Assigning net to via (Altium dropper tool analog?)

Layout
1

I repeatedly have the problem where a footprint has pads that that are smaller than the via I am trying to use, so the automatic net selection of the via will not work. I select the via location then use the drop down box to select the net.

Is there something similar to the Altium net-dropper tool in KiCad? Is there a better way I should be doing this, rather than searching though a long drop down list?

2

When you open the properties of a via, there is the test Filter: at the top, and an empty line below it. You can start typing to reduce the list, and apparently you can even create a new net name this way.

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3

Thanks for the prompt reply.

I was hoping for something a little more graphical (Like the dropper tool), but its like this more or less the only way to proceed. Thanks for your help.

4

There are quite a lot of people here (including me) who are not familiar with altium, and do not know how that dropper tool works.

An alternative method is to:

  1. Put a via on a net with the name you want it to have.
  2. Edit it’s properties and uncheck the Automatically update via nets checkbox.
  3. Close the properties, and press m to move the via (the cursor does not have to be on it, as long as the via is still selected), and move it to it’s final destination.

If you want multiple vias to the same net, you can also use [Ctrl + d] to duplicate a via, or even draw an array of them (after you fixed the net name of the first of course).

5

In Altium, clicking on an object opens the properties dialog (if the properties pane is enabled), in the upper right is the dropper tool, selecting the dropper then selecting any net on the PCBA design assigns the net to the object. Virtually identical to the paintbrush in MS Office.

In the image the dropper is adjacent to “Net” (ignore “hide preview”, the image is just a screen grab from a web search.

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6

So this “dropper” is analog to a “color chooser”, where you can get the numeric value of a color on your monitor by first selecting the tool, and then clicking on an area with some specific color?

7

Yeah, that is a pretty good analogy

8

Ahhh, there is “V” when in the track tool, place through via. This is even better than the colour picker… is this new in V8? Didn’t notice this before.

GREAT!

9

Manually placed via’s have their net name fixated at the moment they are placed on the PCB, and this functionality has been in KiCad for a bunch of years. I think it was introduced either in KiCad V5 or V6.