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wdoe999 | 1 Apr 2009 01:33
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Re: How do you make a NET with 2 different track widths

--- In kicad-users@..., "Alain M." <alainm <at> ...> wrote:
>
> I assume that this is an answer to my suggestion... (you have been 
> overly economical deleting all the previous text)
> 
> wdoe999 escreveu:
> > Thanks I will give that a try.
> > I'll find this out when I try it, but I'm assuming that the autorouter does not optimize the manually
routed tracks?  In other words, I should make an effort to carefully route these big tracks and live with the
extra vias that the autorouter will use to try and cope with the immovable tracks?
> 
> what usualy happens is this: a component's pad in the GND net can be 
> just next to a wide GND track, but the router will not see that track. 
> It will try to connect to all other pads in the GND net. Sometimes if 
> the track is broken in two segments it works, but I am not sure of that
> 
> Alain
>
I gave it a try and it works OK.  I do have to leave the hand routed tracks as fixed tracks.  If I make them unfixed,
the router will try and move and optimize them (which I would like) but it also resizes them to skinny tracks
(shucks).  So I definitely need to take care when placing the hand routed thick tracks as they won't be optimized.

Thanks

Now I've got another prob - time to open a new thread.

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wdoe999 | 1 Apr 2009 01:56
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How do you make a ground plane on the board edge

Hi - I'm going bonkers with this one.

I want to put a 50 mil ground plane around the edge of the board.  The board has 4 mounting holes in the corner.  I
first tried making a zone around the edge of the board on both sides and then filled it.  I then loaded the
board into the freerouter and when it gets near the end of the routine phase, the number of passes goes
berzerk.  I stop it and check the unrouted nets and there is an error that states it cannot route the
conduction zone to ground.  The conduction zone is clearly connected to the grounded mounting holes, and
the router is smart enough to connect a bunch of grounds to the conduction zone, but it somehow complains
that it can't route the conduction zone to ground.

Ok, there's more than one way to skin a cat.  I decided to just use kicad to draw 50 mil traces around the edge of
the board.  So a draw a trace from mounting hole to mounting hole all around the board component side.  I then
go to draw the same trace on the solder side of the board.  I then go back to look at the first trace (on the
component side) and there are traces on 3 sides of the board but the fourth side is missing.  I then try and
redraw the missing piece.  Every time I fillin the missing piece, the piece on the opposite side of the board disappears.

Did somebody specifically write code to drive me crazy doing the simplest thing?  At this rate, the board
should be done in 10,000 years.

It must be common to put such a ground plane around the edge and then use the freerouter.  Any thoughts?

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Alain M. | 1 Apr 2009 02:26
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Re: How do you make a ground plane on the board edge

Hi,

that is a feature, not a problem ;)

But you can disable it. In kicad, when you redraw a track, it removes 
the old one, which is suposedly not wanted anymore. There is an icon on 
the left side with a pink rubber to disable/enable that feature...

Alain

wdoe999 escreveu:
> Hi - I'm going bonkers with this one.
> 
> I want to put a 50 mil ground plane around the edge of the board.  The board has 4 mounting holes in the corner.  I
first tried making a zone around the edge of the board on both sides and then filled it.  I then loaded the
board into the freerouter and when it gets near the end of the routine phase, the number of passes goes
berzerk.  I stop it and check the unrouted nets and there is an error that states it cannot route the
conduction zone to ground.  The conduction zone is clearly connected to the grounded mounting holes, and
the router is smart enough to connect a bunch of grounds to the conduction zone, but it somehow complains
that it can't route the conduction zone to ground.
> 
> Ok, there's more than one way to skin a cat.  I decided to just use kicad to draw 50 mil traces around the edge of
the board.  So a draw a trace from mounting hole to mounting hole all around the board component side.  I then
go to draw the same trace on the solder side of the board.  I then go back to look at the first trace (on the
component side) and there are traces on 3 sides of the board but the fourth side is missing.  I then try and
redraw the missing piece.  Every time I fillin the missing piece, the piece on the opposite side of the board disappears.
> 
> Did somebody specifically write code to drive me crazy doing the simplest thing?  At this rate, the board
should be done in 10,000 years.
>
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wdoe999 | 1 Apr 2009 04:50
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Re: How do you make a ground plane on the board edge

--- In kicad-users@..., "Alain M." <alainm <at> ...> wrote:
>
> Hi,
> 
> that is a feature, not a problem ;)
> 
> But you can disable it. In kicad, when you redraw a track, it removes 
> the old one, which is suposedly not wanted anymore. There is an icon on 
> the left side with a pink rubber to disable/enable that feature...
> 
> Alain
> 
Thanks, that helps me a lot.

Just in case anybody runs into the same problem with the zone fills, I did have some success with a
workaround.  In the freerouter, you need to manually place a route from a GND pad to the fill zone.  So in this
case, I placed a route from the mounting hole to the zone around the edge of the board.  Even though the fill
zone is already touching these pads, and the router certainly thinks the zone is grounded (since it routes
all kinds of things to it) I suppose it really never considers the zone to be connected to the GND net unless
you manually route it.  Make sure to do it on both sides if you have a zone on both sides.  Also, the manual route
seems to be pretty finicky as even after manual routing, it sometimes still thinks they are not connected. 
You can, however, stop the router when
  it goes berzerk (left click) and place another manual route, and restart the autorouter. I haven't tried
placing these manual routes in kicad before the export, but that may work as well.

Now I get 99% of the way through the autorouter and it hangs on a routing a couple of pads that are close to each
other and have a clear path.  Not sure why it does this but that is easily manually routed and the optimizer
will then run after that.

Again, thanks for the help.
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earthysmell | 1 Apr 2009 01:54
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Is there a fast way to move reference designators?

So far my kicad experience has been great.  I've got my first board almost finished and now its time to move the
arrange the reference designators for my closely spaced SMT components.  Every time I want to move a
designator I start by right clicking and then have to specify that I want to select the reference, then from
the next menu I select reference and finally move..... Way too slow. 

I've used other layout tools that let you chose the section mode (with a mode for designators only) so that no
clarification is needed.  This allows you to move silk around with a single click (like hitting the M key to
move a component in kicad.)  

Is there a quick way to do this??

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joerglesniak | 1 Apr 2009 13:37
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KiCAD Newbie: missing airwires in PCBNEW

High together,

I'm new to kicad and started with a first schematic. Next step I used cvpcb to select the needed footprints of
the parts (I exportet lib and mod from the Linux Eagle 5 -Version libraries needed). When opening the
board, I see that maybe 20% of the airwires are missing!?

I'm quite confused where to start to find out what I made wrong. The DRC just gives me errors for unconnected
device-pins (I really don't neede these pins). I think there could be something wrong with the
lbr/mod-files!? But what?

Could please anyone help me out? I'm stuck

Thanks a lot and regards

Nukem36

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Andy Eskelson | 1 Apr 2009 14:30
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Re: KiCAD Newbie: missing airwires in PCBNEW

Make sure you run DRC on the circuit diagram before you run cvpcb
That will highlight any errors there.

I would think that it is very likely that the libs you exported are not
correct for what you want to do.

In Kicad, there are libs and mods. The lib is basically the schematic
drawing of the device, and the module is the physical drawing of the
device. The important bit is that both the lib and mod must agree on
names such as pin numbers and such like. In addition to this the pins in
the lib have to be defined as a particular type. (power in, power out,
bidi, ...)

Libs and Mods are almost a set pair, the exception being where one
footprint applies to a range of devices, i.e. a 7805, 7809, 7812 etc.
regulator all use the same footprint module. For things like micros, it's
normally one lib to one module.

Run through the tutorial a couple of times, it takes a bit of practise
at first, especially the part regarding creating your own parts.

Also Try to use the Kicad libs and modules at first, once you get used
to it then try the other libs (if you need them) and check them before
use.

Andy

 
On Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:37:46 -0000
"joerglesniak" <joerglesniak@...> wrote:
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andreastaarning | 1 Apr 2009 14:28

Is it possible to import logos into PCBnew?

I would like to import a logo into my PCB designs, but don't see how this is possible. If anyone can tell me
otherwise I would be very happy.

Regards
Andreas

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Robert | 1 Apr 2009 18:21
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Solder Paste

Hi all,

I've been asked to shrink the size of the solder paste windows relative 
to the pads by 0.04mm, ie if a pad is a 1mm diameter circle, I've been 
asked to make the solder paste window 0.96mm in diameter.   Does anyone 
know how I might achieve this please, either with kicad or via some 
post-processing stage?

Regards,

Robert.

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axtz4 | 1 Apr 2009 20:03
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Re: Solder Paste

--- In kicad-users@..., Robert <birmingham_spider <at> ...> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
> 
> I've been asked to shrink the size of the solder paste windows relative 
> to the pads by 0.04mm, ie if a pad is a 1mm diameter circle, I've been 
> asked to make the solder paste window 0.96mm in diameter.   Does anyone 
> know how I might achieve this please, either with kicad or via some 
> post-processing stage?

In the board editor, select the menu Dimensions | Tracks and Vias. From that dialog, you can set the global
mask clearance. A negative clearance does seem to work okay, though a verification pass through a Gerber
viewer is always a good idea ...

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Gmane