Good morning,
I created 2 separate Kicad projects. So I have 2 differents schematics and PCBs with implemented.
Question 1: Knowing that I can renumber one of the schematics to avoid duplicates, I would like to know if I can merge them on a single PCB without redoing the implantation to do the manufacturing. (This would be like a copy/paste).
Is that possible?
I want to separate these 2 locations on the PCB by a “Groove” line. The circuit can be separated in 2 afterwards by simple pressure of the PCB. (?)
I don’t know how deep this line is made?
The “official name” for this is “Panelization” and there is no “official support” for this from KiCad itself, but there are several 3rd party addons and plugins that add some support for this to KiCad. For example KiKit can help with this.
One of the simplest ways it open the PCB Editor directly from your file manager. If there is no active project, then the PCB Editor acts in “standalone mode” and this adds some extra functionality to the menu, such as: PCB Editor / File / Append Board
Indeed it seems to work in PCB Editor standalone mode. I just did the test with 2 small designs with the same number of layers.
It will be enough to take care to avoid duplicates of number and “Grd”
This should allow me to put several on a single PCB to optimize manufacturing. It remains to test an assembly of one of 4 layers and one of 2 layers. Maybe I should modify the one that has 2 layers and add 2 others.
cdt
Check with your manufacturer if there are extra charges for panelization and V-cuts. They may cancel out part or all of your savings.
Typically the V-cut goes about ⅓ of the way in top and bottom, leaving ⅓ of the board material. The cut is quite acute and sometimes not apparent, could be mistaken for a silkscreen line at a glance. A little flexing suffices to break at the cut. Also remember that V-cuts have to be edge-to-edge.
