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34m 27s logged

Day 2 of Building Hackpad:

Today I moved from the finished schematic into actual PCB layout in KiCad.
Getting the footprints onto the board
Ran “Update PCB from Schematic” to pull my components (Seeeduino XIAO + SW1, SW2, SW3) onto the PCB canvas. Hit two snags right away:
SW3 had no footprint assigned at all, so KiCad refused to add it (“Cannot add SW3 (no footprint assigned)”).
U1 (the XIAO) had somehow been auto-assigned Module:Maple_Mini — a completely different, larger 40-pin board — instead of the correct 14-pin XIAO footprint.
Fixed both through the Assign Footprints tool: gave U1 the XIAO-Generic-Hybrid-14P-2.54-21X17.8MM footprint from the care package library, and matched SW3 to the same SW_NKK_GW12LJP footprint already used on SW1/SW2. Re-ran the update and everything landed cleanly.

Layout and routing:

Flipped the XIAO to the back copper layer so the board assembles with switches on top.
Spread out the three switch footprints (they land stacked on top of each other after every update — apparently normal) and arranged them around the XIAO.
Routed all the traces: pins 9, 10, and 11 from the XIAO out to each switch, plus GND daisy-chained across SW1 → SW2 → SW3.
Zero unrouted connections when I finished.

Board outline:
Drew the Edge.Cuts rectangle around everything and measured it out: 69.5mm × 68.5mm.

That’s the PCB fully done — schematic, footprints, routing, and outline. Next step is the case in Fusion 360 (still need to download it), followed by QMK firmware setup.

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Comments 1

@RishitJain

that wont work, you are using button footprints instead of keyboard switches, also alot of wasted space (will cost alot more to manufacture)