Author Topic: Drawing an arc in 6.0.1  (Read 2211 times)

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Offline ivonenandTopic starter

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Drawing an arc in 6.0.1
« on: February 07, 2022, 08:22:00 am »
Hi Guys,
I need to draw an outline (edgecuts) for a circular PCB with a notch. It needs to look like this:



I come form Altium world and defining an arc like this is simple; you just specify the center, radius and start/stop angles. In KiCad though, I don't know how to achieve this. The arc tool only seems to support drawing of arcs using the absolute value start/stop points and total arc angle, which is really unpractical from my point of view. Sure, I can calculate the points by hand (some sine/cosine), but this seems really unpractical as there will be lots of decimals to input. Also, not very practical if I want to change the radius by a couple of 0.1mm. Does anyone have a better way?

Thanks for any input,
Ivo
 

Offline thinkfat

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Re: Drawing an arc in 6.0.1
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2022, 01:10:08 pm »
Unfortunately, geometric drawing tools are very limited in KiCAD. The best option for creating a precise PCB outline is drawing it in a better tool and exporting it in DXF format, then importing it into KiCAD.

Still, micrometer precision for a PCB outline is not that important. PCB fabrication has rather generous tolerances for routing paths.
Everybody likes gadgets. Until they try to make them.
 

Online Picuino

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Re: Drawing an arc in 6.0.1
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2022, 01:32:26 pm »
You can do drawing first the straight line (with sine and cosine) and then the arc.
Is little tedious, but it works.
The precision needed is not very great. Can you go wrong with an error of 0.1 mm?

Another method is drawing first a complete circle, draw the straight line, delete the circle and draw the arc.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2022, 01:34:17 pm by Picuino »
 

Offline simon mugo

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Re: Drawing an arc in 6.0.1
« Reply #3 on: April 03, 2022, 07:11:51 am »
kicad has shallow geometric shape drawing experience. Export the DMX file into another external software like the fusion 360, make the shape that you really want then import it back into kicad. That way you will achieve what you want in the easiest way possible.
 

Offline simon mugo

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Re: Drawing an arc in 6.0.1
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2022, 12:59:34 am »
I have been using KiCAD for a long time and it is unfortunate to take note that drawing of geometric shapes is much limited and it is practically advisable you do the design in another software like the fusion 360 then import the DMX file into KiCAD to proceed with the design.
 

Online SiliconWizard

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Re: Drawing an arc in 6.0.1
« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2022, 01:06:51 am »
I have been using KiCAD for a long time and it is unfortunate to take note that drawing of geometric shapes is much limited and it is practically advisable you do the design in another software like the fusion 360 then import the DMX file into KiCAD to proceed with the design.

You mean DXF? But yeah, when you need a tiny bit fancy stuff, you are better off using a third-party CAD tool and importing the shapes back in KiCad. A bit annoying, but KiCad is not a general-purpose 2D-CAD software, so that's understandable.

As always with software, users may individually think that their own dearly missing feature would be no big deal to add, but just pile up demands from a few users and you already get close to a full-fledged 2D CAD thing. But sure, the heavyweight commercial software are much better equipped in that regard.
 


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