kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Nick Østergaard <oe.nick@xxxxxxxxx>]

2014-07-02 14:38 GMT+02:00 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.

How does one use this? I see it supports zones and graphic elements,
but do these set any constraint on anything, or is this just a visual
layer?

It does not seem to restrict zone fille or a footprint inside a Margin
layer zone.

I was thinking weather or not this is supposed to be used as the
keepout layer from eagle. An example use is seen on the "standard"
boards from dangerousprototypes.

http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Sick_of_Beige_standard_PCB_sizes_v1.0
http://dangerousprototypes.com/2012/08/08/how-to-eagle-keepout-and-restrict-layers/

>>
>> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp