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yaqwsx / PcbDraw

Convert your KiCAD board into a nicely looking 2D drawing suitable for pinout diagrams
MIT License
1.16k stars 91 forks source link

PCBDraw does not account for the soldering paste #85

Closed joric closed 2 years ago

joric commented 2 years ago

I want to know where I have soldering paste on the PCB. Kicad 3d view shows that, KicadScripts support that, how to do the same in PCBDraw? KicadScripts example output (note SMD pads are silver but the through-holes are golden):

nrfmicro-Front

yaqwsx commented 2 years ago

At the moment, PcbDraw doesn't support the paste layer. The original motivation for PcbDraw is to create a nice drawing of the board, e.g., for pinout diagrams. Therefore, having a paste layer seemed unnecessary.

If there are valid use-cases for having SMD pads rendered differently, we can add such a feature. But I don't want to implement a feature with limited use-case.

Nevertheless, if you submit a PR adding this feature, I will be happy to accept it. You basically have to modify the function get_board_substrate an extend the plot plan.

joric commented 2 years ago

The valid case is a board preview in presentation, seeng soldering paste helps to spot issues and fix the board. I'll see what I can do. It perhaps would require fixing json templates and adding another color entry (or maybe not ultimately, since all soldering paste is grey).

yaqwsx commented 2 years ago

An update: I am considering a major rewrite of PcbDraw that should allow for custom plot plans. This would nicely address this feature request.

yaqwsx commented 2 years ago

Implemented in fead173.