When I’m editing a footprint, I naturally want to add padstacks. For the padstack menu item, my only choices are either all top layers or all bottom layers (copper, paste, solder mask for each). I can’t select both top and bottom. So maybe I don’t understand how it’s supposed to work. I thought I’d get the choice of top, bottom, and various layers for each (for example, silkscreen).
Am I misunderstanding, or is the footprint editor broken?
A follow-up question… One of the parts I created myself is a module that is a TFT video screen. The module has 4 mounting holes, but it also has plenty of pins so that you don’t really have to use the mounting holes (I’m not planning to). The mounting holes are round and about 4mm in diameter.
When I created the part, I made the mounting holes non-plated-through holes. In my projects PCB layout, when I use that part, I get a design rule violation because the hole is way too big. If I go back to the part page and either put the mounting holes only on the silkscreen layer, or if I remove them entirely, then my project DR problem goes away.
But suppose I make another project (or someone else does) where I use that part and I do want the mounting holes on the project board. If I have them only on the silkscreen layer, they’ll be printed and won’t be holes. I can place holes in my project board at the right locations, but that doesn’t seem like the right way to do things.
My question is … how should I handle this situation for that part so that the part is reusable?
Lacking any other answer, I duplicated the part for that module. One is “with mounting holes” and the other is “without mounting holes”. That seems inefficient, but I couldn’t work out a better way on Upverter.