Cannot connect the pasted footprint to others

Yes, especially from gardening.
This retirement is hard work.

@paulvdh:
Thank you for the investigation, my suspicion was the same, e.g. it is a bug.
I want to work with the schematics in the future.

@BlackCoffee I guess you have some more experience with working without a schematic / netlist. Can you confirm whether the behavior above is a bug?

Originally I supposed that I am only who does something wrong and If I did it right, the phenomenon wonā€™t appear.
But now my impression is that it is really a bug because I tried to do different actions (change the layer, switch on the ā€œNot in schematicā€ switch and I donā€™t know what else more) but the behaviour is stable.
The only way is to save - close - reopen the PCB, and than is OK.
It seems like after the copy-paste the copied footprint would arrive into a different world: all the newly copied footprints can be connected among themselves but not to the older ones. The reopen brings them into the current PCB.

@paulvdh @pathfinder

Iā€™m not opposed to Schematics - been using/making them for more than 60yrs.

Some folks have been working with Electronics for years (like me) and have good, well tested Schematic/PCB and want only to build PCB from old Schematicā€™s (used as a Reference). Thus, for some, Adding Netā€™s the way I indicated is a good solution.

With that in mind, Video #1 shows creating a Track, Changing its Width, Creating a NET and assigning the Track to the Net. All done in less than 1-Minute (notice the timer at top of video)

Multiple Tracks can be Window-Box selected or using the correct Keystroke for multiple selects. Doing Multiples will Condense the List in the Panel (shown in Video 2 when I re-select them) but, the NET selector will set all of the selected Tracks in one-fell-swoop.

Video #2 may also be helpful - it creates Net/Netlist, Track-Width, Assigns the NET and sets to use Netā€™s Width. Duplicates the Footprint/Tracks and Pastes it. (Note, I mistakenly selected the Footprint and needed to Unselect itā€¦)

ADDED: Note, I set the Pattern Name to be the same as the Net but, thatā€™s not required - you can assign different Pattern-Names to the NetClassā€¦

ADDED: Iā€™m not quite clear on what is meant by ā€˜Bugā€™ in @paulvdh post, but, I think perhaps Video 2 will address thisā€¦ not sureā€¦

Video 1

Video 2

So should be easy to report. As not lot people are working that way than you should not assume someone else sooner or later will report it.
I am still in V7.

@paulvdh

I am very grateful to you for redirecting me towards the work with schematics.

I have already created a symbol for double transistors and others and started to enjoy the benefits of the schematics driven development.

2 Likes

You will really start to enjoy Kicad to its fullest once you settle into a schematic based workflow :grinning: It will become an absolute pleasure :partying_face:
:mouse:

Have you already discovered net classes?

Now I am on holiday, this is why I answer only now.

I can gladly report that I already know why I couldnā€™t connect a copied footprint to an older one:
The copied footprint has a different net class (namely empty net class) as the older one.
After I set the proper net class for the copied footprintā€™s pad I could connect it to any other pad having the same net class.

I would have a little suggestion:
If I want to connect a footprint (pad) having no net class, the KiCad should enable it and after the connection the KiCad should automatically assign the proper net class to the footprint having empty net class.
Is it a good idea?

Be aware of the terminology. Net defines connections between pads (or pins). Netclass can include several nets and defines the common (physical) properties of the included nets.

Or more concise:
A net is a set of connections (one end of a resistor is connected to the base of a transistor).
A netclass is a set of rules. It defines track widths and clearance around the track.

It is common to have a handful of net classes in a design, but many more nets. All low level signals are all different nets, but usually share the same netclass.

Ok, I understand. But I think everything what I wrote is true if you replace the ā€œnet classā€ with simple ā€œnetā€. I confused them, sorry.

What dou you think about my writings if we use the ā€œnetā€ word?

There does indeed appear to be a bug that does not properly assign the ā€œno netā€ to a copied and pasted footprint. For that, also see the difference between "duplicate"with [Ctrl + D] and ā€œCopy & Pasteā€ in the example I posted earlier. I guess this may be worth reporting on gitlab. Working without a schematic (and itā€™s netlist) is not very common and there are probably quite a lot of small bugs on this level in KiCad. If they get reported, they are often fixed very quickly (between half an hour and a few days).

Yes, it works! The Duplicate copies the net name of pads as well. But usually I want to use the copy for different nets, so I have to change the net of pads anyway.

There are some PCB created without schematic what I want to keep and continue, so now I can work with them if I fill the net names correctly.

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