Thanks for the reply Vinny, you’re always the most helpful.
I’m trying to use donutcat’s tutorial on making a FR-4 mounting plate, but the edge cuts layer disappears after I save the footprint. Any help?
You possibly have edge cuts hidden? Check the toolbar on the right where you toggle what layers you can see
Does autodesk fusion 360 allows for keyboard PCB design? Also, I have a sample of the PCB in hand and wondered the effort to put the dimensions in autodesk fusion 360.
No, Fusion 360 is used for mechanical designs. You could design a switch plate, or even a keyboard case with it, but not a circuit board.
But it does have integration with EAGLE, an EDA package for circuit board design, so you can import the PCB into Fusion 360 and make your designs match without the hassle of manual file importing.
However, it’s important to say that the free version of EAGLE is way more limited than the free version of Fusion 360: you can only use 2 layers (not exactly a problem in most of the cases), 1 schematics sheet (also not a problem), and design PCBs of up to 80mm² (now THAT is a problem for keyboard design).
Is there a free PCB package that will support keyboard PCB?
KiCad is what you want. It’s an open source EDA package that can be used to design keyboards. In fact, all of the Input:Club keyboards were designed using KiCad.
2 Likes
I can confirm what @VinnyCordeiro said, Kicad is really what you’d need and nothing else.
This software is open source and has a lot of development activities. The version 5 is very stable and has everything you need to design a good keyboard PCB. Also given the development roadmap the version 6 will be even better and with really nice features.
For a PCB of the size of a keyboard you’ll have to purchase a paid license of EAGLE and this tool does not have features that Kicad does not, it is just a slightly different design philosophy.
On Kicad you can export in 3D your PCB with your components on it in .STEP format and later import this file in your Fusion 360 project.
This allows you to make a test and fit with your case design and make sure you didn’t made any mistakes in either your case or your PCB design.
You will certainly make errors at some points and it is nice to see these at design stage rather than at manufacturing stage: PCB manufacturing is rather cheap but CNC manufacturing is very expensive.
1 Like
So what do i need to build a pcb am new and want to build an alice pcb
Hello @yeeter,
You first need a PCB design tool: Kicad is a great one and open source but they are others available like Eagle.
Then you need a PCB manufacturong company: JLCBCB is a very good one, other like PCBWay and SeedStudio exist that also offer PCB component assembly.
Now if you want to solder your components yourself you will need a good soldering iron, solder wire, flux, …
Please note that soldering tiny components like Atmel MCUs, small SMD packages or worse USB-C connectors will need a good amount of practice.
If you never soldered before, maybe design a PCB with only MX switch placements and rely on an external MCU board like Teensy 2.0++ would be far easier.
3 Likes
Note that I recommend against JLC for anything other than prototyping work. My orders from them have consistently displayed plentiful visual quality issues and a lack of QC on JLC’s part, this album for example
https://imgur.com/a/6cl7c3W
Does stuff work? Yes, it just doesn’t look very good while it works. If you absolutely need the lowest price and visual quality is unnecessary then JLC is probably an acceptable choice. For work you actually want to look good I’d say ALLPCB is a much better choice with still decent pricing.
@yeeter
As Rico said, you’ll want to get Kicad. It’s a pretty solid tool that I use for all of my PCB work.
There’s also some useful bits at GitHub - mechkeys/mechkeys for working with Kicad, including a Python script that can take a .json from KLE and create a Kicad project from it. This is super useful for oddball layouts or just anything with a large number of footprints to place.
I also agree with Rico that you’ll probably want to go with a dev board controller(Teensy/ProMicro) for a first board since it’s much easier than dealing with the SMD components for an integrated controller.
3 Likes
The defects on you had on your JLCPCB order are not acceptable at all 
To be honest the ones I ordered were clean.
Was it the first time you ordered from them and did you asked for a refund ?
Thanks for the ALLPCB link, I was in the process of looking for a manufacturer that does PCB assembly and it looks to propose that service.
Did you had any experience with PCBWay or Seedstudio?
Thank you very much for your feedback!
That particular batch was about the third or fourth time I went through them. My first time was decent, but the batch before that one also had some small issues with soldermask consistency. The good thing is JLC will at least respond and offer refunds/discounts if there are issues, which is more than I can say for others I’ve worked with.
I’ve heard of both PCBWay and SeeedStudio but haven’t tried them as they didn’t stand out price or feature -wise.
1 Like
Ok, so it happened several times.
I will have a look at ALLPCB, did you tested their PCB assembly service ?
Not yet but we’re looking at them for the Orthoship PCBs.
I have a problem designing a new PCB with Kicad with MX footprints that are overlapping(the Swiss Cheese PCB effect), maybe some Kicad experts already have a solution to that in this forum.
Here are some captures:
As you can see I have a lot of DRC errors:
- Drilled holes too close together.
- Pad near pad
Is there a trick on Kicad to remove these DRC errors ?
Commercial PCBs commonly have this feature to widen the possible layout choice, I guess this is no problem to fanufacture as it is.
I’d like not to ignore DRC errors if possible, they are invaluable to find real design problems.
I believe what most people might do is create a custom footprint for those spots and then just a single switch component in the schematic for that schematic. You also may be able to pick those specific errors to ignore while still allowing DRC checks.
Thank you!
The first solution is a significant amount of work, but look to be the cleanest way to manage the problem.
The second solution is for lazy people like me 
I’ll check if there is any way to do that in Kicad.
Mmm, DRC error filtering is not available in Kicad as of now, so the first method will have to be used.
Also it seems that multi component footprint is the way to go, people are commonly using this technique on the net.
Thanks again for the info @donutcat, now I’ll have a nice moment generating lots of specialized footprints 
Ahoy - sorry for bumping an old thread, but I figured that might be preferable to starting a redundant one.
I’m interested in commissioning a PCB design, and genuinely don’t know where to begin. I know there are some folks here on KT with the skill, so I thought this was as good a place as any to start poking around.
Without going into too much detail, I’m interested in commissioning a USB-C hot-swap TKL PCB with South-facing SMD RGB and 5-pin support. No fancy cuts, tabs, or leaf-springs for this one. If anyone might be down for the project - or know a better place for me to ask around - let me know! Cheers and thanks. 
1 Like