![]() I know that it seems a quite complex process, but when you do it ones, next time will be so easy compared to all the checking needed for a manual 3D manipulation, that you will not come back IMO to old way at least that was for if you send me the DXF I could convert it to the daughter footprint and board … place your daughter board in your pcb design and see in 3D-viewer the 3D as a daughter model of your design… and if you move it all the connectrs will follow the footprint.open the footprint of the daughter board with kicad StepUp, import the 3D model of the daughter board itself and visually align it (if needed) to the footprint save the updated and aligned 3D model again to STEP and wrl.open the kicad_pcb board in kicad StepUp and save the STEP and wrl 3D model of the populated daughter board (you will need 3D STEP models of your connectors).create a new pcb board importing again the dxf but this time assign the layer to Edge if your dxf is good you could see your pcb in 3D-viewer manually add to this pcb the connector that are needed for mechanical purposes and save it. ![]() import dxf in module editor in Front Silk to have the margin dimensions and connector positions add mounting holes where needed and save it as a kicad footprint module that will be used in your board to position the daughter board where you need it.If you have a dxf then everything can be just fast: Typically you need just the edges with mounting holes and connector positions… The best of creating a 3D model of your daughter board is that, after fist attempt, you will find that this method is really fast and reliable… ![]() At this point I’m only using 4 of those 7-8 connectors so hopefully I can just be careful and place the foot prints over the graphics and keep it is a good method for simple mechanical situations… but if you try to have a 3D module of your daughter board, next time you will not come back Importing the DXF files has challenges, but in effect having the mezzanine footprint in a single a graphics layer seems to be the easiest. It would appear that making all elements of the daughterboard a single footprint somewhat is required so that you literally have to go into the footprint editor to alter the locked relationship and you can not do that in the layout.įrom here there are various implications as to exactly how to incorporate the various elements with symbologies seeming to be the most straightforward. I want a method to insure that following a layout of the main board, that I had not inadvertently shifted one of the element of the daughterboard footprint. In my case I have a daughter board footprint is that relatively complex (4 mounting holes and 7-8 fine pitch connectors). Your manual method obviously does not do that. Being able to simply check one index on the layout and be sure that the entire mezzanine footprint is locked is what this question is about. Not having to be extremely careful is the objective. In this case extremely careful means taking an inordinate amount of time to check and recheck after every time you think you are at a final till you eventually forget and make a mistake and invalidate the whole PCB design without even knowing it. ![]() I guess it almost goes without saying that a manual process you describe would work if you are extremely careful. Making the connector references electrical (PTH) causes schematic problems (they have to be on the schematic) and I’m still not absolutely sure that having a NPTH on top of a NPTH is a good idea and I don’t think having a NPTH on top of a PTH is very good either.ĮDIT: I reread your comments and the “EXPLODE” is another step separate from the save as R12? Again I’m not familiar at all with these CAD packages. I’m using some graphics now as Joan had used above but I don’t really like it. Right now I can have my daughterboard footprint well placed and inadvertently move one of the correctors(because they are all separate). This is kind of an interim solution anyway, I was mainly looking for ways to locate mounting holes in my daughterboard footprint so I can’t move the connector holes without shifting the entire footprint. I’ll just have to get back to this later. As it turns out I don’t need them and the ones I do need are now located in my layout (as long as I don’t move them). Thanks for the extra effort as mentioned above I did use LibraCAD to save in a R12 format and I then still lost pin graphics. ![]()
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