kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[easyw <easyw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> My question was, you are adding that pad to make your reference for the align.
I use, when the enclosure have them, the mounting holes of the pcb (that 
will correspond to mounting references in the box) to align the enclosure
have a look i.e.
http://www.hammondmfg.com/pdf/1553AA.pdf
> Adding Cu is not nice, since it will be placed in the gerbers also? Maybe Silk.. or other layers.. or comments  would be better for that propose..
I use TH pads normally connected to GND, but you can use a NPTH 
Mechanical hole as a module for alignment
here you can see how I aligned Arduino to its enclosure for Checking 
Collisions
https://kicad-info.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/original/1X/b3ca3668e35d1424285741eb81b4f40cbfc08329.png
Or in case you don't have mechanical hole for locking the board, you can 
add just a target model i.e. a small cross in F.Silks or in F.Fab and 
align the enclosure to that (i.e. center of x,y) and move the target 
cross where you want on your board (i.e. at a top left corner, or at the 
center of your board) that will move your enclosure similary
> So in that other ECAD, what they use as anchor to align enclosures?
Each ECAD has to have a reference point which is normally a mounting 
hole on pcb, that is correspondent to the mounting block on the enclosure
In Altium they snap i.e. a center of a mounting hole of the enclosure to 
the center of a mechanical hole in the pcb

Maurice


On 25/02/2016 17.50, Mário Luzeiro wrote:
> Sorry, I cannot see the videos where I am at moment:
>
> > I normally use anchor pad (which correspond to anchor of the enclosure)
> > Then in 3D-viewer you see your pad with Cu and Silk
>
> My question was, you are adding that pad to make your reference for the align.
> Adding Cu is not nice, since it will be placed in the gerbers also? Maybe Silk.. or other layers.. or comments  would be better for that propose..
> So in that other ECAD, what they use as anchor to align enclosures?
>
> Mario
>
> ________________________________________
> From: easyw [easyw@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: 25 February 2016 16:35
> To: Mário Luzeiro; Wayne Stambaugh; kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] VRML export
>
> > How does the other ECAD deal with that case scenarios? (with the process you describe to align the model?)
> if you look at Altium
> https://youtu.be/1nePePnKGS0
> they do exactly what I do in FreeCAD with my kicad StepUp tool
> https://youtu.be/O6vr8QFnYGw
> https://forum.kicad.info/t/how-to-interactive-align-3d-model-to-pcbnew-footprint-new-tool-for-kicad-in-altium-style/1711
> I was inspired by that video :)
> Maurice
>
>
> On 25/02/2016 16.49, Mário Luzeiro wrote:
> > Hi Maurice,
> >
> > It sounds a bit tricky (however sounds a possible ..tricky way.. of using kicad features.. and there is no imposition on how the users use the features! )
> > How does the other ECAD deal with that case scenarios? (with the process you describe to align the model?)
> >
> > Mario
> >
> >
> > ________________________________________
> > From: Kicad-developers [kicad-developers-bounces+mrluzeiro=ua.pt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] on behalf of easyw [easyw@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
> > Sent: 25 February 2016 15:17
> > To: Wayne Stambaugh; kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] VRML export
> >
> > > Creating a footprint with no pads,
> > > silkscreens, and/or text and only a 3D model seems a bit
> > > counter-intuitive to me.
> > I normally use anchor pad (which correspond to anchor of the enclosure)
> > and I set it as Virtual module attribute
> > Then in 3D-viewer you see your pad with Cu and Silk
> > That pad has also a 3D model associated, which is i.e. the enclosure
> > When I model the 3D enclosure, I load the pad footprint in FreeCAD with
> > kicad StepUp and I align the 3D model to the pad, then I export the
> > enclosure VRML model to be displayed in pcbnew 3d-viewer
> > Enabling or not the Virtual 3D models you will see or not the enclosure
> > just beside your pcb artwork
> > the result is like this
> > https://kicad-info.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/original/2X/0/0b70db5f2bd661b6417bd086cf45035a5fa263ff.gif
> >
> > Or you can build a model with just an alignment cross in i.e. F.Fab or
> > F.Silks and Hide reference and value, and assign to it the 3D model with
> > virtual attrib
> >
> >
> > both procedure can co-exist with the actual kicad format and will give
> > the tool a nice mechanical feature
> >
> > Thank you
> > Maurice