I’ve updated to v5 recently, which is causing me some issues with editing v4 projects. But that’s another post. A related issue with numbered pins being changed to lettered is below:
In v4 I was able to use a symbol on the schematic and associate any(?) footprint as long as the pin count matched.
e.g., I could use a switched audio jack with 3 pins on the schematic, and on the PCB I could use a 1x03 solder wire pad connector - to run wires from the PCB to the jack.
In v5 the audio jack symbols are updated to have lettered pins. If I associate the 1x03 solder wire pad connector from within Eeschema, the connectivity is lost in Pcbnew. ie, the pads 1, 2, 3 in Pcbnew don’t associate to the T, R, S in Eeschema.
How do I re-establish this connection?
I’ve tried changing the pad number (from “1” to “T”, e.g.) in Pcbnew, but no luck.
This should work, but after changing the pin names you must redo the import of the netlist. Do you have any idea where you got stuck?
In Pcbnew (a copy of) the footprints are saved in the PCB file, but if you want to edit the pin numbers / names in the schematic you have to first create a custom library, then copy a symbol from the default libaries to it before you can edit it.
Eeschema is in some transitional state, and I assume that in KiCad V6 the library managment for symbols and footprints should be more alike.
Also:
Pin count does not have to match. If a footprint has more pins, then the pins without matching names are simply left unconnected.
If the schematic symbol has pin names that can not be mapped to footprint pins you should get error messages though.