Proper way to do it... fit in an enclosure

Layout
1

Hello,
on my second board layout challenge and loving it :slight_smile:

looking to make mounting holes fit perfectly in my enclosure. I plan on using an Hammond case; like this one;
https://www.digikey.ca/products/en?keywords=1555F2F42GY

the company provide CAD files and all but also simple spec sheet drawing in PDF
here is what I mean; http://www.hammondmfg.com/pdf/1555FF42.pdf
the screws are 68 x 77 apart.

I added mounting holes in PCB new, trying to zero the measuring tool with space bar, duplicate the first mounting hole, then trying to place it on the same horizontal axis exactly 77mm away…
is this the easiest way to do it ? any suggestion to make it more reliable ?

also not sure what they mean by 6X, I doubt that’s an M6 screw size… what should be the mounting hole size matching that hole?

Thanks

2

That’s the way I do it.

It means there are 6 holes each 3mm diameter. (or maybe 2.25mm, depending where you are looking).

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6x means that there are 6 features with the same diameter. In this case 6 holes with 0.3mm diameter

In general you can also take a look at kicad stepup. Especially for checking if everything fits. (In Z direction)

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KiCad lacks origin relative capability, but following a hint in another thread, I just tried this
( Version: (5.0.0-rc2-dev-44-gde6b32d23), release build)

Position X [64.67972-4/3.33] mm

works fine :slight_smile: ie There is an inbuilt, simple calculator in the Field entry, nice.

So you can place all mounting holes, relative to the master one by simply adding +68, +77 etc

Kudos, as this mixed units also works fine :slight_smile:
Position X [64.67972-0.05in] mm
Position X [64.67972+50mil] mm
Position X [64.67972+50mil+4mm] mm

I also tried a co-ordinate pair entry, as you might logically paste like [65,119] but sadly the programmer did think to support +/-, but did not think to support ‘,’ which looks to be simply trimmed.

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Hi @Guillaume_Boulay
with Hammond you can get all the needed info from their 3D STEP model …
They give you the box but also the inner panel model…

Then with Step Up you can push the pcb edge directly from the Hammond Inner Panel model to kicad pcb file…

1068×842 1.69 MB

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that’s nice. I see that you have extensions… your gif goes too fast for a FreeCAD noob.,
is that freecad step up extension?

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Yes this is the stepup extension in action.

But you will need to replace the holes that are generated as circles on edge cuts with proper mounting holes (non plated through hole pads.) Otherwise the manufacturer will try to mill them instead of drilling them. (A lot less precise.)

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here the useful buttons inside StepUp (I haven’t updated the manual to latest tools)

800×251 67.2 KB

here a related topic

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seams like I dont have the addon manager…
running windows 10, Version 0.16

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[quote=“PCB_Wiz, post:4, topic:9824”]
KiCad lacks origin relative capability, but following a hint in another thread, I just tried this ( Version: (5.0.0-rc2-dev-44-gde6b32d23), release build)

Position X [64.67972-4/3.33] mm

works fine [/quote]
Are you talking about editing the “Position” fields in a footprint’s “Properties” dialog (as shown here)?

996×690 69.6 KB

This must be a recently added feature in Ver 5. It doesn’t seem to work in my version, which is a nightly build from about a year ago.

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Yup, also works in other XY fields (eg text and circles, tho circles needs 2 entries due to format used).
Nifty feature, quite sensible …

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That method works. I often duplicate a bunch of mounting holes (Ctl-D in OpenGL) into a stack, then use the “Move Exactly” tool (Ctl-M) to place them at exact distances from each other. But unless it’s a simple rectangular outline and hole pattern, I use LibreCAD to work up a *.DXF drawing of the board outline, mounting holes, and other significant hole locations (connectors, switches, etc) and import that into PCBNew.

Dale

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Yeah, that’ll save a bunch of time punching numbers into a calculator then transferring the result. That in itself is almost enough justification to move to Ver 5.

Dale

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In FC0.16 you need to use Add-ons manager macro or doing by following a manual installation

FC0.17 is in code freezing and soon it will be the next stable release…
An other option then is to switch to FC0.17

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