Help With Layers

I need help making more layers for my traces. I am designing a power distribution board with data comms channels. I wish to use the top layer for the data comms, which are already trace mapped. I need at least 5 more layers, for 3.3v, 5v, and two layers for two different variable voltages(6-12v), plus a ground plane on the bottom. How can I dreate more trace layers, then navigate them?

KiCAD 5.2, Windows 10.

You can easily create more layers using the Layers Setup... menu entry in the Setup menu.

Here is a two layer board in the layers setup dialog:

By changing the layer count pull-down to 6 you should get this:

You can change the active layer in the Layers manager by clicking on the layer name (just like any other fabrication or drawing layer). I forget the keyboard shortcuts while routing though.

P.S. You are stating the wrong version:

You actually have v5.0.2. Some of us here are very literal and will wonder how you got 5.2 since 5.1 hasn’t been released, and no one believes that 5.2 will ever exist. :wink: (Once 5.1 is released development on v6 should hopefully start.)

4 Likes

I can’t speak for version 5.x.x, but in the pre-version 5 nightly builds you should go to the top menu-bar and select :
" Design Rules" > “Layers Setup”
A menu appears that allows you to tell KiCAD how many copper layers you want.

Dale

1 Like

Thanks man! I’ll fix that.

Thank you both! I managed to find the layers menu and made the necessary adjustments. Insanely quick timing!

How do I make a ground plane on the 6th layer?

Edit: would it be with filled zones?

The same way you make a “ground plane” on any other layer. Unlike other programs that I’ve used, KiCad doesn’t understand locking a layer specifically to plane, signal, or mixed. All layers are potentially mixed. (Yes, you can specify layer function in the layers manager, but that is primarily for integration with 3rd party autorouters.)

Select the layer you want and draw a filled zone. Assign the filled zone to your ground net.

Lol. Looks like you answered your own question while I was writing mine. :smiley:

PowerBoard
Worked like a charm!

2 Likes

You are aware that you can have different voltages at the same layer right? (Will just take a bit of time to get everything aligned such that it works.)

I doubt you really need 6 layers for such a simple board (4 layers are already a lot more expensive then two layers. 6 layers are much more expensive than that as a lot of cheap manufacturers offer at most 4 layers and therefore there is a lot less competition here.)

1 Like

I have all sorts of tracks crossing each other and looping everywhere.

If you are able to rotate U2 by 180° you can uncross two lines. Also run the line from J4 to J9(?) beween U1 and U2 and you can remove more crossing. And, you are allowed to use vias to move traces from one layer to another between component pins. Just a few thoughts, there are many ways to skin this cat.

It looks like you are distributing power. How much? Have you checked your trace widths to make sure that they can carry the expected current? One of the calculators that comes with KiCad can be used to calculate how wide the traces should be based on copper thickness, expected maximum current, and acceptable temperature rise.

Yeah, that can look quite intimidating. How good are you at the “Tetris” game?

The great majority of boards perform quite well as 2-layer designs. Some use 4 layers, but 6 (or more) layers generally indicates some unusual requirements or constraints such as many signals with controlled-impedance traces, several wide data buses, stringent EMC requirements, etc.

Here are some ideas to help you reduce the complexity of your routing:

  • Minimize the number of connection crossovers in your schematic. This isn’t always effective, since schematic symbols don’t map neatly into package pinouts, but it’s often a useful starting point.

  • There are seldom valid reasons for keeping a signal entirely in one layer. (Obvious exceptions are high frequencies - VHF and above - or sub-nanosecond transition times.) vias (if necessary) to move a signal to another layer. Modern, commercial manufactured, boards use plated-through holes as the default practice so every through-hole pad represents a via at no extra cost.

  • Placement, placement, placement! How you organize and locate the components on your board is the biggest factor in simplifying the trace layout.

  • Experienced layout engineers often work with smaller groups of components - perhaps a dozen or less - to not only minimize routing complexity within the group, but also to optimize the connections to other groups.

  • If it is early in a design and you have freedom to do so, consider re-assigning pins within connectors.

  • Which mechanical constraints - such as locations of switches, connectors, mounting brackets, etc - are non-negotiable, which ones have a “window” to move around in, and which ones are arbitrary? Sometimes even parts with a fixed location can be flipped or rotated.

  • Which footprints allow traces to be run between pads? (You may be up against some “house rules” on this.) Can a footprint be re-designed to permit wider traces, or more traces, to run between its pads?

Dale

3 Likes

I have taken the vias advice and knocked the layer count down to four! I could get it to three, but KiCAD doesn’t allow for odd numbers of layers.

Nobody makes boards of odd layer count.

I suspect you would be hard pressed to find a vendor for quick-turn prototype boards having an odd number of layers. For high-volume production boards, anything is possible - for a price - but to keep costs low the vendors of prototype boards must restrict options to the most popular choices.

Dale

1 Like

“Nobody” was inaccurate, see e.g. http://www.omnicircuitboards.com/blog/bid/306140/Understanding-PCB-Manufacturing-Odd-Layer-PCB-Boards.

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.