Hi,
How can I create a non-plated through-hole pad in a footprint? Under pad-type in pad properties I see “NPTH, Mechanical”, but when I select this I can no longer give the pad a number (then presumably can’t assign it to a net?)
I could add two ‘SMD’ pads on top and bottom and then a NPTH in the middle, but I’d imagine I’ll get issues getting traces to connect to the pad then?
Is there really no way to simply set a pad hole to be plate or non-plated?
NPTH is not meant for electrical connections. And as far as I know there is indeed no easy way to do this. You can mimic the behavior with an NPTH and an SMT pad, but then you probably get an DRC violation because the center of the pad is not reachable. Details vary a bit with the KiCad version, and I have not used V9 myself yet.
What’s your reason for doing this? One possible reason is to have sense feedback lines. For example Banana bushings for a power supply, then one side can be the power connection, and the other the voltage feedback sense lines (but beware bad contacts). I think it’s sometimes also used in other test fixtures.
You can draw a circle around any NPTH you want an annular ring around on the layer you want it in. Select that circle then use ‘create a zone from selection’. Assign the net you want to connect to that annular ring. The size of the inner edge of the annular ring will be defined by your Cu to hole clearance rule. You can also create an annular ring by just drawing a circle in Cu layer then assign a net name to it.
