I believe the standard KiCAD installation includes project templates for several of the Arduino boards. Look in {KiCAD_Installation_Directory}\share\kicad\template
This board is from DFRobot (I bought 3 of them). They are not the same as the true Arduino boards, and the ProMini template included with KiCad is not a match.
It required hand-editing the .kicad_mod file and saving it as a different file name, loading it into the footprint editor, and over-writing the original file from there:
For those that suggested using the ProMini template that is packaged with KiCad, if you’ll take a good look at it, it’s only a board outline with pin headers… It’s not a true footprint.
Now… How do I change the title of this to “solved” ??
The only problem I have there is how do you know if the model is mechanically accurate? It might be better to nag DFRobot to provide mechanical drawings so there is no confusion.
I somewhat agree with you. All the information available on it is here, about halfway down the page. All I could go by was the board dimensions. I’ll just have to print it out and see if the pads line up.
I also did a footprint for Arduino Mini, they are a bit of a nightmare, lots of different versions. The ebay ones I bought have a second set of 4 pads.
Each manufacturer’s Arduinos are a bit different. On one hand, it’s what’s good about Open Source… With a working schematic, they can lay out the boards any way they want. On the other hand, it basically requires a different footprint for each manufacturer, and that can also vary with each version they release.
Ah sorry, my brain wasn’t working, I remember what happened now, I found two types of boards, so I did a footprint to cater for both types. The “second set” is actually A4,A5,A6,A7 in an alternative place.
Anyway, we’ve drifted off-topic here. Trying to get back to the original topic…
It just strikes me as odd that the footprint editor doesn’t seem to allow direct manipulation of an item created with bitmap2component… Can’t directly select it, rotate it, move it, delete it… Or at least I didn’t find a way.
I did have a thought on that. Pressing the T key (get and move footprint) then typing the reference name (“G***”) makes the footprint stick to the cursor. So you can move it, but there doesn’t appear to be a context menu item to delete it.
In general, right clicking near the anchor point of the footprint allows it to be selected, although sometimes it is a bit dodgy. It might help to have the a different layer selected in the layer manager, or a different mode (e.g. “Footprint” mode).
I’m trying that suggestion with this:
I’m getting no response from pressing the T key around anything.
Version 4.06-e0-6349~53~ubuntu14.04.1, release build.
Ohh, sorry I am all kinds of wrong today! Somehow my brain was thinking pcbnew. Reset…
The bitmap converter creates a footprint using a poly_line, which in legacy mode is not something that can be created by the user, and the GUI does not allow the user to modify it - nor even select it.
In the “new canvas” (OpenGL, F11) the poly line can be selected using block select (lasso around whole graphic), then it can be moved or deleted.
