I have just started detangling my rats nest and drawing traces. I discovered the Tools -> DRC and decided to give it a go.
It is reported a lot of unconnected pads – no problem I certainly see those! It is also reporting a lot of “Pad near Pad” showing errors on my ICs like this:
The associated error being:
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I am not sure what it means, can somebody give me a hand? I have just setup various pcb settings based upon digikeys youtube video which explains how to do trace widths etc compatible with my board supplier (OSHPark)
Bingo - thats fixed it! The youtube video suggested 0.254mm clearance, but OSHpark suggests they can handle 0.1524. The 0.254 option caused errors, the 0.1524 value fixes that, so I’ll keep that I think!
The violation can also be seen in the footprint image you posted, before the DRC was run. Note the red bounding boxes around each pad which denotes the pad spacing tolerance. They are overlapping between pads, showing the copper from the neighboring pad is intruding on its spacing.
When I first started using Kicad I ran into this, once you notice the bounds you will catch the issue as soon as you see the footprint.
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