Hi,
I have a problem with a couple custom footprints I created (the example below is a well known buck converter module). Through hole pads are made of two pads : oval + circular. The symbol has pads #1 and #4 set to “power input”, and they are connected to ground in the eeschema.
When filling the ground planes, these pins are not automatically connected to ground.
Why ?
Of course, I can put thermal spokes by hand, and they will not be removed by the 'Cleanup Tracks and Vias" command. But if I change the thermal spoke width in the “Copper Zone Properties” dialog, I will then have to edit the custom spokes widths.
I tested “Pad connection : Thermal relief” in the pad Properties dialog. Gives me this (too much copper around one pad, no copper around the other) :
I tried assigning no number to one of the two pads. No success.
I also tested this : I swapped the pads definitions in the kicad_mod file, thinking of some problem with z-order (round first, then oval and vice-versa : who knows…). No success.
I’m out of ideas.
Is there a way to define custom spokes in the footprint editor ? Something like this :
Oval Pad
THT Y-Offset
Copy&paste it, Rotate the pasted one…
Change one of the Pin numbers to ~
(or set desired pin number or, ‘invisible’ the one you don’t want)
[EDIT] Just for fun… you can make a Custpm Pad (Graphic Polygon) and trace around two Circles… Quickly/Crudely traced and I didn’t clean it up or set Pin numbers to same or/other… Image below…
bingo!
(did not bother to hide extra ref or label…)
If I remeber correctly, ‘~’ is a thing with Eagle (says pins are internally connected in a part), but is a valid name/number pad in Kicad…
Or is it a new feature with Kicad 6.0 ?
Anyway, still no automatic connection to the ground plane
Just had a look at the JLCPCB drilling capabilities : 0.2mm. We get this : the result is just perfect, and it works perfectly with the zone filling tool ! 2 round pads, and a square one in between (same dimensions), with a 0.2mm hole.
The question is about the footprint editor. ‘~’ is documented for eeschema and symbol editor.
No mention in Kicad 5.1 pcbnew reference manual.
pcbnew 6 footprint editor reference manual is tagged “TODO” (empty).
Some information with Google : seems it is equivalent to “hidden” or to an empty field. But it displays as ‘~’ in pcbnew.
I still don’t understand the point. Already spent a couple hours googling on this mysterious char, reason why I’m asking this question…
It is usefull in Eagle footprints, but I still don’t see about Kicad footprints.
Just a “name” for something that does not need one, but will still be visible ?
