Kicad StepUp: The Sketcher for Footprint generation

[maui]

Hi,
following some internal needs I have developed the generation of footprints from FreeCAD Sketcher to KiCad PCB Footprint Editor.

Latest Enhancements:

• Footprint Generator
• SMD, TH, NPTH, Drills allowed
• FSilks, FFab, FCrtYd technical Layers
• Edge.Cuts for footprint allowed
• Round Rectangles pads
• Poly-Lines (and DXF) for filled pads

@Shack @Rene_Poschl may find this useful for their Librarian work.
@davidsrsb @hermit @leoheck and others from their topics also…

StepUp Cheat Sheet will be updated in short time

As always testers are welcome

Maurice

[Shack]

Amazing!! And 20 some characters

[Rene_Poschl]

Man you are the best.

[hermit]

@maui I sincerely appreciate the effort you went through to make me look like less of an idiot in the other thread. I guess only one person understood what I meant but it was the one person that counted.

Now we have to figure out the best way to index it in the FAQ.

[davidsrsb]

I really have to spend some time with FreeCad. Any news when 0.17 might be released?

[Syl20]

FreeCAD is close to the next official release (https://yorik.uncreated.net/guestblog.php?tag=freecad).

[Dimitrios]

I am very new to Kicad and Kicad forum, where do I download your excellent code, so I can use it?

Best Regards

Dimitrios

[Rene_Poschl]

Stepup is an extension to freecad. If you have the development version (=freecad 0.17) you can install it directly via the addon manager found in the tools menu.

For freecad 0.16 you first need to add the addon manager plugin https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/How_to_install_additional_workbenches

Or you can download stepup from its sourceforge page and install the workbench the hard way. (There is also the possibility that the sourceforge stuff is not the newest version)

[Dimitrios]

It is not showing in my addon manager. I will wait some days, and try again.

[Rene_Poschl]

It is called kicadStepUpMod and is in the addon manager for a long time now.

What version of freecad are you using?

[davidsrsb]

To make it clear, KiCad and FreeCad are independent projects. KiCad is a PCB design application and FreeCad is a parametric 3D mechanical design application.
They are both opensource and there is now a route to share designs between them.
To use this feature you need to install both programs

[Dimitrios]

This one: OS: Windows 10
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.17.13005 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: 29533320fc514029f3ce1af6bbf53cc03fb93049
Python version: 2.7.8
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.1.0
Locale: Portuguese/Brazil (pt_BR)

I messed around and installed PCB workbench, but I am a noob in both programs. Do not worry too much, I am very thankful for your attention. I am prone to do a lot of mistakes!

Best Regards

Dimitrios

[Rene_Poschl]

There are two workbenches out there. There is the pcb workbench which seems to be no longer maintained and focuses mainly on eagle, and there is kicad stepup. The later only supports kicad and is the one discussed in this thread.

[Dimitrios]

Found it, sorry for bothering you with my lack of attention.

[maui]

I just played a bit with my tools creating a quite structured footprint:

FreeCAD 0.17 is most suited for this result
and because of the using of round rects and poly lines pads, KiCad 5 or developing release is necessary.

[maui]

Hi,
I’ve found some time to prepare a mini tutorial on generating a kicad footprint from a 3D manufacturer model…
The video shows how to create a footprint using a manufacturer 3D STEP model where are also included Pad outlines.
With StepUp the process can be quite easy and the result would be less prone to errors.

Requirements: FreeCAD 0.17, which is now the new stable release!

[PCB_Wiz]

I’ve found some time to prepare a mini tutorial on generating a kicad footprint from a 3D manufacturer model…

The video shows how to create a footprint using a manufacturer 3D STEP model where are also included Pad outlines.

Very impressive.
Minor question - the slot handling here seems to be via Edge.Cuts, which I guess is going to cope with any shape at all, but the more conventional simple pad-slot handling is via an Oval hole shape.
That slot info goes into gerber/excellon files, and needs no FAB intervention.

Can this recognize and export an Oval hole, or does the user have to do that step manually ?

[maui]

Minor question - the slot handling here seems to be via Edge.Cuts, which I guess is going to cope with any shape at all, but the more conventional simple pad-slot handling is via an Oval hole shape.

That slot info goes into gerber/excellon files, and needs no FAB intervention.

Can this recognize and export an Oval hole, or does the user have to do that step manually ?

StepUp WB will export the footprint as a standard KiCad footprint, assigning the pads to ‘oval pads’ with ‘oval drills’. No Edge.Cuts involved in the footprint here.
So the footprint and the generated Gerber files will be handled as usual.
The only thing to modify in the footprint is numbering the pads accordingly to the manufacturer’s datasheet.

[PCB_Wiz]

StepUp WB will export the footprint as a standard KiCad footprint, assigning the pads to ‘oval pads’ with ‘oval drills’. No Edge.Cuts involved in the footprint here.

Oh, great - I was just going by the very thin annular ring, but maybe that came from the original data, and it just looked like a thin outline slot …