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At the final stage of the PCB design, I performed an ERC check.

I got the message:

Footprint has no courtyard defined
@(156,718mm, 78,296mm): Footprint RV1 on Front

This is a picture of my custom footprint:

enter image description here

What is the meaning of this message?

SamGibson
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user1584421
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2 Answers2

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The "courtyard" is typically a magenta/purple/pink color in KiCAD, and is the X-Y profile of the device. So if this were say a horizontal potentiometer, the courtyard would show the base, screw area, and the entire shaft.

Courtyards are used to make sure parts will fit together mechanically. They are usually slightly oversized of the actual parts.

The silkscreen is good for legends and labeling components (finished-product information). Unlike the silk, the courtyard is typically not printed on the board at all. It is strictly there so the PCB designer knows "hey I can't run a relay here, because the potentiometer shaft will be in the way."

rdtsc
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  • Thank you for the contribution, but due to lack of experience on my part, i cannot understand what to do in order to fix this. – user1584421 Jul 05 '23 at 20:42
  • Easy, just edit your component (using the symbol editor) and add a courtyard to it. You can safely ignore this notice, as long as you *know* the part will fit as desired. – rdtsc Jul 05 '23 at 20:46
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The courtyard marks an area around a component that you want to be kept clear of other components. KiCad will warn if component courtyards overlap.

If you don't have any components placed where they would interfere with the pot, you can ignore the warning, although Good Practice would be to edit the pot footprint to include a courtyard outline - probably the same size as your silkscreen outline.

Note that ERC and DRC errors are really just warnings to the user, and won't prevent you from completing the board layout.

Peter Bennett
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