Pedro:
You wrote…
“This is the only meaning of “pitch” throughout the KiCad documentation. Particularly, the spacing between pads. I cannot see any confusion.”
As a newbie, I am willing to prove myself wrong, and went looking through the KiCad documentation [in English] that I have access to. Here is what I found:
In KiCad Getting Started, page 11:
18. …“a large pitch grid” [this usage is confusing in the context of PCB work]
In KiCad PM Manual
No reference at all is made to Pitch
in KiCad Eeschema manual
No reference at all is made to Pitch
In KiCad PCBNew manual, page 114
…“Grid origin [ can be relocated to first pad and ] after, the grid size can be set to the pad pitch”
You referred to setting the Pitch in the Design Rules. I viewed the Design Rules dialogue box from PCBNew, and there is not a single reference to “Pitch” in either of the tabbed panels.
Investigating further… from the Pad Properties dialog panel, on the General tab, one can set Position X and Position Y, Size X and Size Y as well as Drill Size X and Drill Size Y. From the Local Clearance and Settings tab, one can only set dimensions for clearances. In summary: no mention of Pitch is made in the Pad Properties dialog panel
From the Preferences drop-down menu, the General dialog makes absolutely no reference to Pitch.
From the Dimensions drop-down menu, if one chooses Grid, the user can set the Grid Size X and Grid Size Y, as well as the Grid Origin X and Grid Origin Y.
From the Dimensions >> Grid dialog, my PCBNew “Grid” is currently set to 0.1 inches (X and Y). It is my conclusion that this “Grid” dimension actually seems to be setting the “Pitch” of the board, not setting a drawing (layout) grid.
Now… if I right-click anywhere on the layout screen, and choose “Grid Select”, I see that the (layout) grid is set to 50mil, which makes sense when I display it as dots on the screen: i.e., there’s an extra layout grid line between each of the pins on the footprints of the standard components I am using, so the layout grid is 50mil and the Pitch is 100mil (consistent with the “Grid” set via Dimensions >> Grid dialog). If I change the layout grid dimensions using {right mouse click} / Grid Select, I can confirm that the “Grid” spacing set from the Dimensions drop-down menu remains unchanged when I alter this setting.
So, this is what I meant by “confusion.” There are two entities referred to as “grids” in PCBNew, and their functions are un-related.
Dimensions >> Grid sets PITCH, not a “grid” !!