Hello everyone,
I am having a weird problem that I never met before on Kicad.
When I export my gerber files, It seems that the solder paste (Paste layer) is going on all pads without making space between them. So there is a problem that I can’t manage to resolve when using the global mask and pads margin (globally or localy)
Please find a picture of the problem linked : http://imgur.com/2bECXzD
Thank you in advance for your help !
Do you have the footprint to any of those in the picture handy and can attach please?
And if reproducible, a sample/test file with this phenomenon?
Did you check the local pad settings for any of those footprints yet?
What do they state?
Thanks for your answer.
The large footprint on the right is the one from kicad library : Housings_QFP : TQFP-128-14x14mm_pitch0.4mm
The local pad settings are all set to 0 except isolation set to 0.07mm.
The problem don’t happens on the footprint : Housings_DFN_QFN :UQFN-16-1EP_4x4mmPitch_0.65mm from kicad library.
What kind of test file do you need ?
What settings do you have in:
pcbnew > Dimensions > Pads Mask Clearance?
I don’t have RC2 installed here… is isolation a new setting or where do I find it?
Just loaded the FP in question and don’t have a problem in BZR6097.
So we gotta find the setting in pcbnew/footprint editor that causes this for you…
For the pads Mask clearance, I have all settings to 0.
Nope I choosed isolation on the footprint->Edit Parameter-> Pad clearance because the clearance was too wide andI was having DRC errors about pad overlap.
Well, somewhere in those settings… either in the FP-editor for the pads, or for the whole FP or in pcbnew for the board there must be a positive number that tells kicad to make the paste mask bigger than anything else.
Cause when I load the FP for the TQFP-128-0.4 from the repo it doesn’t show oversized paste masks (I don’t have them installed locally, I don’t used them, so I really got the one that is public).
If I put in +0.1 they look more like what you got in that gerber.
As the whole FP is compromised I’d say it’s the whole FP settingsor (I don’t know, hard to judge from that screenshot of yours if all FPs are compromised) you got the settings in pcbnew wrong.
Anyhow, this is the dialog in the FP editor for the whole footprint… check yours please.
Hey !
Finally resolved the problem… I think I was a little confuse and I messed up with the gerber file generation. Now when I generate the paste layer it it ok. I think that I wasn’t overriding the first paste that I generated.
Thanks again for your time and for your help.
Madz
