Create a footprint for mounting through the board (cut) in Kicad

Question

I wish to make a footprint for the following component: AG EMCO HV power supply

Now, this component can be mounted through the board and while it isn't a very tall component, I wish to explore this option. I guess a side question is: how much do PCB manufacturers enjoy this feature?

Would anyone know how to make a footprint which specifies a shape to be cut out of the board through all layers? I am not very experienced with Kicad and PCB design in general so this might be obvious. I appreciate any info that might lead me forward here.

Answer 1

The (unfortunate) best solution in KiCAD as of May, 2017 is to edit the footprint, place the cutout in the Eco1.User (engineering change order, which I like for this -- some people prefer Dwgs.User), save the footprint and the open the footprint library in a text editor. Once in the text editor, scroll down until you find the footprint and then COPY the cutout section from Eco1.User, paste and set the pasted layer to Edge.Cuts.

The reason you want to make a copy is that if you ever edit the footprint again in the footprint editor, it will remove the edge cuts and you'll need to re-add.

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Update 2021/01/01: KiCad version 6 (and 5.99 nightly builds) allows you to draw on the Edge.Cuts layer directly.