Overlapped and adjacent pads not connected to eachother

[OutOfMy Pants Canonical]

I have a complex pad shape built of 3 adjoining (or overlapped)
pads with identical Pad Numbers and Net Names. These pads
are not found to be connected - it seems to me that they are
connected and should be without any further action..

Placing a graphic line in a copper layer on top of the pads in the
module does not seem to cause them to be connected either.

It is possible to cause them to be connected by adding a track
between them, but the narrow pads, and their angled placement
make this difficult to impossible without somehow adding a new
narrow trace class... seems like it should not be necessary at all.

JP7 (as well as others) in the attached example demonstrate this.

Info about my system:

Version: (2013-11-11 BZR 4458)-product Release build
wxWidgets: Version 2.8.12 (release,Unicode,compiler with C++ ABI 1002,GCC 4.6.3,wx containers,compatible with 2.6)
Platform: Linux 3.2.0-58-generic x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Boost version: 1.54.0
         USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
         USE_WX_OVERLAY=OFF
         KICAD_SCRIPTING=OFF
         KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=OFF
         KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=OFF
         USE_FP_LIB_TABLE=HARD_CODED_ON
         BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=OFF

Xubuntu 64-bit 12.04 16GB lots of free disk...

[Martin Errenst (imp-d)]

Guess your main problem will be hard to solve - if you don't want the DRC to complain about the "connected" pads.
If you want the DRC to do it's job correct, it'll need to check that the minimum cross-section complies with the minimum track width...
Alternatively, it could accept this as "OK", but you won't be able to catch buggy footprints in the second instance / first instance if you've modified pads in pcbnew.

IMHO the best option would be to allow zones in modules, so complex shapes can be done without building them from several single ones (*hinthint* https://blueprints.launchpad.net/kicad/+spec/layouts-as-footprint ).

In your example files the pad clearances are "wrong", so the DRC spills more warnings as necessary for your ticket.
Anyway, I can confirm your problem with revision 4711.

[OutOfMy Pants Canonical (oompc)]

I would be perfectly happy if the module editor allowed a
complex pad shape to be created as a polygon.

I would also be perfectly happy if overlapping and/or adjoining
pads with matching net names and pad numbers were
identified as connected.

I agree that in either case the DRC should be checking the
pad against the minimum track width criteria. I would be happy
even in the absence of this check.

[jean-pierre charras (jp-charras)]

For *calculation time* reasons, overlapping pads are seen connected if at least one pad center is inside the other pad.
You can easily fix your issue:
1 - Move one pad and place its center inside the other pad.
2 - adjust the pad offset of the moved pad to move its shape to the old position.

For SMD pads, the only one reason to have a pad offset is exactly to fix your problem.
This feature was asked by an user who had exactly your problem.

[Lorenzo Marcantonio (l-marcantonio)]

On Sun, Feb 23, 2014 at 09:02:21AM -0000, jean-pierre charras wrote:
> For *calculation time* reasons, overlapping pads are seen connected if at least one pad center is inside the other pad.
...
> This feature was asked by an user who had exactly your problem.

Very interesting... is this in the manual somewhere? I don't remember it
(but it's a long time I don't read it)

--
Lorenzo Marcantonio
Logos Srl

[jean-pierre charras (jp-charras)]

Not yet.

[Cecill Etheredge (ijsf)]

Just verified that this is still not working correctly, making the use case for test points (where one wants to keep two nets separated - no 1 pin testpoint) unnecessarily difficult.

Despite "easy fixes" such as the above, I still simply cannot figure out how to trace a track from one specific pad if it is overlapped, making a connection virtually impossible.

[Seth Hillbrand (sethh)]

@ijsf, this appears to be resolved by ac095b672. Can you check to see if your issue is corrected?

[Jon Evans (craftyjon)]

In latest nightly, I am able to draw tracks between the pads in the SolderBridge test board and that makes the pads marked as connected.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for KiCad because there has been no activity for 60 days.]