PCBNew: Track-ends square instead of round?

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Version 6.0.11

On PCB, I need to create a flexible PCB and the ends of each track, should be square.
Instead of KiCAD, make them ending round.

How can I change it please?

2

KiCad always does round ends on tracks. If you want square ends, you have to use zones.

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Make a custom footprint with a square pad with width the same as a track and add it at the end of the round track.

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4

Truly square ends can be etched, but are usually a bad idea as they tend to lift and are a focus for ā€œtin whiskerā€ long term shorts with lead free solder

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Why do you need square endings?

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you may have a look at
RF-tools-KiCAD Taper plugin

pcbnew-taper-plugin-2-short

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A ā€œserver not foundā€ error for that link

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should be this I think:

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sorry, Iā€™ve edited the link above

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i.e.

related topic

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11

Thanks. Interesting case. However, a square ending may not solve the problem. The square will probably stick out at the end of the smd pad unless you connect it outside of the smd pads.
Do you need such a wide trace? It may hamper solderability.

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you connect outside the padā€¦ connection is granted by the fill zone ā€¦ no DRC, no unconnected

consider i.e. motor driver with high current

not at all

image
image1879Ɨ1055 90.8 KB

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Thx for the clarification.

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I hope in KiCAD 7.0 there will be this option.
Workarounds are not solutions. Are workarounds.

About the script
The script didnā€™t perform as I want.

15

Your hope is not fulfilled.
And as far as I now there is no pending gitlab-issue for square track-ends.

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Why not?
I mean: it doesnā€™t serve to you, it doesnā€™t mean it doesnā€™t serve to other ones.
If itā€™s introduced as an option, it does the thing.
Standard: the rounded
Right click > something: the squared.

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The release of KiCad 7 is just around the corner and has been in ā€˜feature freezeā€™ for several weeks. This would be a new feature and therefore could not be included in 7 even if there was a lot of interest in it. Put in a feature request and get it upvoted for KiCad 8 - in around a year. You may have more luck if you can develop a more generalised use case for this feature.

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Why not?

Because v7 gets no new features (I think feature-freeze was 2ā€¦3 montha ago), currently the goal is to fix open bugs prior to release.

And as I stated there seems to be no open feature-request for square track ends.

Edit: using the gitlab search requires the correct spelling of the search-phrase (sqare delivers no resultā€¦).
You can find the gitlab-wishlist-item here: Traces with square ends (lp:#1795241) (#2250) Ā· Issues Ā· KiCad / KiCad Source Code / kicad Ā· GitLab.
The discussion on that thread already shows that a implementation will need much work.

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19

Maybe it would be more useful to think of this as Kicad should ā€˜mergeā€™ tracks to pads?

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This merging seems to be the main use case.
Truly square ends can lift easily and trigger electrical breakdown and tin whiskers

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