Hi everybody,
I plan on using conformal coating on my board in order to reduce the clearance/creepage requirements of the pcb.
However, there is no specific layer to draw this conformal coating (I’m not speaking of solder mask that can’t be used to reduce clearance and creepage !)
I ll draw it on an user layer as I have no choice, but should kicad add one layer for conformal coating (is it an industry standard) ?
Thanks
As far as I know, conformal coating is applied after the components are mounted.
Never heard about coating of the bare pcb or coating applied at the pcb fabrication process.
Yes, you are right, you makes conformal coating after assembly but you can still define masks and keepout for conformal coating (depending on the process used), so it would make sense to implement a layer for this in kicad
It’s an interesting question - we apply conformal coatings by hand(either brush or spraygun) but the larger scale operations use conformal coating machines on a gantry. I have used a 3D printer to make masks and plugs where needed to cover components that didn’t come with covers, and where it is too labor intensive to tape up.
I’d like to move to a gantry system for our spraying, and it would be interesting to define the zones for spray on the PCB and then see it in 3D as a layer to check clearances for connectors etc, but I imagine that would be outside the scope of the current 3D rendering system in Kicad. I’m looking forward to what the community suggests as a solution to your question 
Eco1.user and Eco2.user are unassigned and can be used