Courtyard rules for connectors

[fruchti]

KiCad specifies:

The courtyard should include any extra required clearance for mating connectors (for example).

which IMO makes a lot of sense to adopt. Some thoughts from my side:

• If there are multiple possibilities (e. g. vertical and right-angle screw terminal plugs for a terminal block) occupying a different amount of space on the PCB, there should be alternate packages differing in their courtyard polygons.
• Do we only consider the “full plugged” state or also the space needed to remove or insert a plug?
• It makes sense to exclude connectors which have to be edge-mount here. What about connectors which are primarily used on a PCB edge? It is relatively easy to consider the space needed for a SD card, but estimating a plugged USB cable's courtyard effect would be near impossible.

[atoav]

I would consider the "entry lane" for right angle connectors at least. If somebody knows what they are doing and tries to shave off a few milimeters, they can ignore the courtyard, but let's make the safer route the default.

I don't think this has to be precise. It should be a slightly pessimistic guess. It should just make users aware that this area should be free of high obstacles. If somebody e.g. uses a right angle usb connector they can again shave some space off, but they again need to be aware of this decision.