User-defined PCB layers

[Luis Filipe Rossi]

Would be nice to be able to add extra auxiliary layers at Pcbnew to create a flexible documentation. Also, a standard courtyard layer for both component sides would be nice as it would help to follow IPC7351.

[Lorenzo Marcantonio (l-marcantonio)]

On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 06:20:46PM -0000, Luis Filipe Rossi wrote:
> Public bug reported:
>
> Would be nice to be able to add extra auxiliary layers at Pcbnew to
> create a flexible documentation. Also, a standard courtyard layer for
> both component sides would be nice as it would help to follow IPC7351.

Already working on it. The dev team however has mismatching opinions on
how it should be implemented :P

--
Lorenzo Marcantonio
Logos Srl

[Nimo (nimo-labs)]

Would it be worth posting the opinions here for some user feedback?

[Joan (joanthesparky)]

Has there been any development going on with this?

I'm currently running into a catch-22 here while doing documentation prints for my boards.
I would need an extra pair of layers with Front/Back feature included.
The Eco1.User and Eco2.User layers are nice, as they can be used for anything I want, but they miss the Front/Back functionality that all the other F.bla/B.bla layers have.
The other F.bla/B.bla layers are all having a purpose already assigned, so can't reuse them, as I already need them.

[Jakub Kozdon (fldrivers)]

I think that layers should be freely configurable for full freedom in development. This can limit bugs like this.

Configuration can be:
enabled: checkbox (not needed if layers can be added or removed in layer settings)
side: front (top/component), back (bottom/solder), none > can be used for swapping between top and bottom in KiCad source
name: text box
is routable: checkbox
type: for routable layer same as now (signal, power, mixed, jumper and maybe something more), for non routable layers (silkscreen, solder mask, solder paste, adhesive, milling/v-score/mechanical, user layer (as "user layer" or text box for user input))

Will this be possible ?

[Simon Kueppers (skuep)]

If KiCad wants to enter the (semi) professional market, this is a must. For example I have used EAGLE (...) and Altium Designer before. Regularly we need to draw additional information into the board. For example bond wires to bond bare-die chips onto the PCB (that are printed into a PDF) or 2D drawings that are exported to a 3D CAD tool and extruded in order to build the enclosure.

Since we are soon starting a new company, we would really benefit from this feature, since KiCAD is right now our most promising shot for a modern PCB EDA tool. We are also planning on developing python plugins that we will probably be releasing to the public.

Best Regards

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

This is going to added to the version 6 road map if isn't there already. Internally, the board file format has about 24 undefined layers. We just haven't gotten around to getting them hooked up to the configuration and UI code.

[Michael Kavanagh (michaelkavanagh)]

See duplicate "Create custom layers according to GerberX2 FileFunction spec" [1].

[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1733710

[Jan-Åke Larsson (jalar)]

I would prefer if the standard Gerber X2 layer "Vcut" would be added as a standard layer, mentioned above as V-score.

I’ve recently had panels manufactured with v-cut as vertical separation of boards, and routed slots for horizontal separation, this worked well. Just for reference, the code draws the V-cut in the pcbnew module in the Eco1.User layer, plots the Gerber, and changes the output file to Vcut following the Gerber X2 file format. And as I said, this was handled without issue by the manufacturer. The relevant code is as follows:

##### Generate gerbers for Vcut
if Eco1_as_Vcut:
  pctl.SetLayer(pcbnew.Eco1_User)
  pctl.OpenPlotfile("Vcut", pcbnew.PLOT_FORMAT_GERBER, "Vcut")
  pctl.PlotLayer()
  pctl.ClosePlot()
  # Change Eco1.User to Vcut inside Gerber X2 file, see
  # https://www.ucamco.com/files/downloads/file/81/the_gerber_file_format_specification.pdf
  with open(pctl.GetPlotFileName(), "r+") as f:
    contents=f.readlines()
    for i,line in enumerate(contents):
      if line=="%TF.FileFunction,Other,ECO1*%\n":
        contents[i]="%TF.FileFunction,Vcut*%\n"
    f.seek(0)
    f.truncate()
    f.write("".join(contents))

[Cedric De Wijs (cedric12345)]

See duplicate "Pcbnew: extra layers for defining front panels":
https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1847899

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

KiCad bug tracker has moved to Gitlab. This report is now available here: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/1969