Skip to content

DRC rules: Margin cannot be used for board outline

Description

Trying to achieve 1.5mm / 0.5mm clearance around the outer edge of the PCB while avoiding the same clearance around non-plated slots. Scenario:

image

I tried

(version 0.1)

(rule "Edge.Cuts clearance"
(condition "A.Layer == 'Edge.Cuts'")
(constraint clearance (min 0.35mm)))

(rule "Margin outer layer clearance"
(layer outer)
(condition "A.Layer == 'Margin'")
(constraint clearance (min 1.5mm)))

(rule "Margin inner layer clearance"
(layer inner)
(condition "A.Layer == 'Margin'")
(constraint clearance (min 0.5mm)))

But it seems Margin is not considered for inter-layer design rules, so no clearance with respect to margin is possible:

Line on Margin not present on layer F.Cu. No clearance defined.

Is this concept of Margin still applicable?

https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg13838.html

Margin layer is a global keep out which will accept zones and lines (but no text).
The first use is to define keep out areas near board outline.
the keep out can differ from board outline, mainly for edge board
connectors.

If so, Margin doesn't work yet in the new DRC system.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Draw a board outline in Edge.Cuts
  2. duplicate outline group selected items and change all line and arc segments to Margin
  3. add a zone across the entire area
  4. add an internal closed contour as a slot
  5. paste design rules
  6. refresh fill

image

KiCad Version

Application: Eeschema

Version: (5.99.0-7076-g0e44f5128c), release build

Libraries:
	wxWidgets 3.0.5
	libcurl/7.71.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1g (Schannel) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.3.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.3.0) libssh2/1.9.0 nghttp2/1.41.0

Platform: Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW

Build Info:
	Date: Nov 18 2020 22:01:52
	wxWidgets: 3.0.5 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
	Boost: 1.73.0
	OCE: 6.9.1
	Curl: 7.71.0
	ngspice: 32
	Compiler: GCC 10.2.0 with C++ ABI 1014

Build settings:
	KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
	KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
	KICAD_SPICE=ON
Edited by MisterHW