Kicad 8 Windows 11
Please note: I make symbols for my purpose as I do know actual standardised ones exist.
As in the image I had an existing symbol for years and wanted to colour. I coloured it but it will no render correctly once coloured. First, most of the lines disapear then they comeback and I loose Pin names once on the schematic.
I also created a new one next to the existing one and it also rendered incorrectly.
Any ideas.
Why?
Using actual pin layout for schematic is a horrible practice. It makes your schematic difficult to read because wires are going everywhere. If I look at the standard symbol for a CD4066, then it has all the switches separated, which allows for much better and more readable schematics.
But I’ll leave it at that. It’s your schematic.
How did you do:
KiCad does not have a Z-order. KiCad’s developers apparently think this is a fancy extravagance only useful for … “Other types of graphic programs”?
Because I also see the outside of your box disappearing, I guess you drew a separate rectangle over it. If I:
Then you see that the rectangle and it’s yellow background color is a single object.
Paulvdh thanks for the response,
I don’t always but here are some reasons as to why I roll my own;
IMPORTANT this is not an argument or something to discuss, Whilst I’m always blown away by Kicad I don’t use it often enough. I always have to relearn it. So it’s just my reasoning from the past.
1- You can fit more on one A4 page and yes and no not always have to have more wires everywhere.
2- I’m the only one to ever read the schematic. Hobbyist, once every few years no background in this what so ever. Last used was around 2 years ago and odly enough in the screenshot My 4066
is yellow. It may have broken in an upgrade. See 3.
3- I have minimally used Kicad 4,5,6,7 and have it broken symbols on upgrades. I have had old schematics open without any symbols other than the ones I created, and rescue didn’t quite work.
It’s just sometimes quicker for me to just hack something up knowing that it has a good chance of surviving upgrades, for example this yellow modification on saving or just the upgrade to 8 has broken my Symbol Library with 7 or other.
4- It can be sometimes quicker to fault find and modify.
5- As said it’s just sometimes quicker to hack something up fit it all on an A4 print or 2. I’m the only one to use it.
6- In the image below it’s easy for me to understand using both Standard sybols my own.
Onto the colour rendering issue at hand.
Outstanding, over half an hour wasted in the past when all I had to do was select the box above the one I was using. Thanks Paulvdh, much appreciated.
I frequently use A3 size for the schematic so the whole schematic fits one sheet. This is still readable if printed to A4 paper.
To change schematic size settings, go to:
File > Page Settings - Paper - Size
Thanks, I’ll try that next time.
I had been looking at your schematic for several minutes without any sort of understanding of what it is or how it works. Even more minutes later I realized it it’s some kind of multiplexer, and the Nand gates are some flipflop, probably to keep the multiplexer in some state.
Then I spent some time redrawing it with standard KiCad symbols. At the very last I wanted to verify what the signal direction is. And for that I followed the input lines of the NAND gates, and then I noticed I did it wrong and flipped the whole circuit in the X-axis. It was also very near the end that I realized that this is an automatic keyboard switch.
Now it looks like I’m used to. Signals go from left to right, and voltages go from top to bottom (note the LED’s are pointing downward). Using power symbols for the power already cleans up the wiring, and makes it less likely to make mistakes, but the main thing that makes it easy to understand the function of this circuit is to use 4 separate switches for the 4066.
I’m sorry to disappoint you. 
But I’m curious what your opinion is when you compare my version with:
I’ll attach my project and leave it up to you whether to ignore it or not.
This does not happen anymore. Starting with KiCad V6, all used symbols are saved inside the schematic file itself. If you still have old projects to convert, then we can help with that. I understand that it can be a bit difficult to use KiCad when you only use it rarely. I use it more often, but but apart from all the new functionality that is added over the last 6 or so years, KiCad has also lost a bit of it’s charm in that it worked very straight forward and was easy to learn. The added functions also add complexity.
Not a good example. This yellow box has always been broken because KiCad has no defined Z-order. Setting it as a background color would have fixed it from the beginning.
Don’t be afraid to ask if you get stuck again. It’s nice if you put in some effort to find an answer yourself first, but there is no need to get frustrated for hours if you can’t figure out some “simple” detail either.
2024-08-25_asdf_keyboard_switch.zip (14.4 KB)
Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul. Let me simplify this for you. You know what you are doing, I don’t.
You seriously disappoint me Paul. It took me all of a few minutes to understand your schematic…You’re making mine look bad, really really bad…
O’ I forgot to add, you are right it is a modification for an interface made years earlier to alternate between two Keyboards.
You’re over 10 years to late. The reason I posted that schem was to show you I use both and I was looking for parts to repurpose, had both in front of me.
However, and most importantly it is good to see how I assume you a qualified individual does the same thing. Nice info to remember for future.
It’s also good when as well we all know there are always better ways of doing things but it really comes home when it the actual same thing.
This triggered a memory. We discussed this back in 2021 Libraries. Don't new projects create their own library to store it's symbols - #9 by pauls969
I don’t know for as a layman I am completely blown away by kicad and love to play with it when I get an idea, and whilst it does have its backward compatabiltiy quirks and some others I have nothing but praise for it. If it wasn’t for Kicad I would not have bothered with some of the stuff I’ve done or I would have stuck to using graph paper and hand drawing. I remember when looking around all where paid versions and the free versions had limitiations of either components or board size of around 50/mm or so. Not even worth downloading.
O’ only gripe is the the simulator, that’s way beyond me, but that’s me.
I appreciate it but it can be distracting that’s why I placed:
and yet you couldn’t resist, could you Paul 
Just to make you cringe some more since you made me laugh, here’s one I did about 4/5 years ago. Just to give you a heart attack and a stroke or two and believe me if I posted my first ones you would really have a stroke especially before I discovered what are and how to use vias.
Resist this schematic Paul, Resist, Take control, don’t succumb to the temptation. Resist resist!..Can you?
I actually find this last schematic quite neatly drawn:
Schematics with lots of digital ports are always a bit messy, and so are the discrete parts around the NE555, but those are both very hard to improve upon. I would have done it very similarly myself. The only diffence is that I would have put both the PWR_FLAG symbols and the decoupling capacitors close to the voltage regulators (In the area of Note1 and Note2, and moved that text.). But overall I give it an 8 out of 10.
Resisting is futile, but no cringing nor heart attacks. Not even a raised blood pressure.
So you are already familiar with changing sheet size.
Thanks for the polite reply to my comment. 
Well that’s disappointing, now I have a minimum standard to maintain.
Thanks for the help.
Are you really disappointed because one person gave a personal opinion? 
I think you confused your self with my reply and your response, nothing sarcastic about my response. My response was to your advice of setting default sheet to A3 for when printed as A4 as you said it’s still legible.
But hey if you want me to be codesending and yell at you for you having the nerve to tell how to change sheet size? Why not, next time I’ll yell at you…
I think you missed the jist of the conversation.
I’ll leave it at that.
No sarcasm whatsoever was intended.
The comment was intended exactly as I wrote. Thanks for reading my comment and letting me down gently.
You could have replied “I’m not silly, I’ve been doing that for years” or something similar, but not quite so abrupt. 
Irony doesn’t work well without the body language to compliment the words, unfortunately, in both our comments. 
Now I regret all my posts.
