Adding hierarchical sheets later on requires redoing layout

Layout
1

Not sure if this belongs in the Layout or Schematic category as my issue straddles both.

I have drawn a board in both Schematic Editor and in PCB Editor. Later on, as the schematic became unwieldy, I wanted to group parts of the circuit in hierarchical sheets to clean up the look of my schematic. So far so good.

This causes PCB editor to stop recognizing the components (or at least their placement). When I update the PCB from the schematic to realign both after having added the sheets, PCB editor removes all components and places them on the board as if I’m starting out with the layout. All traces are still in place though.

The hierarchical sheets are the only change. I did not re-annotate or change any footprints or symbols. I moved the existing schematic parts to their hierarchical sheets by cutting them from the root sheet and pasting them in a sub-sheet.

Have I now learned the hard way that one shall always begin the schematic using hierarchical sheets? (Anticipating some unasked advice: yes, I will do this from now on.) Or is there a way to make PCB editor maintain the placement of components when moving symbols to hierarchical sheets after having placed them in PCB editor?

2

Search for posts talking about using “paste special” when changing the schematic to hierarchical.

3

Merci beaucoup. That’s what I was looking for.

4

So. It turns out it wasn’t.

When I choose “Paste special” I see this:

Screenshot 2025-04-10 at 09.52.33

and choose the middle option as shown in the screen shot.

Edit: the option referred to in in this here post (“Re-Link Footprints”) is not available somehow. Or is that Re-Link Footprints option somewhere else?

Wrong choice? PCB Editor again lays out all components as if the PCB were first laid out from the schematic. It’s not a big problem. I’ll spend another hour redoing it. Traces are still there anyway and the weather isn’t that great today.

I found this workaround in a 5-year old post. Seems pretty cumbersome and requires me to study a bit longer before trying again. Is this currently the state of the art workaround to prevent moving schematics to sheets breaking the layout?

It’s strange that this magnificnet software package still offers no feature that simplifies something that many relative noobs (and possibly proficient users from time to time also) must run into on a regular basis.

Or is it just that young players should not be facilitated in the errors of their ways and are better off learning the hard way that it is much better to start setting up your schematic using hierarchical sheets? In that case, nevermind. (But wait. What if I later want to reorganize my hierarchical sheets because I figure out a cleaner / better way?)

5

By the way:

Application: KiCad arm64 on arm64

Version: 9.0.0, release build

Libraries:
	wxWidgets 3.2.6
	FreeType 2.13.3
	HarfBuzz 10.2.0
	FontConfig 2.15.0
	libcurl/8.7.1 (SecureTransport) LibreSSL/3.3.6 zlib/1.2.12 nghttp2/1.64.0

Platform: macOS Sequoia Version 15.4 (Build 24E248), 64 bit, Little endian, wxMac
OpenGL: Apple, Apple M1, 2.1 Metal - 89.4

Build Info:
	Date: Feb 19 2025 13:05:44
	wxWidgets: 3.2.6 (wchar_t,wx containers)
	Boost: 1.87.0
	OCC: 7.8.1
	Curl: 8.7.1
	ngspice: 44.2
	Compiler: Clang 16.0.0 with C++ ABI 1002
	KICAD_IPC_API=ON
6

Yes, in Update PCB from Schematic dialog.

See Update PCB from Schematic's match methods - #2 by eelik for details.

7

Thank you eelik. That did the trick.

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