kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Evan Shultz <evan.shultz@xxxxxxxxx>]

Allegro breaks everything down by layer. I can create padstacks with any
given layer count and do something unique on top, internal, and bottom
layers with regards to copper, mask, and paste (not internal). Per layer I
can set zone connection type (solid, thermals, etc.), zone spoke width,
etc. There are a lot of options. There are also two 'meta layers' of
external and internal which works regardless of layer count so padstacks
are more portable.

https://www.ti.com/lit/ml/mpbgak2/mpbgak2.pdf?ts=1592002537447&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%252F
is an example of a footprint where the paste shape is recommended to be
different than the copper and mask shape.

I would find it nice if there were somehow padstack variations, like the
ability to make a masked, and tented, and mask filled, and conductive
plugged version of a padstack. That would make padstack maintenance easier
since all of those variations are useful in different circumstances but it
avoids having to create separate padstacks of each flavor. Maybe a 'base'
padstack could be extended with some simple options to present multiple
variations to the user, both when selecting a padstack in the Footprint
Editor and when doing a padstack replacement within Pcbnew?

Allegro also generates padstacks as separate files, which are instantiated
into a footprint (and then into the board) as many times as needed.

On Thu, Jun 11, 2020 at 9:48 AM Seth Hillbrand <seth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 2020-06-11 08:35, Jeff Young wrote:
>
>
>
> On 11 Jun 2020, at 16:16, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> If not, we
> need to create one to make sure we have it well defined before any
> implementation can be done.
>
>
> Just to be clear: I'm not looking at implementing it.  But I'd need to
> know what direction we were moving in *if* I were to implement a WYSIWYG
> custom pad editor.
>
> If we're going to allow a shape per layer, then it pretty much needs to be
> a repurposed PCB_BASE_FRAME.  If we're going to do something like Altium
> then we probably just want a canvas with shape tools and the point editor.
>
>
> Hi Jeff-
>
> I think I'd vote for us doing something like Altium and allow the shape to
> be assigned to one or multiple layers (outside of the shape editor).  In
> that sense, I think we can use just the canvas with tools/editor.  Once the
> shape is defined in this editor, we could allow it to be named and used in
> multiple padstacks and multiple layers.  This makes a clearer mapping to
> the various file formats that do implement padstacks.
>
> -Seth
> Seth Hillbrand
> KiCad Services Corporation
> https://www.kipro-pcb.com
> +1 530 302 5483 | +1 212 603 9372
>
>
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