I’m creating a keyboard PCB, and currently I’m maintaining two versions, one for ANSI and another for ISO. But I want to unify both in a single board. The problem is that some holes are quite close, and I’m afraid of having problems with them. One hole is the central hole for the Cherry button, and the other, located at 45 degrees, is for one part of the stabilizer.
I attach a capture of the 3D view of the zone: the bigger hole is for the Cherry button, and the smaller is for the stabilizer.
In this other capture you can see how the stabilizer is inside the holes (and also the central hole of the button, but in a real board, in each pair only one of both holes is used, never both).
What do you think? Is it safe to leave it that way?
Thanks all for the answers. Since the holes must support a “clamp” in the case of the key stabilizers, I think that doing ellipses or similar things would not work, so I think that there are only two solutions:
forget the dual board, or
do the holes much smaller, and let the “final user” make the ones they need the right size, leaving the others untouched
It’s not complicated… Just make the two holes on the Edge_Cuts layer. You can add Notes to your Info to (whomever) that states/clarifies any concerns.
I’ve done this sort of thing many times before CNC milling my boards
PCB fab houses do this kind of thing all the time. Best to include Notes referencing them such as to include a drawing with Diameters and Note regarding the two sharp corners, Example:
Note: 1) Break Sharp Edges not Greater than 0.1mm
[FYI - ‘Break’ Edges, Corners… is the term Used by all Machinists]
You can simply draw them in Kicad on the Edge-Cut layer or in other programs, like FreeCad and export DXF and import to Kicad Video shows FreeCad–>Kicad and GIF below shows making the Holes in FreeCad.
And, of course, you can add a Radius to those sharp corners so they are not ‘Break Corners’ but rather a part of the Machined Cutout shape… That’s the appropriate way to do it!
