KiCad 5 #12 Creating new Footprints

[@jon87386]

Your videos on KiCAD have been invaluable to me. These may not have millions of views, but to almost everyone watching them, they're a godsend. Please keep making them (as you see fit). As for me--I'm not making a new part, but fixing a poorly made footprint.

[@JohnsBasement]

Kind words indeed. Thank you!

[@Harley492]

John, Thank you immensely. You have an uncanny gift for teaching clearly. I don’t know what it is, but when I’m stuck in an engineering problem i frequently ask myself “what would John do?”, and the answer uncannily presents itself to me. Almost like your a copilot and I can mentally recall clearly your voice and everything is fine.

[@JohnsBasement]

Thanks! I remember how frustrating it was when I was learning all this stuff the first time. I'm glad to know that I might be helping others avoid some of that experience by posting these tutorials.

[@bocoroth915]

I have to re-watch this every time I need to make a footprint in KiCad. Thanks for the video!

[@JohnsBasement]

You're welcome!

[@georgewashington421]

Great presentation. Easy to follow and implement. Cleared up the 'Footprint' assignment process!! Thanks

[@JohnsBasement]

And thank you too for sayng so! Glad I could help.

[@ruffrecords]

Hi John, It looks like E-switch, unlike many part suppliers, show the PCB footprint from the TOP of the PCB. Unfortunately there are all to many part suppliers that insist on showing PCB footprints from the BOTTOM of the part. Rotary switch manufacturers are notorious for doing it.This means you have to mentally MIRROR the pins when creating a new footprint. Cheers Ian

[@tianmingguo8271]

Thank you, sir. I am new to KiCAD and just have a project needs this switch. I am so lucky that I find your tutorial. I learned a lot.

[@andymouse]

I'm loving this series ….today I see how you structuring your library's, which is great and although the footprint editor is abit whacky, after awhile (and leave the Guinness alone) it becomes second nature and you make a good point about doing stuff in order else ya gonna get lost the first time ….thanks I look forward to more!

[@someoneyouusedtoknow]

Thank you for making the videos! I've been teaching myself KiCAD and all of these have really helped me out.

[@therishabhpatel]

Great tutorial. The way you managed to explain some tricky parts of KiCad is very appreciated. It helped me a lot. Thank you.

[@JohnsBasement]

You're very welcome!

[@teeterfarmtech5955]

Good stuff! Completely new to this but has given me the confidence to take a stab at making my own footprints for custom components. Thanks!

[@JohnsBasement]

Go for it!

[@davelapp4740]

Good series. Thanks for doing it. I find your videos to be more useful than others. I'm trying to learn Kicad and I've watched a few. Some are good but many are a waste of time. Yours are as good or better than any of the others, in my opinion. The series is more comprehensive and better organized.

[@mekuranda]

Hi John, Great detail and essential content - I have not fully committed to KiCad yet - but going to have a good go very soon- I made many attempts in the past, however the word is that Ver 5 is much better (but your comments mirror my own in some ways - what were they thinking, or couldn't one branch consult or just look at what the other did - talking Schema and PCB branches) - if I will be successful in getting through a project with KiCad - this one video will be the difference. I have pretty much watched everything I can to date from other KZbinrs and this one strikes me as being the most fundamentally important to get a project done. I will be watching this again and again to try to embed the system logic (???) into my aging head - thank you so much for this video and look forward to not only your next one, but will put re watching your earlier videos - you rock :)

[@mekuranda]

Oh I meant to say too that you touched on something that always had me on the left foot - the library structure - in various other KiCad tutorials they described the new Library features in Ver 5.0 - but I think your detailed PCB library treatment was unique - re watching this section may just give me the "big picture" of what and how it all works - in the past my confusion of what and why something needed to be done was just too vague or convoluted - I know it is boring stuff - however with out understanding and intuition - any creation juices in me just dry up! - Again thank you for going to the trouble - brilliant content.

[@zeeebrenn]

Great tutorial. Thanks for making this. Very frustrating not knowing that the footprint library is not added to the global library list. Drove me nuts the first time I tried to save my new footprint, couldn't see my new footprint library.

[@kasparneuenschwander9291]

Hi John This is really a great series. I hope you will continue. A proposal for a coming chapter: What do you do in Pcbnew when components share the same package but are electrically identical? Like e.g. a 74HC00, which contains 4 identical NAND-gates? What do you do if you assigned the gates in a way that makes routing tracks in Pcbnew difficult or impossible? Is there an easy way to reassign? Thanks again for your work!

[@JohnsBasement]

Yes! Thank you for asking. I am working on that right now. Covering all of the issues that can crop up with multi-unit synbols takes a few episodes. I hope I can keep it interesting enough for everybody.

[@wizard-of-other-oz]

Actually you can put the pad wherever you want, and in its Properties dialog (click E when the cursor is above the pad) just enter proper Position X and Y coordinates. Much easier than counting small dots. Also, to finish any last line in a sequence you can just double-click. Saves clicking the Esc.

[@albertroswell]

very good video thanks!

[@JohnsBasement]

Thanks!

[@user001sg9]

Hi John, thanks a lot for this wonderful video I am learning a lot from your tutorials. Here, I have a question though: While marking the pace required by the switch on the PCB, you first drew the switch body outline (rectangle) on the F-silk. You then overdrew the same rectangle with courtyard lines and proceeded to draw the courtyard for the shaft of the switch. Whereas I understand the purpose of the courtyard drawing, my question is why did you draw the body (rectangle shape) of the switch on the F-silk in the first place only to cover it with the courtyard lines later? Please excuse the triviality of my question but please understand I am a beginner.

[@JohnsBasement]

The fsilk is printed on the pcb so a person assembling the board cam see how the body should be put on the board. The court yard is so I can run the DRC on the PCB and know nothing was placed too close when laying out the board. KiCad does not (yet?) have 3D courtyards. So including the shaft will also account for mid-air collisions. I probably should have included the shaft on the fsilks too.

[@hopelessnerd6677]

Please update this excellent video series to version 7 of Kicad. Things have evolved wonderfully since version 5, and a lot of the annoying things you used to have to deal with are gone.

[@suadcokljat1045]

15:09 On windows when I draw a line and then left click on it, nothing happens. Cannot highlight (grab) and edit a line as you show (drag line ends to make it shorter or longer). Only way I found is delete a line and draw again or edit line by entering values on keyboard. Cheers. S Edit: looks like it's a bug. I switched to schematics and moved few lines, than when I came back to footprint editor, line selection worked. But, moving selection with arrow keys stopped working. It looks windows version is bugy...

[@JohnsBasement]

🤔 I wouldn't know the status of the Windows version. But even when it requires a few work arounds of its rough edges, it remains an incredible value for the price!

[@mykalimba]

I've just started using KiCad myself so I'm no expert, but I believe it's asking you for a library whenever you save the footprint because there is no active library (even says so in the window title). If you set your footprint library as the active library it should stop asking you for that, I believe.

[@marceloandrade225]

Great

[@simonndungu1196]

nice one

[@Berghiker]

How do I change my current project directory?

[@JohnsBasement]

In what context do you mean? The project directory is where the kicad .pro file is.

[@Berghiker]

@@JohnsBasement I had C:\ and now I changed it to D:\. Got it right eventually.

[@JamesMorningstar]

Perhaps not important to the topic, but would it not be a good idea to name new footprints prefixed with what they actually are, instead of just a part number, to make it easier to search for? For example, instead of PBH2UOANAGX, name it something like DPDT_PBH2UOANAGX, so it shows up when you search for dpdt?

[@JohnsBasement]

There is much opinion as to how manage a part library. I'm sure I could have done better. At a minimum, however, you DO want the manufacturer's part number in the name if it is something as unique as the part I did here

[@JamesMorningstar]

@@JohnsBasement , right, and I do not disagree. But while designing a circuit, I find it much easier to be able to search for the type of part I am needing first, then have the part numbers available to choose from. What I find works best is simply a name for what it is, then underscore, then (optionally) package type for some items (SIP, DIP, SMP, SMD, NO, NC, etc.), then the part numbers as a suffix on the end.

[@JamesMorningstar]

@@JohnsBasement , by the way, I love this video. It is precisely what I was looking for. I can add in existing parts, sort and organize libraries, and most else, but not as familiar with how to create new component footprints and models yet. My suggestion was intended to try to be helpful, not in any way intended as criticism.

[@JohnsBasement]

@@JamesMorningstar I agree wirh al of the above. Critical comments are welcome here. I'd be a fool if I didn't think I had much to learn too. At some point I am probably going to have to review all the public info on symbol lib organization and make my choice for the long run. I'm still cobbling things together myself. For example, Digikey's file management forces an annoying flood of symbol libraries... while footprints remain sane. This is due to how KiCad symbol libraries were designed with multiple symbols being put into each physical library file. (Multiple symbols in one file = unreasonable for making contributions and version control.) I hope V6 will make symbols & footprints work the same way where a directory represents a library and that each file under the directory represents one symbol/footprint. With that, a community managed archive will be MUCH easier to manage... And naming will become critical. I think the KiCad footprint recommendations work OK. Is there a working group on symbols & library management out there?

[@ATS3788]

I still use Eagle and I make a new Part in seconds, until this procedure is not easier with KiCad I don't switch !

[@JohnsBasement]

I opted to do the first examples manually. There are helper apps for making regular footprints. But unless you know how to do them manually, you might have trouble with finishing touches and irregular things.

[@qbitsday3438]

you sound very much like ArtBell "CoasttoCoastAM"

[@JohnsBasement]

😂