[sdiy] Pulsonix PCB design software

[Gordonjcp]

On Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 08:47:14PM +0100, Mrs Paula Anne Maddox wrote:
> Pete,
> 
> Thanks, I'm starting some new probes so I'm considering using kicad  from the start, the only but that worries me at the moment is defining my own foot prints for parts. I had a couple of hours with it earlier and I was surprised how quickly I picked it up. 
> 
> Paula

This is one of the things I've never understood when people say "but <my
favourite package> has a zillion footprints and libraries!" - yes, but
how many of them are useful?

Beyond boring discretes I pretty much draw all the components I use in
Kicad from scratch, particularly the schematic symbols, because I want
them to look a certain way.  For example I've got about five or six
functionally identical but visually different STM32F103s because how I
want the part to sit in the diagram depends on the surrounding circuit.

A lot of the components I use don't necessarily come with a footprint
for any CAD package so I'll just quickly draw it out from the diagram in
the datasheet.  In some cases (some little Omron relays we use at work
spring to mind) the parts as supplied have two slightly different pin
spacings because they stock an "equivalent" so it's easy enough to just
add a couple of "funny shape" pads to accomodate them.

It's very quick and easy to just rattle together a part if it's
something you don't have, far more so than wading through thousands of
parts that are almost but not quite the right thing.

-- 
Gordonjcp MM0YEQ