How to create a footprint with a round pin array

[Sal Hernandez]

1. With your layout open Select Design New Footprint.

2. Set the grid spacing by pressing the g key on your keyboard to the radius of the circle the pins will lay on.

3. Change the rotation increment by selecting the User Preferences Icon on the tool bar. It will either look like this or depening on the Appearance you have selected. On the General tab set the rotation increment to the angle between pins on this part. Select Apply then OK to save your changes.

4. Place pins at (0,r), (r,0), (0,-r), and (-r,0) where r = radius of the circle the pins will lay on.

5. Press esc to return to the Select an object tool. Drag a box around all of the pins to select the pins. Copy the selection and paste the pins off to the side.

6. Drag a box around the original set of pins to select them and press r on your keyboard to rotate the selection.

7. Go the pins that you pasted off to the side and move them into position. Then paste another copy of the 4 pin array off to the side.

8. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until you have completed your footprint.

[Bill1900]

Hi Sal, Thank you for the tip. Last time I did this I did all the trig and changed the grid to get the pins in the right place. Your way is much easier. I have one small correction and a suggestion. First, you have to select View User Preferences to change the rotation increment before you do Design New Footprint. User Preferences is not available under the View menu when you are in the footprint editor. Second, if you correct the pin numbers after you add each group of pins, getting the pin numbers in the right sequence is easier because you won't have newly added pins using the numbers you want to assign to other pins. Thanks again for sharing your method.