I am brand new to KiCAD - apologies if this has been covered a hundred times.
It seems power symbols are library components in KiCAD. So if I want a symbol with a net name that is not covered by one in my library already, I believe I need to create a new symbol in my library. Is that accurate? So for example if I wanted to have a +3V0 power symbol I would need to make my own by copying another from the shared library into my own personal library and then making the appropriate changes. Is that right? Is there any way to make a generic power symbol that I can edit on the fly for any voltage? Coming from the Altium world it feels very odd to me to have to create a library component every time I want to edit a power symbol’s net name.
What you describe is how it used to work (until KiCad 8.0), which is why there are a lot of power symbols in the libraries – you used to need to make a new one for each rail.
Now, in KiCad 8/9/future versions, you can just change the value of the power symbol to the name of your desired power rail.
Thanks! I just tried to edit the power symbols on my schematic and while for example I was able to have the arrow point at “+3V” instead of “+12V”, it still says “+12V” and “1” underneath that. So that doesn’t work.
But if I place a new power symbol from the library and edit it’s value - that works better and it doesn’t have the redundant net name either. So I think the latest library has tweaked these power symbols to work better. Great! Really glad to see that KiCAD made this change!
Sounds like maybe a pin number in the power symbol. Try editing the power port in your custom library and uncheck the box about displaying a pin number. I confess I never understood the need for that pin number. I guess someone could have a 3 pin connector with all three connected to the same rail?