned iff one gets the same colors as in pcb new.
Viewed a number of ytube videos regrading KiCad last night. I am just amazed at how complex this program must be. I was particularly impressed with the DigiKey videos. I use Mouser as a parts vendor. I’ll have to find out if they also provides similar libraries. One of the items that has me concerned to some degree is once a design is finalized and a PCB is sent to the maker (OshPark for example) what if the circuit does not work as planned. How are mistakes handled, especially if the board is large (S-100 size). From my own experience, I have made many wire wrapped boards and always have made mistakes. But Wire Wrap has a certain amount of forgiveness built in. I have an idea for my first board and will most likely begin by making a new schematic with the methods shown. Actually my circuit has two distinct purposes, a serial interface and a parallel interface. I was wondering can I make one schematic for each and then combine them as I layout the board. It would make the rats nest a little more workable. Thanks Mike
Work flow is going to be personal in your case. I do small circuits but I find what works best for me is to lay out sections as I go. This helps me keep things laid out physically and logically as I go and the rats nest never gets too overwhelming. I can then move sections around as a group as needed. No need to lay them out within a board outline either though if you know your final outline, like 100mm X 100mm no harm laying it out as a reference point.
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I will give it a try. I updated to 5.0.1 and started a new schematic. Since the program does not have a S-100 edge connector, I started to make one to add to my library. I defined all 100 pins and then started to arrange them in a logical order and KiCad crashed. Rats… Now I have to start over. Mike
I have may symbol for the S-100 edge connector made, organized and saved. I have a foot print library ready for the footprint of this symbol. My question is do I make two footprints? One for the top and one for the bottom of the board? Or do they both reside on the same foot print? Mike
(I will assume this connector is a through-hole part.) If you drafted the footprint correctly you need only one footprint. Both top and bottom pads, correctly aligned and oriented, are included in one footprint. Each of the 100 pads on your connector must be specified as “Pad type:” of “Through-hole”, and the affected “Copper Layers” must be “All copper layers”. Each pad’s “Properties” will look something like this in the Footprint Editor:
(I believe “All copper layers” is the default condition when you specify a “Through-hole” pad.)
If you don’t trust a faceless, superannuated, guy to give you reliable advice in this matter, place one of your footprints on a board - plot an output file (Gerber, PDF, Postscript, etc, as you wish) for both F.Cu and B.CU and see if the pads appear on both layers.
Dale
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What do you mean by this? You can create one pin and make an array, then if needed renumber them quickly. This should take a couple of minutes at most if you know how to do it.
I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m just doing and learning right now. These are the first footprints that I have made. The edge connector has 50 rectangular tabs on each side of the board. I have all the measurements of the pads and the locations. It should not be difficult to make the layout of 50 of the pins and both sides are the same. I think the questions is and probably answered by Dale, how are the distinguished between top and bottom of the board. Apparently each pin’s properties include F.MASK and B.MASK. I should check F.MASK for each pin on the front and B.MASK for each pin on the back. Is tha correct? Thanks Mike
An example that you may want to look at for an example of how this can be done is the BUS_AT footprint in the Connector_PCBEdge library. Looking at the pads, each pad is only on one copper layer, only has the corresponding mask layer enabled, and is pad-type Connector. Because the pads top and bottom are directly over each other, you can only see one side’s worth of pads at a time. Switch your active layer from a front to a back layer (copper layers aren’t selectable as editing layers, so try toggling between F.SilkS and B.SilkS) to see all the fingers, one side at a time.
You may need to communicate with your vendor on the proper way to show the pads, especially if you are opting for a hard gold finish. (You may need to connect all the fingers together with off-board conductor that will be removed by the vendor as a final processing step when the board edge is beveled.) Even if you don’t need to add anything specific to the design for finishing, you will likely have to communicate with your board house because they would normally flag as questionable any copper that close to the milled board edge.
Thanks for the tip. It gives me a toe hold. I figure I’ll try to make two rect pads of the correct size and spacing. Then make the two that are behind them. I’m hoping that I can just copy them to make 48. Then the end pads are a little larger and I make them last. Thanks Mike
It might be a good idea to work through this tutorial session: Tutorial: How to make a footprint in KiCad 5.1.x (From scratch)?
In it i give a lot of tips on how such parts with multiple pads in a regular spacing can be made. (TlDr: array tool and custom grid plus duplicate)
Sounds good. I’ll Try it. THanks Mike
I think I have my foot print made. Why do you need a contour outline around the foot print? Is it for locating the footprint? Also how can I check the footprint for proper size? Thanks Mike.
You may be talking about the ‘courtyard’? I think folks have said it is needed for clearance of pick and place machines. To check size I usually do that from the gerbers and print out at 1 to 1. Since I’m usually doing these as a final check I also have my board outline printed so I can use that to double check the scale is correct.
Explained in great detail in the tutorial. But the too long to read answer here:
- the outline on the silk layer is to help when manually placing parts. (And for optical checks) This is what is printed on to the board. (typically white ink)
- the outline on the fab layer is for documentation purposes. (i use it additionally for knowing how large the part is while laying out the board. I disable visibility of silk, but show fab)
- the outline on the courtyard layer is to ensure that enough space is left for assembly. (It is checked by DRC since version 5.)
I’m still learning the terminology. How much bigger should the courtyard be than the actual connector. I made mine just 5 mils. Is that too small? Mike
I must have missed that detail in the tut. I’ll read it again. My outline is cyan or front silk screen. You mentioned a few others, do I need each of them? Thanks Mike