kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[jp charras <jp.charras@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Le 02/07/2014 14:10, Lorenzo Marcantonio a écrit :
> At least I got pcbnew compiled :P luckily the new design wasn't too much
> incompatible with mine so probably I'll fix my old files with some
> search and replace...
> 
> What is for this new layer I see? the tooltip says "board's edge setback
> outline"... is that a kind of new technical layer for drc or what?

This is a keep out layer.
Currently an user can place keepout areas only on a given copper layer.

Margin layer is a global keep out which will accept zones and lines (but
no text).
The first use is to define keep out areas near board outline.
the keep out can differ from board outline, mainly for edge board
connectors.

> 
> Also I have seen that the new layer pairs CrtYd (courtyard, I presume...) and
> Fab (fabrication? the assembly layer?) are marked as 'footprint only' in
> the include (there are no checkboxes in the layer bar either for them).

Yes.
courtyard ( and partially fab layers ) is mainly for footprints.
This is the main reason of the comment.

> 
> What would be the rationale for this design choice? I wonder if there is
> a specific reason to not handling them on the main board... In the past year
> I found that:
> 
> - The courtyard is most useful during placement (well, actually it's
>   only needed for that) , so it's useful to see on the main screen when
>   moving stuff;
> 
> - The fabrication outline is often more useful than the silk one when
>   routing: you see the full component instead of the 'mounting bracket',
>   it's easier to stand clear of noisy part that way...
> 
> As for putting entities *directly* on these layers (like text or
> graphics lines) I agree that there is no sense for having them on
> courtyard (you can put text on paste and mask, anyway...); for
> fabrication I never used it but probably there could be some utility for
> accepting text and lines on it (since it's essentially like the silk
> layer).
> 
> BTW I already have the code for the special plot handling for the
> reference on the fabrication layers (i.e. forced visibility and position
> to the part anchor). Need to port the condition to the new layer
> operators but shouldn't be too difficult.
> 


-- 
Jean-Pierre CHARRAS