You’ve got your Schematic done, imported your DXF edge layout (see here) and laid out your components – now you need to connect them up! One key thing to remember is to change your trace width.
By default KiCad (as of version 5.1.8) defaults trace width to 0.250mm / 9.84 mils. Whilst this is useable, it’s also very thin and prone to easy breakages. You’ll find on the many discussions online about this that everyone has their own opinion – and this is purely ours – but we find a trace width of 0.500mm / 19.69mil to be great for both power and signal traces.
Now – we need to say, there maybe times where you need to use a smaller trace as the board is highly populated and there simply is no room – that’s fine, just don’t go below 0.250mm / 9.84mils.
Changing the trace width
It’s super easy to do! With PCBNew open, in the top left area of the screen you will see the trace width selection drop down:
Click on it then select edit pre-defined sizes:
In the next window, ensure you have Tracks & Vias selected, then click the + button under the column:
In the new field input 0.500 and then click OK
Now if you click on the drop down menu for trace width selection again, you’ll see your new trace width has been added to the list:
Simply select it – and you’re good to go!
It’s worth pointing out – KiCad will sometimes jump back to the 0.250mm selection, so keep your eye on it. The pic below shows the difference in size between the two widths on screen.
