Hi there,
I am experimenting with all the tools in the PCB-Editor. I drew some via conections and after some time there suddenly appeared a circle around those via’s. newly created via’s dont have those. They also get shown in the 3D-Viewer. What is happening here? Did I do something that caused the circles?
Here is a screenshot:
Those circles are holes in the zone that you have on the other layer. Their size depends on the net clearance values, configurable in board settings and zone settings. They will appear for newly placed vias when the zone is rebuilt, you can trigger it by pressing b key.
If the zone and via are supposed to be connected then make sure the zone is assigned the same net as the via.
Looks like you have a copper zone on your top layer that is not connected to the same net as your vias. At some point that copper zone was poured (you may have used another tool that did this automatically for you) and the circle you see is a cut-out on the zone so that the vias do not short to a net they are not connected to.
The new vias do not appear to have the circle cut-out because you have not re-filled the zone since their creation. If you press “B” on your keyboard, you should see circles around those vias as well (if they are not the same net.)
It looks like you may also have mistaken the zone tool for making the board outline. The correct way to do that is to draw the board outline using the graphic tools on the layer named “Edge.Cuts”. If you want to create copper pours on your board, do that after.
Oh, I think I have to learn a lot. The clearance things sound right to me. I filled the zones and this might have happend during the filling process.
Maybe I should describe what I want to accomplish. By the way the image shows a test file where I am wildly experimenting and mixing up all sorts of tools ( rectangles, zones, etc.).
I want to make a touch area on one side of my pcb and want to connect this to net-lines on the other side of the pcb with vias. I have no idea which tool I should use for the actual touchpad. I want to have a blank copper, silver or gold finished area which works as a button and can be connected to the net on the other side. I was hoping that this can be a simple rectangle as far as it is drawn on the right kicad-layer. Since the rectangle has no specific connection point I am not really sure if this would work. It looks nice in the 3d-Viewer I can say.
You should define footprint for your key. Then define a symbol of your key linked with your footprint. Then use your symbol at schematic and when you go to PCB and update PCB from schematic you will have your key footprints connected according to schematic with your circuit. Connected means there will be connection lines and when you will be routing tracks KiCad will be not against you. If you try to connect anything at PCB that is not connected at schematic you really work against KiCad so you should expect rather disturbing then helping from KiCad.
Read:
do some experiments when reading it and then go back to your task.
Thanks Piotr for making clear how important the schematic step is.
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