Octagonal pads?

[e5frog]

Hey guys, my first new post…

I downloaded KiCAD the first time in 2008, have had the same version since then, made a couple of projects but since then mostly just used the Gerber-viewer, I have done a lot of work in another program, both for personal hobbies and also professional - as I work in a PCB factory.
As a new acquaintance (Bo_Herrmannsen) had made a reproduction Commodore 64 board I downloaded the newest KiCAD version to be able to help out.

It’s sad to see that for the last nine years an octagonal pad is still not added to the Footprint editor library. It’s a very common shape in other CAD programs in both vias and footprints and it’s sometimes very nice to have when doing the old “45 degree CAD:ing”.
There’s a “Trapezoidal” shape - what use is that? Can’t recall that I have ever needed a trapezoidal shaped pad… if there was a trinagular shaped version I may have been able to build a hexagonal shape from just six overlaid pads eachother (four triangles, two rectangles) but I’m not sure that’s allowed.

So, who do I have to bribe to add this standard type of pad to KiCAD?

I opened the footprint editor but I’m not free to manually draw any shape of pad I’d like since these layers aren’t available. So if I for example want to define a component that has four via holes and some kind of symbol in the copper layer as a footprint, how is that done?
What if I would import an Eagle brd file that has octagonal pads - what happens to those?

Perhaps it’s possible to draw directly on the board, both copper and mask layers using the “Add filled zones”-tool?

My thanks in advance for taking the time to answer.

[eelik]

If you are updgrading now and don’t mind a few bugs, I recommend trying out the nightly builds (or RC1 after it’s packaged), if you haven’t done so already. It’s possible to create polygonal pads, although it’s not self-evident.

Draw a polygon (with Add graphic polygon) to some layer. From context menu select Properties. Change the layer to F.Cu. Add a normal (SMD?) pad inside the polygon. Select both the polygon and the pad. From context menu click Create Pad from Selected Shapes.

[eelik]

I forgot that Bo used 4.0.7. It doesn’t support polygonal pads, sorry.

[e5frog]

Yes, I downloaded a couple of days ago so I have 4.0.7 - just as Bo.

Mhm… so you need to draw it in another layer and then change the layer, instead of drawing it directly in the layer I want it… sounds like a nice detour.
… but I need a nightly build - might be worth possible bugs I guess.

Thanks eelik.

[eelik]

It’s still possible to imitate octagonal pads in 4.0.7. You can create 8 rectangle pads and give them all the same pad number. Then orientate and position them overlapping to form an octagon. You can position the corners almost exactly if you set Shape offsets. It may be impossible to get the corners exactly in the same coordinates but it doesn’t matter in practice.