Hello, Forum:
I am new to KiCad, and have not used other versions of ‘schematic capture’ and ‘PCB layout’ software.
For the record, I am running KiCad 4.0.7 on a Win7 Pro, 64-bit platform.
KiCad has a ‘workflow’ that is (to the best of my knowledge) the same or very similar to other software of its type.
In each of the workflow steps, there are opportunities to set the Grid spacing via a dialog box. And, it appears that the Grid can be of different spacing (dimension) in each of the various Workflow steps (Eeschema, PCBNew) and in separate Editors (such as the Footprint Editor).
As someone who’s come to PCB-layout software (KiCad) from a 3D mechanical CAD background, my preconception is that grids are drawing tools that may or may not have (as a user preference) snap-to functionality.
In the realm of PC boards, a drawing tool such as a ‘grid’ would seem to be wholly un-related to the Pitch of the board being created, and the Pitch of the components to be laid out on it.
In the existing KiCad documentation, I have yet to find a simple summary discussion of the topic of grids, pitch and how changes to these values are (or are not) carried through from one step of the workflow to another step.
I can imagine that a Table would be one way to convey this information.
In a related Thread (tutorial on creating Solidworks 3d component models) and the Thread (Custom components) I had taken up the challenge of creating my own Solidworks 3d component file—correct dimensions to the manufacturer’s specs---- and saved this as a *.wrl file.
When I imported that *.wrl file into the Footprint for that same component (which I had downloaded from SnapEDA.com, & it is correctly scaled), I find that the *.wrl image is now 2.54x too large (i.e., the ratio of centimeters to the inch).
It’s been suggested that (Tutorial - solidworks to 3D VRML/wrl or STEP/stp component) The safest way to generate a valid wrl file is by using Freecad plus KiCad’s StepUp. (Meaning: export your model as *.STEP from Solidworks; import the *.STEP into Freecad; finally, export valid *.WRL files using StepUp).
Perhaps this is an example of an interaction / conflict of the Grid dimensions set in the different work-flow steps, and the Pitch settings and so forth. If anyone can elaborate on this topic, and nail it down, that’d be great. It’d be a good topic to insert into the Documentation of both V4 and V5