Tame the yellow line: Master KiCad 7 Edge.Cuts

Into that box: guarantee PCBs fit enclosures and speed up the process, with a slew of tricks around getting edge.cuts done fast and well.
UPDATE: ‪@markusofficial9016‬ in the comments pointed out an awesome feature I completely missed: in pcbnew, you can now just select all the edges and Right Click + Fillet Lines. So cool!
It isn't the most exciting layer, and I'd rather be routing critical high speed traces, but it sure can become a big deal when you mess it up. So in this little tutorial, I've collected ways I've found to layout a perfect printed circuit board outline while taking less time and less work.
We'll be using a couple of my favourite, and libre, CADs--kicad and freecad--to chop & rock and get the job done.
I move pretty quick on the easy parts so I won't bore you but if you're new to this: this is video, feel free to pause, I've tried to include all steps even if at a rapid clip--tell me if I skipped anything non-obvious.
If you like these quick tips, let me know and I will take the time to make more :)

[@markusofficial9016]

You can get round corners even easier now. Just select all lines, right click and select Fillet Lines, enter the radius and boom, round corners! Even works for odd shapes.

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

No. Way. This is awesome, damn I wish I'd realized and included it! Couldn't find it in the footprint editor, but it works a charm in the pcbnew.

[@joseppuig925]

Had to pause the video every 500ms to follow such condensed steps, tips and details.

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

oof! Figured people could pause if needed, but maybe every 1/2 sec is a bit much... Actually, I should just dump the steps to some text for reference... will put that on stack.

[@Graham_Wideman]

Board outline as component -- that tip is golden! One tip to add for viewers: Kicad footprnts can include cutouts, which is good for things like anti creepage slots, windows for recessing a component, slots for inserting a card perpendicularly (with finger-traces and solder bridges) etc. However, if also using Kikit for panelizing, beware of the interaction with Kikit's "tool size" that sets the size of router bit that it assumes will cut features like the board edge cuts, but also your internal slots.

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Nice! Also, hadn't bumped into that Kikit issue, a good pointer: thanks :)

[@jesseontiveros5377]

Dawg its videos like this that teach me the most. Quick no BS and showing me new things. Great job!

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Thanks Jesse! I've got another kicad quickie on the way--trying to capture it right now, while I actually get some work done. Hopefully will be as useful to you. Cheers.

[@octothorpian_nightmare]

That was awesome. Liked and subbed! I, for no reason at all, get weirded out moving around the different workbenches in FreeCAD so this was a huge eye-opener there, too.

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

:D ^ This ^ is why I put the juice into making these things: am happy you found it good/useful. As for freecad: have felt much the same. I think about it now like taking my board from the soldering station to the computer for programming, or whatever. Different spot, different work. But I still have trouble remembering where everything is and... c'mon, I thought that "Part" vs "Part Design" thing was going to be temporary, still mix them up all the time. Love the program anyhow. Final thing I'd add is I'm miffed I missed it, but have put an update in the description about this: kicad has a "fillet" function now in pcbnew, which is pretty sweet.

[@KyranFindlater]

great video, quality content, thanks for the tips!

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Thanks for taking the time to let me know, Kyran. Glad you enjoyed! I'm currently spending most time in PnP and ASIC world, but have been gathering some more hopefully useful KiCad tidbits that I'll be publishing soon. Cheers!

[@williammanganaro9070]

I love to take this advice from the masters. I love this content ! Great video.

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Thanks, William! This "master" is always making mistakes and learning (see pinned comment above for a good example) but am really happy when I get to share some finds and they are useful, so thanks again for the feedback. This morning I was actually doing some audio preprocessing/digitizing circuitry, and have a feeling you might have some to teach me in that dept.

[@kenworks6068]

Wow - just found your channel after finishing my first KiCAD PCB. Thanks for using KiCAD and FreeCAD. Sweet

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Awesome! I love FreeCAD but don't have that much experience with it... KiCAD, on the other hand, is definitely my all-time fave in the schem/layout department! Glad you liked :) I have a PnP and another more general vid coming out, but there's a few more kicad in the pipe as well. Cheers!

[@hopelessnerd6677]

Love your content! First time here. Heavy use of pause and rewind, but much better than an hour long video with a little info interspersed with pictures of somebody's cat getting hair all over their keyboard.

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

hahah, awesome, thanks! I'm the same, I like it dense--I can always rewind or change the speed, but there's no "skip fluff" button, so try to keep it to a minimum. Haven't posted in a bit, was prepping and then doing a trip for a conference, but some good stuff came out of that and I'll be summarizing my talk here, plus processing some backlogged goodies, so stay tuned and hope you enjoy. Thanks again for the feedback!

[@johnmccardle]

Human word: I like this Computer, activate subtitles and restart playback at 80% speed! I have a lot of keyboard shortcuts to add to my routine.

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

tiii-dli-doop acknowledged. hah, I appreciate the button boosts but my pre-singularity human bits really enjoy the serialized utterance, thanks :D Also, the computer and I have realized that these mind dumps could use a little support in terms of written references, so I'll be adding cheatsheets/extra text info for this and future capsules. Thanks again for the comment!

[@bigironinteractive5747]

Thanks for this!

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

My pleasure, thanks for the feedback: being useful is the main reason I spend the time on these :)

[@deviantmultimedia9497]

Great KiCad tips here, man. Subscribed. More KiCad stuff would be cool. I wouldn't mind if they were not-so-quick. It's not about the pace- we've got navigation and playback speed for that. I just like to understand what I'm doing rather than copying someone who does. I know I'm probably in the minority camp there so make 'em the way you've gotta make 'em and I appreciate the content either way.

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Hi! Thanks for the feedback, really happy you enjoyed/found useful. Have been trying to find that just-right-pace and I think I've reached max (there's a Wokwi video I did for that channel that's, in hindsight, a bit nuts)... so I was chatting with a friend the other day and she said she's always watching vids at 2x and actually prefers that to slowing them down. So I spun up the wokwi video and reduced the speed: yeah, it's comprehensible, but the experience isn't all that great. So, short version, I agree with you and relax a bit while I keep trying to find that sweet spot between plodding and overload. Thanks again, more kicad in the works, right after the next one, actually. Happy holidays and cheers!

[@stewartmackenzieindaba]

Super useful, thanks! These ~6 mins cause untold forehead palms.

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Hah, that's awesome: always glad to hear that sharing these tricks will be useful to someone, and if it causes the occasional forehead slapping all the better. Slap the planet, lol :)

[@alexscott4277]

This is awesome content, I really like the quick and to the point delivery... Having done this stuff myself, I know how many hours you must have spent to get to this level of mastery!

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Thanks a lot, Alex! I certainly have spent some hours with kicad, and I'm amazed at how much it's grown it capability and ease of use during that time. I'm happy if I managed to distill some of it down: my hope with these vids is that everyone, especially those just getting into EE or kicad, will fast forward past some of that and spend more time making new discoveries and stuff :) Thanks again, this kind of feedback motivates me to put out more. Cheers

[@thegreenpickel]

Your videos are underrated and deserve many more views. If you find time more Kicad topics would be cool. Maybe something with Python.

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Don't tell me, tell the wooooorrrllld!! hah, I jest: thank you very much for the comment. Also: have you seen my very last video? You will be well served in terms of both kicad and Python 😀 And, though I keep promising to release some Pick and Place videos, I actually have at least two more Kicad coming up very shortly. Thanks again for the feedback, Barry. Cheers!

[@Electheo]

What a revelation that you can input math into coordinate boxes 🤯

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Yesss! I use it everywhere but especially when creating footprints/placing pads--it's so cool and useful!

[@IB-qc4iw]

Great! Thank you!🖖

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Cool, thanks for the feedback!

[@bryansiepert9222]

Good shit!

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Thanks Bryan, appreciate the props :)

[@criznach]

Nice! Keep the videos coming! I use the same technique, but with Fusion 360. Nice and repeatable...

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Hi Chris, thanks and will do! Yeah, it's more about the idea than the specific tool but, while I was at it, documented for freecad since that's what I got. Like Mayer Makes was saying below, it's nice to know the techniques we wound up developing are used by others--probably not the dumbest way to go ;-) My hope is that this will keep some from re-inventing that wheel and get more time making cool new stuff for everyone. Thanks again, cheers.

[@sanjikaneki6226]

NICE. I was wandering how you made sure that you can insert the ports in that box since you need to come at an angle + how you sized the holes in the boxes as in PCB hole VS case screw hole.

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Hello Sanji, thanks for your feedback and question :) On the first part, because the overhang of these connectors is relatively small, the angle of attack is as well, so you don't need to add all that much clearance. I've done more complete simulations of insertion than shown here, where I actually angle the board in freecad and manually lower and twist, detecting collisions with either intersection or just a simple (but kinda slow) macro I think I got from forum.freecad.org/viewtopic.php?t=10041 However, the complete answer is: often the enclosure guy handles that for me, lol. For the hole sizes, it's usually some standard size like M3 and I can just use standard footprints for those. Here, IIRC, it was some imperial thing about the size of an M2, so I didn't take any chances and sized the holes much bigger than required to allow for some flexibility (d=3.x mm) while staying smaller than the typical head for the specified 4-24 (d > 5mm).

[@fursino]

Thank you a lot. I found following quite difficult.. too fast and I miss all the basic knowledge to understand what you are doing. Are any other training of you at a much slower tempo? Thanks.

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Hi! Oh, I'm sorry to hear that--I tend to go fast, in general, and I don't want anyone to get bored... but, yes, sometimes just toooo fast! I don't actually have different videos optimized for speed, however on youtube you can go to "settings" on the video (the little gear icon) and then Playback speed, and then choose 0.75 or 0.5 to slow it down. It's not perfect, but can help. Same with the "CC" closed captioning, which is really good here at understanding my mumbling! I hope that helps a bit. Will try to stop running quite so fast in future vids.

[@ISMAIL-tm9se]

what CAD software do you use to see the shape objects in this video? thanks

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

It's freecad--love it :)

[@aspuzling]

Is it possible to modify a rectangle shape in kicad? Let's imagine you have drawn your PCB outline as a rectangle but now you want to make a cut out like the one shown briefly at 2:13. Is it possible or should I redraw the PCB using lines instead?

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Hello! As far as I know, the answer is no. In the raw kicad_pcb file, the rectangle is a (gr_rect ...) object and it can't be modified or even broken up. I tried using the cool "fillet" tool: when you use this on a rectangle, you end up with 4 lines and 4 arcs--so at least it does that. But if you want to keep it rectangular, it really doesn't like setting a radius of 0. So, if you don't mind rounded corners, use some non-zero radius, then just edit the line where you want the slot. Otherwise, you'll wind up redrawing the whole rectangle I'm afraid.

[@aspuzling]

@@PsychogenicTechnologies Thanks!

[@bleeptrack]

Was super awesome to meet you at hackaday Berlin! Thanks a lot for your helpful vids! ✨

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Same: Wish it'd lasted longer but I'm planning more trips to your parts, and *do* hit me up should you wind up on this side! And thanks for the feedback, it's the fuel that powers the videos :-D

[@lars-gunnartengerstrom8276]

Every time someone demonstrates a function in KiCad.. So it takes ages to arrive at What is essential. WHY.....?????

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Hello, to clarify: are you saying it took me too long to get to the point or something else?

[@alaninness8113]

nice if itthe commentary speech was a little faster, !!😕😕

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

hah, I'm going to take that as sarcasm--I was pretty... uhm... snappy in that one. Either way, I'm working on finding the perfect pace, hope you can get some use out of it regardless. Cheers

[@localhost2933]

too fast explained for beginners, not possible to follow all the steps

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Ah, yes, sorry about that... I try to keep things moving quickly so they aren't boring, and tell myself that it's a video so you can just play it back slower, but have realized that sometimes I go too far. I've relaxed the pace a bit in more recent videos and will continue to work toward finding the right balance of information density and pace. Thanks for the feedback.

[@MrRhfinch]

You talk much too fast to follow. Slow down please!

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Yeah, sorry: need to cut down on the caffeine ;-) Seriously, I'm trying to find that sweet spot, I think there's been some improvement of late but we'll see in the next videos.

[@isfandyar3937]

take a breath man you are too fast

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Yep, sorry about that. I'm learning there's a space between keeping it snappy and machinegunyammering :) Trying to do better. Cheers

[@MAYERMAKES]

incredibly useful! Iḿ so reliefed its 90% the same workflow I use, I just shortcut the process in freecad by stamping the whole bock down in draft and draw the pcb outline in freecad-> then export to kicad and import as an edge cut layer. And now I know your approach which would give me more flexibility in the pcb stage! thanks for the tips! I also like how speedy this video is!

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

Hah, awesome! So, you do the whole thing in freecad? I use it a good deal, but am far from as familiar with it than I am for kicad. So: do you squish/2d the enclosure or just look at it from the top? Then draw your PCB outline all in draft using polyline/arc/whatever? And then, how do you export just your PCB outline? As for flexibility, if you don't 'group' during import, you can still tweak everything in kicad I think. Also, thanks for the feedback on the vid and especially the rhythm... it's the speed I'm happy at but need to know what others feel!

[@MAYERMAKES]

@@PsychogenicTechnologies I go to a top down view of the enclosure (just so I can see whats important ) get the shape in draft. Then move it to a new solid in part design and draw my shape parametric as a sketch, I either export that or make a solid the thickness of the final pcb and export it as flattened svg, and import that into kicad as edge cut layer. its harder to make little adjustments for cutouts as sometimes the group has a million members, so I will try your version next.

[@PsychogenicTechnologies]

@@MAYERMAKES Ok, thanks for the explanation. Annoying that it'd convert an arc or whatever you drew into so many little bits. Well if you give it a shot and find you're original way is better, lemme know why... I'm all about the "strong opinions, weakly held", always glad to find a better way.