As of now KiCAD uses a 16-bit bitfield for layers although work is apparently underway to fix this.
Your request for a stackup file should probably be merged with https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/961533. I filed the ticket a long time ago and got too busy with school stuff to implement it. On Wed, 2014-06-04 at 20:48 -0400, Jean-Paul Louis wrote: > Lorenzo and all, > > I see in your last very descriptive email, that the number of copper layers > seems to be limited to 16. > > Does that mean that my 20 layers backplane will have to use 4 custom layers > that really will be copper. > Will the routing of those custom layers be even possible? How pcbnew will > treat those 4 new layers? Will I be able to have vias that connect to those > layers? > > High speed digital systems routinely have backplanes with 20 or more layers, > and a thickness varying from 3.2mm to 6.35mm. And due to the need for > impedance controlled layers, there are quite a few power layers to generate > strip-lines, and other distributed constant lines, so vias with thermal > relief are also needed with a way to edit the way the thermal relief is done > (signal versus high current). I have not found a way to create thermal relief > in vias. Is it described somewhere? > > Could we use a PCB stack-up file that would define a set of attributes for > each layer. The attributes would be a Layer ID, Layer Type, Layer Position in > the stack, Usage that would let us know is it is a physical layer (Board > blank, Copper, Solder Mask, Solder Paste screen, Silk Screen, etc..), or a > documentation layer (Assembly drawing, BOM, ECO1-N, etc..). > > It might be too late now, as you might have good reasons for not changing > (too much code relying on existing stack-up), but that would definitely > increase the strength of KiCad. > > Jean-Paul > AC9GH > > > On Jun 4, 2014, at 6:06 PM, Lorenzo Marcantonio <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > On Wed, Jun 04, 2014 at 05:29:48PM -0400, Jean-Paul Louis wrote: > >> Edge.Cut was not an obvious candidate for me, but I can live with that > >> name, but I think it should one of the mandatory layers, not a user > >> defined one. Every PCB will need an outline, and circles and arcs would be > >> nice if allowed in outlines. > > > > It's *extremely* mandatory and it has a lot of special cases, don't > > worry about that... arcs are allowed in outlines (however you can only > > draw arcs of 90 degrees, now...) > > > >> About the height of the parts, I agree with Tom that this should be a > >> field in the Footprint itself, as that’s where the physical info > >> (dimensions) of the part (pads, holes) is/can be stored. Height of the > >> part is very important for placement machines, and is used to define the > >> sequence of parts, i.e. the tallest parts are placed last. Usually not an > >> issue with chip shooters, but down the line, it is critical for the IC and > >> Odd Shape placer/inserter. > > > > I think is better to use the IDF info (or, conversely, use that value to > > build a 'default' IDF from the assembly drawing). And anyway these are > > problems appearing looong way after the layout process, I don't think we > > should care. Machine operators know better than you and me. And have > > very expensive software provided with the very expensive machine to do > > these consideration. > > > > Otherwise the first thing you'll have to do is to sort the drill tape > > for minimum travel...without knowing how the mill is tooled, of course. > > > > > > -- > > Lorenzo Marcantonio > > Logos Srl > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > > Post to : [email protected] > > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > Post to : [email protected] > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp -- Andrew Zonenberg PhD student, security group Computer Science Department Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute http://colossus.cs.rpi.edu/~azonenberg/
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