I’ve noticed that the stock mounting holes allow the copper pour to encroach within the area marked with a blue circle (layer cmts.user). I would like to block the pour to outside such a zone to provide clear area for fixings. (I’m not sure what the effective difference in use is between a courtyard marking and a cuts.user marking if neither stop a pour.) Ideally I don’t want to use a pad - just a clear area with no copper. This is just one example where having an exclusion/keepout zone would be useful.
How can I do this in the footprint rather than having to edit each copper pour I do?
Also, I could not see orphan control in the copper pour settings - did I miss it? I’d like to control the keeping/dropping of orphans.
For clearances to filled zones you have to edit the net-pad clearance setting of the pad of such a footprint.
What are orphans?
Courtyard is the area around a footprint where no other courtyard should get into. It’s needed for pick&place machines to be able to assemble a board - and for humans to have some space for a soldering tip.
KiCAD doesn’t check or enforce this, it’s currently just a layout help for the user.
Cmts.User layer is yours to do what you want. Can have assembly instructions on there or some detail for the fabricator… KiCAD doesn’t care.
I use it in my personal footprints for additional information like for FPC connectors (where the cable comes out) or for SDcard slots (to show the inserted card) or for components that need to have a keep-out-area for copper fills, I mark that there too.
Thanks. Ok so no ability to create a simple exclusion/keep out zone around a footprint? The problem with the settings in a copper zone is that they apply to everything in a zone. If I simply want more gap around a particular component type, e.g. a hole, I have to create an individual cut out for each and every instance or steer the copper zone around each of them. Rather more painful than it need be. The only way in a footprint to force a zone away from it is to place copper down which doesn’t make sense.
By orphans I mean unconnected “islands” which might form in a copper pour/zone due to component placement interacting with zone settings governing distance to footprints.
Regarding editing zones, is there a way to drag a corner without the corner at the other end of the line moving as well? Perhaps I am not zoomed in enough to select the exact corner but I can’t seem to correct things like a simple rectangle if I have accidentally placed a corner such that one side is too long.
… I thought this was the answer to my “problem”, but I’m not able to figure out how to modify the via properties to reduce the via clearance to the theoretical minimum (28mils., I figure).
The via is not what has that large clearance set. It is the zone itself.
Every copper zone has its own clearance settings and applies that clearance to any feature of a different net. Meaning you need to check the zone properties to change the clearance between the zone and the via.
Vias however use the normal clearance assigned to the net they are part of. So if you ever really have the via as the source of the large clearance then you need to check the clearance of the net the via is assigned to.
@Rene_Poschl … thanks very much for checking back with me on this. I may have made a poor assumption. I’m using OshPark’s four-layer service for this board, which permits track clearances of 5mils. I made the assumption that there was nothing “special” about the pour clearances vs. the standard track-to-track or track-to-pad clearances and as such set the pour clearance to 5mils, also. Was that naive?
