Minimum distance between PCB outline and drill outline

Hi,

I could not find the definition of the minimum distance between PCB outline and drill outline. In my PCB I have placed an up-side-down LED close to the border.

My questions:

  • Are 0.3mm distance with standard PCB capabilities realistic? It is just for nesting the LED.
  • What is the minimum distance?

Best regards

In Pcbnew go to Board Setup | Design Rules.

Distance to edge depends for one on the board house capabilities, thickness of board, material as well as various product reliablity requirements like air pressure, humidity, electromagnetic fields and then some…

As for me I would NOT go that close to the edge. At least not with pads and/or wires. Filled copper zones are a slightly different thing.

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But this is only the hole edge to board edge without any copper, not THT pad copper to board edge?

“It depends” and there’s no spesific setting for that in KiCad rules. Is the edge routed or made with V-score? For the latter it may make no difference for the manufacturer but the tolerance is worse. Even for the former the manufacturer may not care. It’s even one possible technique to get sharp inner corners to create a drilled hole which overlaps the edge line, so they probably will accept it. It’s up to you to know what you can tolerate.

Find out the manufacturer edge tolerance and drill tolerances and try to calcluate or guess if there’s enough board left between them for your purposes. Then ask the manufacturer if they accept it or add information that they shouldn’t care about the possible broken hole edge if they just can accept it.

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@jos
thx for your reply, this confirms my assumption.

@eelik
It is just a hole.

I also thought of cutting the whole rest away but then I have to route the edges and can not V-score them. I think this will make the panel difficult because there has to be an gap between the single PCBs.

This is a good suggestion. I am going to do it like that because I really dont care if it breaks away or not.

Thanks :slight_smile:

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