Hi.
I’m building a device with a touchpad. I need a grid of pads connected as rows and columns. Rather than laboriously lay them all out by hand I wrote a python script to generate the PCB layout. It works fine. I have square copper pour electrodes connected horizontally and vertically by traces. The python script takes the various options as parameters, x & y size in mm, number of rows and columns, electrode spacing, etc.
Currently I am writing this directly to a separate .kicad_pcb file by running the python command in a KiCAD terminal. I can then open that file and copy and paste the PCB layout into my project that contains the rest of my circuit and ICs.
In the .kicad_pcb file I am labeling the nets for the rows and columns “R1, R2, R3” & “C1, C2, C3” etc (yes, I know, I’ll switch to using ROW1, ROW2, COL1, COL2 
)
In the main circuit the nets coming from the touchpad IC are also labelled R1, R2, C1, C2.
But when I cut and paste by PCB grid into the circuit, the PCB grid is not connected to the nets. I guess they are being reset?
I have to manually select every electrode, and traces in the grid and reassign it to the correct net. C1, C2, etc. which is a pain.
Is there a better way for me to generate the PCB layout than create the PCB layout and paste it in to the project while keeping the net assignments?
I don’t think I want to generate a symbol and footprint from Python, as that’s a bit more complex. I like the simplicity of just generating the PCB layout of a particular size, shape and grid pattern and pasting it in, but I need to find a better way to match the nets ?
Any advice welcomed.
Thanks.
Jon.
(and yes, I’ll put the Python script on GitHub once its finished)
