Quick Start tutorial: Trouble with Footprint Viewer for the LD1117S33CTR part

In an attempt to find the footprints for all of the parts on the tutorial’s schematic, I’ve been successful for all except for the voltage regulator part, which has a SOT-223 footprint. When I select that part, there is nothing that quite comes up for that:

I am of course very new to KiCAD, so I’m sure there is an easy solution to this this. I just can’t find it. Thanks!

1 Like

If your installation downloaded the footprints to your local machine, look in the directory:
. . . \KiCad\share\kicad\modules\TO_SOT_Packages_SMD.pretty

The footprint file is called SOT-223.kicad_mod I have never used this footprint so I can’t vouch for its accuracy. You may want to add some more copper area to the tab, for heatsinking.

Dale

1 Like

Here’s a version that includes thermal vias, so you can add some heatsink area on the opposite side of the board.

SOT-223_Thermal_Vias.kicad_mod (8.1 KB)

Dale

1 Like

Have you looked at the filter settings of cvpcb?

Thank you all very much for your suggestions!

I will definitely try them out later.

I’m very impressed with KiCAD and the loyal user base. :slight_smile:

I am having this issue too. Did you resolve it?
Additionally, it seems whenever i run cvpcb it takes some time to compile. is it downloading anything in that time?

Which issue are you referring to? The usual suspects for problems with CVPCB are:

  • Setup of your schematic libraries, and the footprint libraries.
  • Access to the libraries hosted on Github
  • Missing, incomplete or out-of-date local libraries

These have been discussed in multiple threads.

I am quite pleased if you found my SOT-223 footprint either helpful (as a teaching example) or useful (in a layout).

Dale

p.s. - The KiCAD library system is NOT easy to understand. Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you are baffled after making an honest try to understand it.

1 Like