How to create a stacked pcb without the pcb layout of the base PCB

Hi Experts…
I’m a newbie in PCB design world… I am trying my hand at a rather complex problem from my level. Need to design a shield for this board to bring out all the motor and digital signal pins on screw terminals.

My problem is that grbl shield available at cheap price but there is no footprint or layout to place the stacking headers at right places.

So my question is how do we go about positioning stacking headers on the bottom side of the shield ?

Cheers
Ritu

I see it listed in packages by at least 2 other vendors. They may have all copied it from some open source project so there may actually be a foot print out there.

Other than that? Buy the board and start measuring. The pins are a standard header. If you are lucky they are all on the same grid which will make it easier. The Arduino offset of the pins from the grid is supposedly a mistake but proved useful to keep things from going in wrong.

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There should be Arduino Uno expansion board in templates
File → New Project from Template
Rest is on you.

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Thanks for the tips… So I started with the arduino uno template. But quickly had to move to using caliper as I need to place a few female headers on my shield to match the male headers.

Now I am stuck as to how to place the header’s pin 0 origin at a relative fixed position from one of the corner of the pcb :face_with_thermometer:

There is a measuring tool. With luck, your edge falls on the grid and makes life simple. Kicad files are human readable. You could try and find the board corner coordinates that way. Also note that you can see the cursor coordinates a the bottom of the screen. Then, do the math? :wink:

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