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Libraries

 

Greetings, I am having difficulties understanding libraries. I am using KICAD, 5.1.9. I¡¯m trying to create symbols and footprints and I don¡¯t understand how to select where to store the library. I would appreciate some help on this or a pointer where it is explained on the Internet.
Thank you, jeff
Re: reverse engineering with the gerbers #fab-house

 

¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

As far as I can tell, the Gerber viewer in KiCad will allow for gerbers to be exported to the PCB tool. Doesn't this accomplish what is desired?
Re: reverse engineering with the gerbers #fab-house

 

The kicad gerber viewer allows you to export gerbers as a .kicad_pcb
file for editing in pcbnew, if that helps.

Regards,

Robert.

On 21/11/2022 22:27, franciscocmo4ever@... wrote:
does anyone know how to reverse engineer gerbers, and create a pcb from gerbers?

Alguem sabe como fazer engenharia reversa com os gerbers, e criar uma pcb apartir dos gerbers????
Re: reverse engineering with the gerbers #fab-house

 

If the layout is fairly simple:

You could print the gerbers to a file as a pdf, then manipulate that to
produce a bitmap which you could then import to a graphics layer.

You could use that as a guide to quickly lay down tracks

A bit of a faff I must admit...

Andy


On Tue, 22 Nov 2022 10:34:18 -0800
"applewiz2000" <rob@...> wrote:

No,

Importing gerbers directly into a capture/PCB layout package is not possible.

If a small change is needed, FAB3000 is a good option, monthly license.

-Rob
Re: reverse engineering with the gerbers #fab-house

 

No,

Importing gerbers directly into a capture/PCB layout package is not possible.

If a small change is needed, FAB3000 is a good option, monthly license.

-Rob
Re: reverse engineering with the gerbers #fab-house

 

¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

This guy sent photos of a blank board to somebody on Fiver (?) and they produced a complete schematic and layout.

That said, often products use custom or unlabeled components so it isn't always easy.



On 2022-11-21 5:27 p.m., franciscocmo4ever@... wrote:

does anyone know how to reverse engineer gerbers, and create a pcb from gerbers?

Alguem sabe como fazer engenharia reversa com os gerbers, e criar uma pcb apartir dos gerbers????

reverse engineering with the gerbers #fab-house

 

does anyone know how to reverse engineer gerbers, and create a pcb from gerbers?

Alguem sabe como fazer engenharia reversa com os gerbers, e criar uma pcb apartir dos gerbers????
Shield Footprint

 

Is there a way to create a footprint that has an "open" center.

The issue is that if I do a conventional footprint for a shield part, selecting anything in the interior will select the shield as well. I know I can lock the shield footprint, but I'd really like to have an open or hollow center that isn't selectable, that is only select able where I have copper.

--
Oz (in DFW) N1OZ
Re: Unpredictable Track Drag Behaviour

 

Thinking the same I started to pay closer attention to what I was doing,
but no, even if I take great care over where the cursor is when I press
D, it still may or may not do something weird. I have noticed that
once D is behaving itself, it will tend continue to behave itself until
I go off and do some other editing (after which all bets are off as to
what it will do). However, sometimes it misbehaves every time, which
is ... very annoying.

Regards,

Robert.

* Plain text email - safe, readable, inclusive. *

On 17/11/2022 12:31, Alan Pearce via groups.io wrote:
I have always put this behaviour down to exactly which pixel the mouse
pointer is over when i press 'd'. If it happens to be over the join between
the two segments then it thinks I want to make a corner, but when I press
escape and try 'd' again I think the mouse pointer has moved far enough it
is no longer over the segment join and goes into drag mode.


On Wed, 16 Nov 2022 at 15:09, Robert <birmingham_spider@...> wrote:

If I select a track segment in kicad 6, or just hover over it, when I
press 'd' more often than not kicad will create a corner at the point
where I pressed d and then start dragging the corner around. Sometimes
it wont create a corner, but rather it will start dragging the end point
of the segment. And sometimes it will do what I want it to do, and
drag the segment, just as kicad has done for as long as I can remember.
If it fails to simply drag the segment, pressing 'Esc' and 'd' again
will usually drag the segment as required, but not always.

Can anyone explain this seemingly random behaviour please, and how I can
get control over it? Normally I just want to drag a segment, but
sometimes dragging a corner is useful. However, pressing 'd' over a
corner does not (necessarily) cause the corner to be dragged. As for
creating a corner to be dragged, I can't say I've ever wanted to do that.

Regards,

Robert.

--
* Plain text email - safe, readable, inclusive. *
Re: Re-centering the anchor of a footprint ???

 

On Thu, Nov 10, 2022 at 12:21 PM, David Slipper wrote:
Is there a way to move the anchor back to it's original position (other than to guess it by eye) ???
There is no memory of its original position, only its current position. You can place the anchor anywhere you like using Place-> Place the Footprint Anchor in the footprint editor.

If you know where you want the anchor, simply draw a line from the current anchor location (or any other location) and then press E to edit its properties, and enter the location of the endpoint of the line using the X and Y coordinates. Now you have an endpoint where you want the new anchor point to be. Place the anchor at the end of the new line, then delete the line you just added.?

HTH
Re: Unpredictable Track Drag Behaviour

 

I'll take a guess that Jorge's suggestion of "Hi, try G instead if D. It
may drag the segment. I am not sure anyway because I changed a lot of
the standard hotheys to my own." went to the wrong thread. G is "Drag
(free angle)", whereas D is "Drag (45 degree mode)". So whilst I
sometimes use G (when I have components that are at weird angles), it's
D I'm trying to get working.

I realise that what I meant my "creates a corner" wont be obvious if
you've not seen it, so I've attached a screenshot. Here I'm trying to
drag a segment of the highlighted track towards the track marked
D1001-Pad2), but on pressing D kicad split the segment into two and is
dragging the unwanted corner it just created, not the original segment
(which prior to pressing D looked just like the segments either side of it).

Regards,

Robert

* Plain text email - safe, readable, inclusive. *

On 16/11/2022 15:09, Robert wrote:
If I select a track segment in kicad 6, or just hover over it, when I
press 'd' more often than not kicad will create a corner at the point
where I pressed d and then start dragging the corner around.?? Sometimes
it wont create a corner, but rather it will start dragging the end point
of the segment.?? And sometimes it will do what I want it to do, and
drag the segment, just as kicad has done for as long as I can remember.
?If it fails to simply drag the segment, pressing 'Esc' and 'd' again
will usually drag the segment as required, but not always.

Can anyone explain this seemingly random behaviour please, and how I can
get control over it??? Normally I just want to drag a segment, but
sometimes dragging a corner is useful.?? However, pressing 'd' over a
corner does not (necessarily) cause the corner to be dragged.?? As for
creating a corner to be dragged, I can't say I've ever wanted to do that.

Regards,

Robert.

--
* Plain text email - safe, readable, inclusive. *



kicad.jpg

Re: Unpredictable Track Drag Behaviour

 

I have always put this behaviour down to exactly which pixel the mouse pointer is over when i press 'd'. If it happens to be over the join between the two segments then it thinks I want to make a corner, but when I press escape and try 'd' again I think the mouse pointer has moved far enough it is no longer over the segment join and goes into drag mode.


On Wed, 16 Nov 2022 at 15:09, Robert <birmingham_spider@...> wrote:
If I select a track segment in kicad 6, or just hover over it, when I
press 'd' more often than not kicad will create a corner at the point
where I pressed d and then start dragging the corner around.? ?Sometimes
it wont create a corner, but rather it will start dragging the end point
of the segment.? ?And sometimes it will do what I want it to do, and
drag the segment, just as kicad has done for as long as I can remember.
? If it fails to simply drag the segment, pressing 'Esc' and 'd' again
will usually drag the segment as required, but not always.

Can anyone explain this seemingly random behaviour please, and how I can
get control over it?? ?Normally I just want to drag a segment, but
sometimes dragging a corner is useful.? ?However, pressing 'd' over a
corner does not (necessarily) cause the corner to be dragged.? ?As for
creating a corner to be dragged, I can't say I've ever wanted to do that.

Regards,

Robert.

--
* Plain text email - safe, readable, inclusive. *
Re: Re-centering the anchor of a footprint ???

 

¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

This is on my own device foot print, not a library one.
Dave

On 16/11/2022 20:45, Pedro Mart¨ªn via groups.io wrote:

Hi,?
try G instead if D. It may drag the segment. I am not sure anyway because I changed a lot of the standard hotheys to my own.




El mi¨¦., nov. 16, 2022 a 21:37, Jorge Ferreira
<jorgef.tech@...> ±ð²õ³¦°ù¾±²ú¾±¨®:
Hi


I would simply download it from the official repository.

Next time you need to personalize a footprint, do it on copy in a
library of your own, instead of changing the original one.


HIH


Best regards

Jorge




On 10/11/22 19:21, David Slipper wrote:
> I had a need to move the default anchor position of a footprint, but I
> would now like to restore it's position.
>
> Is there a way to move the anchor back to it's original position
> (other than to guess it by eye) ???
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Dave
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Re: Re-centering the anchor of a footprint ???

 

Hi,?
try G instead if D. It may drag the segment. I am not sure anyway because I changed a lot of the standard hotheys to my own.




El mi¨¦., nov. 16, 2022 a 21:37, Jorge Ferreira
<jorgef.tech@...> ±ð²õ³¦°ù¾±²ú¾±¨®:
Hi


I would simply download it from the official repository.

Next time you need to personalize a footprint, do it on copy in a
library of your own, instead of changing the original one.


HIH


Best regards

Jorge




On 10/11/22 19:21, David Slipper wrote:
> I had a need to move the default anchor position of a footprint, but I
> would now like to restore it's position.
>
> Is there a way to move the anchor back to it's original position
> (other than to guess it by eye) ???
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Dave
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Re: Re-centering the anchor of a footprint ???

 

Hi


I would simply download it from the official repository.

Next time you need to personalize a footprint, do it on copy in a library of your own, instead of changing the original one.


HIH


Best regards

Jorge

On 10/11/22 19:21, David Slipper wrote:
I had a need to move the default anchor position of a footprint, but I would now like to restore it's position.

Is there a way to move the anchor back to it's original position (other than to guess it by eye) ???

Thanks in advance,
Dave
Unpredictable Track Drag Behaviour

 

If I select a track segment in kicad 6, or just hover over it, when I
press 'd' more often than not kicad will create a corner at the point
where I pressed d and then start dragging the corner around. Sometimes
it wont create a corner, but rather it will start dragging the end point
of the segment. And sometimes it will do what I want it to do, and
drag the segment, just as kicad has done for as long as I can remember.
If it fails to simply drag the segment, pressing 'Esc' and 'd' again
will usually drag the segment as required, but not always.

Can anyone explain this seemingly random behaviour please, and how I can
get control over it? Normally I just want to drag a segment, but
sometimes dragging a corner is useful. However, pressing 'd' over a
corner does not (necessarily) cause the corner to be dragged. As for
creating a corner to be dragged, I can't say I've ever wanted to do that.

Regards,

Robert.

--
* Plain text email - safe, readable, inclusive. *
Re-centering the anchor of a footprint ???

 

I had a need to move the default anchor position of a footprint, but I would now like to restore it's position.

Is there a way to move the anchor back to it's original position (other than to guess it by eye) ???

Thanks in advance,
Dave
Re: Ground strap

 

Exactly.

Hobby electroinics-wise I go back to when there were NO EDA - No PC's
even. Professionally you used dots and tape, for home use it was the DALO
etch resist pen - happy days...

Lots of people want to "draw out a PCB" just like you would use a
graphics package. For simple home projects there's nothing wrong with
wanting to do that, but you do make things hard by not using the schematic
The system is designed to use one.

Even if you are making up a PCB that simply consists of pads for
breadboarding a matrix of pins on a circuit, with a custom pad design
makes life easy. (Once you know the system that is)

It's whatever the user wants or needs to do.

Andy



On Sat, 5 Nov 2022 10:28:41 -0500
"Patrick Maupin" <pmaupin@...> wrote:

It's entirely possible that Andy agrees with you, and he's simply gently
trying to introduce this flow to someone who may not (yet) agree with you.

I'll bite, though. Sure, if you are living in Kicad every day and have a
library of your favorite parts, it's a no-brainer to do a schematic for
everything.

But if you're not there, the learning curve is part of the complexity of
getting a board out. I've done lots of boards over the years. About half
of them (and, complexity-wise, probably 80% of them) were done via
dedicated schematic capture/layout people using Orcad/allegro, and I just
pointed and grunted at things that were wrong. (Not exactly; more later.)

But if I ever needed to do a tiny widget, I'd simply lay it out in
ExpressPCB, give them $50, and have a board back in a few days. I didn't
need to personally learn a schematic capture tool or a layout tool (it was
really a drawing package), or how to set up board DRCs, or understand which
of 37 files to name properly and package up into a gerber zip file. Just
press a button, enter a credit card, and get a board back. Back when they
were the cheapest fast option for small boards, I probably did 50 boards
this way, and I was happy.

But I always understood the utility of a schematic, although somewhat
differently than most people. I started dabbling in KiCad many years ago,
but I found the interface kind of klunky, and there was still that issue of
figuring out the gerbers.

My transition to Kicad happened gradually. ExpressPCB added their own
schematic capture, which was also really klunky, and I was already trying
to transition to open source for my board files, so I figured out
ExpressPCB's schematic-to-layout interface, so I could do a schematic in
KiCad, get a list of pins out, and use the ExpressPCB highlight function to
show all the pins on a net. Still no DRC, and no automagic stuff, but at
least I was correlating the schematic with the board, and still not having
to deal with gerbers.

So, what is the actual utility of a correctly captured schematic vs. one
drawn on a napkin?

- It's searchable
- It's quite possibly more readable, especially if you add a lot of text
to it
- It can convey intent to the PCB layout program
- IF (as someone suggested above, but I'm not entirely sure this is true)
you need to shut off DRCs in the layout tool when not using a schematic,
that's huge. Layout DRCs are eminently useful.
- Schematic DRC/ERC (but not the built-in one)

KiCad has gotten a _lot_ better over the years, and the ecosystem has
gotten easier -- just give some vendors your kicad project, no gerbers --
and I hate proprietary software for all the usual reasons, so for boards I
do personally, it's been a no-brainer for awhile.

But for _all_ the boards I am involved in of any complexity (and most of
them are done by others in proprietary tools), I script my own DRC/ERC on
the netlist and BOM, because (in my opinion) while the layout DRC is
useful, the schematic DRC/ERC is completely useless. Make sure I need to
connect a power pin to a power pin? Sure, good plan. I used to work in
telephony. 3.3V is a power pin. So is 12V and -150V.

I just mark all my pins "passive" and move on with life and write a script
that validates the intent. This is particularly useful when someone else
is doing the schematic capture, because the script does not get tired of
reviewing schematic changes after the 20th iteration.

So, in your world, sure, I can see that the "correct" flow always involves
schematics. It does in my world now, too, but I did build dozens and
dozens of boards with no schematic, no blue wires, and no sleep loss, so
it's not a universal given, especially for someone just learning the tool,
that they will fail if they ignore the schematic tool and concentrate on
the layout tool to start with.

Regards,
Pat

On Sat, 5 Nov 2022, 03:50 Jorge Ferreira, <jorgef.tech@...> wrote:

Hi


What do you mean by "keeping the system happy"?

IMHO starting with the schematic is the correct workflow, not to keep
any "system" happy, but as the way to avoid costly mistakes on the PCB
design.

Of course that is my way, other people mileage may vary...


Best regards

Jorge


On 04/11/22 22:03, Andy wrote:
It's generally a pain to do things without a schematic, especially as it
takes so little time to draw up a circuit to keep the
system happy.

If you want to do so then, turn off all DRC functions and you should be
able to place footprints as needed, and add the tracks.

Andy



On Fri, 4 Nov 2022 23:12:25 +0200
"barry sandeman" <bgsandeman@...> wrote:

Hi All, retired 72 young grew up with pCad 5 For dos?

Is it possible to manually enter a ratsnest to start a PCB without a
schematic?

PS kicad by
Thanks

Barry


On Fri, 04 Nov 2022, 18:39 Jorge Ferreira, <jorgef.tech@...>
wrote:

Hi


Don't reinvent the wheel.

There are "net-tie" libraries for Kicad.

If you can't find it your installation you can try this one:



HIH


Best regards

Jorge





On 04/11/22 15:37, Jon Evans wrote:

First, if folks haven't checked docs.kicad.org recently, I recommend
doing so. The net tie thing isn't documented there, but many other
things
that I commonly see people asking about on forums is!

Second:

Unfortunately my use case requires KiCAD to have some features it does
not yet have.

Are all these features logged in GitLab?

On Fri, Nov 4, 2022 at 11:36 AM Dan Kemppainen <dan@...>
wrote:

I understand how hacks/workarounds get implemented. Unfortunatly it is
harder for users to find them.

Glad to hear that documentation is getting attention. My biggest
trouble
with a lot of open source software lack of documentation. There's a
lot
of great programmers who want to add wonderful/amazing features to
software. However there are fewer people to follow that up with
documentation/tutorials/videos, etc (There are exceptions to this, of
course). And it's certainly a harder task for software that's quickly
evolving. Of course with everything, limited budgets and limited
people
priorities get shifted...

I think the KiCad team is in a unique position (due to autodesk
takeover
of Eagle), to be making a product for a known target audience. There's
certainly a need for this software, and PCB CAD should be a pretty
mature technology by now.

Unfortunately my use case requires KiCAD to have some features it does
not yet have. I firmly KiCAD believe it WILL where I need it to be,
although that may still be a few years out.

Until then, I'll keep watching this list. Picking up tidbits here and
there!




On 11/4/2022 8:58 AM, Jon Evans wrote:
At the moment, some of these features are only discoverable by asking
how to do a certain thing in a community of other users (or seeing it
done on a forum post / video / etc). We definitely need better
documentation and some folks are working on this angle. The net tie
keyword thing is also a hack, in V7 it will be more
explicit/discoverable.














Re: Ground strap

 

It's entirely possible that Andy agrees with you, and he's simply gently trying to introduce this flow to someone who may not (yet) agree with you.

I'll bite, though.? Sure, if you are living in Kicad every day and have a library of your favorite parts, it's a no-brainer to do a schematic for everything.

But if you're not there, the learning curve is part of the complexity of getting a board out.? I've done lots of boards over the years.? About half of them (and, complexity-wise, probably 80% of them) were done via dedicated schematic capture/layout people using Orcad/allegro, and I just pointed and grunted at things that were wrong.? (Not exactly; more later.)

But if I ever needed to do a tiny widget, I'd simply lay it out in ExpressPCB, give them $50, and have a board back in a few days.? I didn't need to personally learn a schematic capture tool or a layout tool (it was really a drawing package), or how to set up board DRCs, or understand which of 37 files to name properly and package up into a gerber zip file.? Just press a button, enter a credit card, and get a board back.? Back when they were the cheapest fast option for small boards, I probably did 50 boards this way, and I was happy.

But I always understood the utility of a schematic, although somewhat differently than most people.? I started dabbling in KiCad many years ago, but I found the interface kind of klunky, and there was still that issue of figuring out the gerbers.

My transition to Kicad happened gradually.? ExpressPCB added their own schematic capture, which was also really klunky, and I was already trying to transition to open source for my board files, so I figured out ExpressPCB's schematic-to-layout interface, so I could do a schematic in KiCad, get a list of pins out, and use the ExpressPCB highlight function to show all the pins on a net.? Still no DRC, and no automagic stuff, but at least I was correlating the schematic with the board, and still not having to deal with gerbers.

So, what is the actual utility of a correctly captured schematic vs. one drawn on a napkin?

? - It's searchable
? - It's quite possibly more readable, especially if you add a lot of text to it
? - It can convey intent to the PCB layout program
? - IF (as someone suggested above, but I'm not entirely sure this is true) you need to shut off DRCs in the layout tool when not using a schematic, that's huge.? Layout DRCs are eminently useful.
? - Schematic DRC/ERC (but not the built-in one)

KiCad has gotten a _lot_ better over the years, and the ecosystem has gotten easier -- just give some vendors your kicad project, no gerbers -- and I hate proprietary software for all the usual reasons, so for boards I do personally, it's been a no-brainer for awhile.

But for _all_ the boards I am involved in of any complexity (and most of them are done by others in proprietary tools), I script my own DRC/ERC on the netlist and BOM, because (in my opinion) while the layout DRC is useful, the schematic DRC/ERC is completely useless.? Make sure I need to connect a power pin to a power pin? Sure, good plan.? I used to work in telephony.? 3.3V is a power pin.? So is 12V and -150V.

I just mark all my pins "passive" and move on with life and write a script that validates the intent.? This is particularly useful when someone else is doing the schematic capture, because the script does not get tired of reviewing schematic changes after the 20th iteration.

So, in your world, sure, I can see that the "correct" flow always involves schematics.? It does in my world now, too, but I did build dozens and dozens of boards with no schematic, no blue wires, and no sleep loss, so it's not a universal given, especially for someone just learning the tool, that they will fail if they ignore the schematic tool and concentrate on the layout tool to start with.

Regards,
Pat

On Sat, 5 Nov 2022, 03:50 Jorge Ferreira, <jorgef.tech@...> wrote:
Hi


What do you mean by "keeping the system happy"?

IMHO starting with the schematic is the correct workflow, not to keep
any "system" happy, but as the way to avoid costly mistakes on the PCB
design.

Of course that is my way, other people mileage may vary...


Best regards

Jorge


On 04/11/22 22:03, Andy wrote:
> It's generally a pain to do things without a schematic, especially as it
> takes so little time to draw up a circuit to keep the
> system happy.
>
> If you want to do so then, turn off all DRC functions and you should be
> able to place footprints as needed, and add the tracks.
>
> Andy
>
>? ?
>
> On Fri, 4 Nov 2022 23:12:25 +0200
> "barry sandeman" <bgsandeman@...> wrote:
>
>> Hi All, retired 72 young grew up with pCad 5 For dos?
>>
>> Is it possible to manually enter a ratsnest to start a PCB without a
>> schematic?
>>
>> PS kicad by
>> Thanks
>>
>> Barry
>>
>>
>> On Fri, 04 Nov 2022, 18:39 Jorge Ferreira, <jorgef.tech@...> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi
>>>
>>>
>>> Don't reinvent the wheel.
>>>
>>> There are "net-tie" libraries for Kicad.
>>>
>>> If you can't find it your installation you can try this one:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> HIH
>>>
>>>
>>> Best regards
>>>
>>> Jorge
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 04/11/22 15:37, Jon Evans wrote:
>>>
>>> First, if folks haven't checked recently, I recommend
>>> doing so.? The net tie thing isn't documented there, but many other things
>>> that I commonly see people asking about on forums is!
>>>
>>> Second:
>>>? ?
>>>> Unfortunately my use case requires KiCAD to have some features it does
>>> not yet have.
>>>
>>> Are all these features logged in GitLab?
>>>
>>> On Fri, Nov 4, 2022 at 11:36 AM Dan Kemppainen <dan@...>
>>> wrote:
>>>? ?
>>>> I understand how hacks/workarounds get implemented. Unfortunatly it is
>>>> harder for users to find them.
>>>>
>>>> Glad to hear that documentation is getting attention. My biggest trouble
>>>> with a lot of open source software lack of documentation. There's a lot
>>>> of great programmers who want to add wonderful/amazing features to
>>>> software. However there are fewer people to follow that up with
>>>> documentation/tutorials/videos, etc (There are exceptions to this, of
>>>> course). And it's certainly a harder task for software that's quickly
>>>> evolving. Of course with everything, limited budgets and limited people
>>>> priorities get shifted...
>>>>
>>>> I think the KiCad team is in a unique position (due to autodesk takeover
>>>> of Eagle), to be making a product for a known target audience. There's
>>>> certainly a need for this software, and PCB CAD should be a pretty
>>>> mature technology by now.
>>>>
>>>> Unfortunately my use case requires KiCAD to have some features it does
>>>> not yet have. I firmly KiCAD believe it WILL where I need it to be,
>>>> although that may still be a few years out.
>>>>
>>>> Until then, I'll keep watching this list. Picking up tidbits here and
>>>> there!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 11/4/2022 8:58 AM, Jon Evans wrote:
>>>>> At the moment, some of these features are only discoverable by asking
>>>>> how to do a certain thing in a community of other users (or seeing it
>>>>> done on a forum post / video / etc).? We definitely need better
>>>>> documentation and some folks are working on this angle.? The net tie
>>>>> keyword thing is also a hack, in V7 it will be more
>>>> explicit/discoverable.
>>>>>? ?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>? ?
>>>? ?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
Re: Ground strap

 

Hi


What do you mean by "keeping the system happy"?

IMHO starting with the schematic is the correct workflow, not to keep any "system" happy, but as the way to avoid costly mistakes on the PCB design.

Of course that is my way, other people mileage may vary...


Best regards

Jorge

On 04/11/22 22:03, Andy wrote:
It's generally a pain to do things without a schematic, especially as it
takes so little time to draw up a circuit to keep the
system happy.

If you want to do so then, turn off all DRC functions and you should be
able to place footprints as needed, and add the tracks.

Andy


On Fri, 4 Nov 2022 23:12:25 +0200
"barry sandeman" <bgsandeman@...> wrote:

Hi All, retired 72 young grew up with pCad 5 For dos?

Is it possible to manually enter a ratsnest to start a PCB without a
schematic?

PS kicad by
Thanks

Barry


On Fri, 04 Nov 2022, 18:39 Jorge Ferreira, <jorgef.tech@...> wrote:

Hi


Don't reinvent the wheel.

There are "net-tie" libraries for Kicad.

If you can't find it your installation you can try this one:



HIH


Best regards

Jorge





On 04/11/22 15:37, Jon Evans wrote:

First, if folks haven't checked docs.kicad.org recently, I recommend
doing so. The net tie thing isn't documented there, but many other things
that I commonly see people asking about on forums is!

Second:

Unfortunately my use case requires KiCAD to have some features it does
not yet have.

Are all these features logged in GitLab?

On Fri, Nov 4, 2022 at 11:36 AM Dan Kemppainen <dan@...>
wrote:

I understand how hacks/workarounds get implemented. Unfortunatly it is
harder for users to find them.

Glad to hear that documentation is getting attention. My biggest trouble
with a lot of open source software lack of documentation. There's a lot
of great programmers who want to add wonderful/amazing features to
software. However there are fewer people to follow that up with
documentation/tutorials/videos, etc (There are exceptions to this, of
course). And it's certainly a harder task for software that's quickly
evolving. Of course with everything, limited budgets and limited people
priorities get shifted...

I think the KiCad team is in a unique position (due to autodesk takeover
of Eagle), to be making a product for a known target audience. There's
certainly a need for this software, and PCB CAD should be a pretty
mature technology by now.

Unfortunately my use case requires KiCAD to have some features it does
not yet have. I firmly KiCAD believe it WILL where I need it to be,
although that may still be a few years out.

Until then, I'll keep watching this list. Picking up tidbits here and
there!




On 11/4/2022 8:58 AM, Jon Evans wrote:
At the moment, some of these features are only discoverable by asking
how to do a certain thing in a community of other users (or seeing it
done on a forum post / video / etc). We definitely need better
documentation and some folks are working on this angle. The net tie
keyword thing is also a hack, in V7 it will be more
explicit/discoverable.
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