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I've just been working my way through and getting more experienced with Altium, I've almost got it doing exactly what I need for my design. The last thing I can't figure out is how to define the guide pins that are part of the component in the PCB footprint. The board needs to house these properly because they protrude about 0.5mm below the switches feet.

Here the link to the switch datasheet.

Please can someone describe how create so sort of shallow drilled slots attached to the PCB footprint for these or something similar.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Slots? For what? On the recommended footprint I see 6 pads and 2 holes. What's hard about that? \$\endgroup\$
    – Majenko
    Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 0:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ Well my boards two layer so I kinda didn't want them going straight through but sitting x deep into the board? \$\endgroup\$
    – Krystian
    Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 0:12
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    \$\begingroup\$ In general, you wouldn't. You'd just use holes. Doing partially drilled holes and slots is something that very few fab houses would do. It's very much a specialist job. \$\endgroup\$
    – Majenko
    Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 0:14

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The best approach is to use unplated (non-plated) holes, although these usually cost more during PCB fabrication than plated holes because it requires an additional operation. When drawing the holes you may want to specify a negative solder mask expansion and/or use a keep out. Otherwise some of the automated DFM checkers will complain about isolated copper in the middle of the hole.

Another hint: when building the PCB footprint, try to find the 3d (STEP) model of the switch, and include it. That is a good verification that the holes are in the right place relative to the pads.

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