Rounded Tracks Reloaded ... again: RF Tools for KiCad

[cflin]

@maui: Confirmed! Thank you for making KiCAD a professional-grade package!

[maui]

@nickoe

I can try to add it to the windows builds.

@nickoe any news on this?

As a temporary workaround for Via Fencing plugin, I’ve added the pyclipper library for the actual kicad deployed platforms:

• win 64 py 2.7
• osx 64 py 2.7
• linux py 2.7 & 3.6

The plugin should try to first load the os pyclipper, if not available it will try to load the one included with the plugin itself.

@John_Pateman @davidsrsb @Anool
would you mind to update the plugin and, after having renamed/removed the pyclipper in your system, test the new plugin?

@jos
I’ve added also a check for DRC … it should be fine now

[davidsrsb]

Tested and working, the DRC works too

[John_Pateman]

Yes, this now seems to work in macOs with KiCad 5.1.4 without the pyclipper.so dependency. Thank you!

[jos]

Looks much better.

Apart from that I noticed ‘something’ occasionally disconnects a fill zone from its assigned e.g. GND net. In this case there is only a filled zone on the top layer.

Thouth this might ‘just’ be an issue in the current master branch.

[maui]

@jos

Apart from that I noticed ‘something’ occasionally disconnects a fill zone from its assigned e.g. GND net. In this case there is only a filled zone on the top layer.

this shouldn’t be related to the plugin…
do you have a sample board to share to reproduce it?

I have found that the ‘master’ 5.99 branch has issues in deleting objects through python code, causing even a core dump on linux…

[jos]

You more or less confirm that this is most likely a mastery developmental ‘temper tantrum’. I actually noticed that behavior, even without to deploy your plugin.

The GND fill zone got intermittently disconnected while messing around with fill zone geometry rearrangements.

[davidsrsb]

Expect all sorts of unepected Python behaviour as the KiCad developers try to work around Python 2 being dropped in several OS

[xaled]

Hi,

sorry for the simple question - I got the RF Tools installed and can create taper footprints using wizard. What I can not do is to add taper symbol to my schema like in this post:

Rounded Tracks Reloaded ... again: RF Tools for KiCad

Tamper can be used not only for RF user case, but in general when you need to connect wide tracks to narrow pins. [uWaveTamper-ees2] [uWaveTamper-pcb2] [uWaveTamper-pcb1]

Do I need an additional uWave library?

[maui]

@xaled You may find the following links useful:

Creating a new symbol library and a new symbol in KiCad 5

Disclaimer: Screenshots taken in a nightly from after the 5.0.x releases. (KiCad 5.0.x and 5.1.x will look very similar. KiCad version 4 had a very different symbol editor meaning this tutorial is not really suitable to teach symbol creation in KiCad version 4) Symbol libraries are always a pair of files. A .lib file that contains the symbol data and a .dcm file that holds documentation information for aliases. Any interface with kicad will only list the .lib file as it knows that it can reach…

How to get a downloaded symbol, footprint or full library into KiCad version 5?

This is a shortened version of https://forum.kicad.info/t/library-management-in-kicad-version-5/14636 so if anything is not clear read the full lecture. Here we also only describe a single way to add any given asset. Alternatives (more efficient in some circumstances) are described in the full lecture. How to add a .kicad_mod file (single footprint) Files with the file ending .kicad_mod represent the current footpritn file format. One such file contains a single footprint. To get it availabl…

[xaled]

Hi maui,

thanks for sharing the info! I know how to create new symbols, but I was assuming that there are already symbols available in some library. Can you share the uWave Library shown on the screenshots?

[apurvdate]

@xaled

What I can not do is to add taper symbol

If I’m reading @maui 's example image correctly, you can add testpoint in the schematic to the pin for which you want to use Taper. Assign taper footprint to that testpoint.

[jos]

xaled Of course you can.
Something like this would do.
It basically manifests as a round clear pad on B.Cu.

[xaled]

Thanks guys for the test point advice. I was thinking about the special forms that maui uses for the test point symbol. It is just esthetics but if they are available why not share it?

[maui]

@xaled

I was thinking about the special forms that maui uses for the test point symbol. It is just esthetics but if they are available why not share it?

Now I see what you need
I will include those libs to the repo…

[xaled]

Great, sorry for not being clear enough from the beginning.

[maui]

I’m attaching here a full portable example using Bend & Taper (schematic, schematic lib, footprint & pcb included)
uWave-Taper-Bend-Example.zip (10.4 KB)
I will include it in my GH repo later on, within the other RF examples.

I forgot to ping @xaled

[Anool]

KiCad plugin’s blog post on Hackaday

KiCad Action Plugins

[klipp]

I’m very impressed by these plugins. Great for RF design!

Installation of the plugins from the command line was simple (On Linux, KiCad 5.1.5):

1. install the Python module pyclipper
2. cd into one of the directories KiCad searches for plugins in (See link to plugin doc earlier in the thread)
3. git clone https://github.com/easyw/RF-tools-KiCAD.git
4. Start pcbnew and you will see the new icons in the top row

I assume a git pull will be enough to keep the plugins update with fixes/improvements.

Thanks for creating these plugins