Apologies if it’s been asked before, but I’ve spent quite some time trying to figure this out.
I’m making a footprint for the MAX77857 IC, which has non rectangular pads. See attached.
I can’t seem to make the pads for those polygons. Any help would be appreciated.
in FP-editor:
Thanks. I’ve followed the steps as you described, and I’m encountering the same problem as I had yesterday.
It’s hard hard to explain, so I’ve attached a picture. As soon as I exit pad-editing mode after creating the polygon, this happens.
OK, it seems to be working now, and I can’t seem to reproduce the problem anymore. Thanks for the help.
mf_ibfeews remark is correct but a bit convoluted. You can simplify it by just selecting a pad and then entering and exiting the Pad Edit Mode. At the moment you exit pad editing mode, overlapping graphics on the copper layer will become part of the pad.
What is the “this” you are refering to? I guess it’s the big pad number, but what is that red rectangle in the upper right of the screenshot?
For the size of the pad number. KiCad defaults to expanding the pad number to the whole pad. You can make the number smaller by adding a “number box” (Described below). I am not entirely sure myself how this feature works though.
That’s the thing I’m referring to, it somehow creates a new pad further away, and links the polygon to that pad, and therefore also creates a big number. A bit unexpected behavior.
There is not much we can deduce from a few simple and flat screenshots. A few screenshots back the graphics around pads 9 though 13 are a lighter color. I guess the graphics is highlighted. Are they also in a group? (That might cause interference). The small rectangle from your last screenshot is also outside of earlier screenshots. I have no Idea how it got into your footprint in the first place.
If you want to help us helping you, then it helps if you make a simple KiCad project in which that footprint is used. That makes it easy for us to look into the footprint itself and how things are defined.
A few screenshots back the graphics around pads 9 though 13 are a lighter color
That’s a bug in v8 +v8.99. Graphical shapes are displayed/drawed with this light color instead of the copper red/blue.
The lighter color indicates a simple polygon on layer F.Cu, in this case. I placed small pads inside, they are shown in darker red. They are not in a group.
It is not outside the first screenshot, it didn’t exist. It appeared just after exiting pad editing mode. I also cannot reproduce this behavior anymore. I can now create pads from polygons without issues.
Just for clarification / in order to understand how this feature works a little bit better:
In the first screenshot, where the custom shaped graphics in lighter colour exsists and has pad 13 on top of it, if pad edit mode is entered and exited for pad 13, will it then merge the pre-existing graphics that touches pad 13, even if nothing new was drawn while in pad edit mode?
You apparently have not realized that just trying it out is quicker then asking on this forum. 
Pad 13 apparenly has some voodoo surrounding it. I suggest you just click on another pad (for example no 10) and then depress [Ctrl + e] twice (to enter and exit pad editing mode) and observe the result.
*Edit: Oops. I had not realized hmk is not op here. But yes, that is pretty much how it works. To try it:
I was trying to estimate and compare the times for setting up a test case / test project and trying it out (I don’t have the project of the OP available) versus asking, and took a chance at the latter being quicker.
Thanks for the answer.
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