I'm trying to use KiCAD to fabricate simple circuit boards in the shop using a laser printer, decal paper, heat transfer toner, ferric chloride and double sided boards. I've had good luck in the past using drafting tools and am hoping to use the KiCAD tools to simplify the graphics portion of the process.
Using double sided boards, and primarily surface mounted parts, I use one side of the board as a ground plane. Once etched, all the parts (SM and TH) mount on the copper side. Thru hole parts have the connected pins bent over and soldered to the copper trace side-grounded pins get a hole through to the bottom layer. The surface mount traces intended to be ground get a simple via to the ground plane on the reverse side. After spending several hours acquainting myself with the specifics of KiCAD's schematic capture, autoplace, autoroute, etc. I'm impressed with the software's ability to simplify my tasks. But I'm frustrated with one aspect. Is it possible to simply name one side of the board solid copper and call it Ground? Is it possible to name 'ground' as a net and get the software to ignore routing traces for Ground all over the copper layer? I'm missing some simple aspect to this and am hopeful someone on this list will be able to simplify my approach by explaining the methodology. Thanks for the help in advance.
