I’m updating an older design and use parts of another newer design. One component used in there is a diode. The name is “P6SMB 14A” and it has an SMB footprint. KiCad knows this as “Diode_SMD:D_SMB”.
But it seems to have an error in it. Or I can’t fix whatever data I have here. The footprint preview says the pins are called “1” and “2”. But on the pin functions tab, the numbers and names are “A” and “C”.
In the other project, the pin functions are correctly numbered and labeled “1” and “2”. But even when I delete the component from my new schema and copy & paste it over from the other project, the labels are again “A” and “C”. The fields are readonly and I cannot change them. But when updating the PCB layout, it complains that it can’t find those pads in the footprint.
I don’t know. I would change the names but it’s not possible. And in the other project the names match, but when I copy it over, they’re wrong again. I have no idea what’s happening here.
I need that diode in my schema and PCB. KiCad so far hasn’t made that possible in this project, but only in the other project. I’m stuck.
You can change pin numbers in the symbol editor, or you can change the pad numbers of a footprint in the footprint editor. You have to change one of these two.
I guess you do not have much (or any) experience with creating custom symbols or footprints. I consider both the symbol editor and the footprint editor important parts of KiCad. I tend to make quite a lot of custom symbols and footprints myself. I guess it’s time that you spend some quality time into learning how these editors work.
On top of that, you may have to brush up your knowledge on how library management works in KiCad.
According to your profile you’re on this forum since 2020, and have quite a bunch of visits, so I guess you are a “regular” KiCad user.
All these topics are handled in the “Getting Started in KiCad”, the regular manuals, and in various FAQ topics on this forum. It really is pretty basic stuff.
I think you’re tryng to edit the default libraries in KiCAD. These can not be edited.
You have two options:
1: make a personal library that can be edited. Copy the default libraries to a personal folder.
2: open the symbol editor from within the schematic and edit the symbols one by one. The same goes for the PCB footprints. This works because the used symbols/footprints are also stored in your project files. True for all versions from 6.0 and upwards.
Back in V4 times, it was common for pin “numbers” to use letters, eg the old 7805. These days pin numbers are usually digits, except for some high pin count packages like some BGAs
IF you are using a recent version of KiCad and you are using the supplied Symbol and Footprint libraries then use the recent ones . . . if not then you are using custom libraries and they are your responsibility to edit and fix.
As far as I can see this is not a KiCad supplied symbol . . .
It looks that when you copy symbol between schematics not the copied symbol is used but one remembered locally. It should not happen in my opinion, but if it happens than it suggests that you probably have two symbols with the same name and may be when you copy symbol something notices - we already have this symbol here so we need not a second copy but we will use the one we already have.
I have never had such situation, but I use only my own libraries and I never had two symbols with the same full-name (= library+symbol).
The symbol is indeed from a symbol library I have added to the project. I can’t remember where it came from, I’m just using it in a few projects because KiCad doesn’t come with support for these TVS diodes.
Apparently that library uses numbers “1” and “2” (at least in the current version I’m using, maybe I changed that sometime in the past) and the component in the schema insisted on naming them “A” and “C”. I’m not sure how I found this but when I clicked on “Update symbol from library” it changed to the expected pin numbers.
It wasn’t obvious to me that in order to rename the pins in the second tab of that dialog, I need to do that in the library or at least update from the library.
So it looks like the symbol in the library was correct, and it was up-to-date in the source project, but when copying it over to the new project, the symbol pin numbers were broken again. I needed to update from the library explicitly to fix it. And yes, this looks like a KiCad bug to me. When I copy a good object to another project and then it breaks, that shouldn’t happen.
Sounds like you copied the Symbol from the Project (with pins A & B) and not from the Library (Pins 1 & 2).
To avoid issues like this you need to spend some time getting your head around the various Symbol & Footprint libraries . . . both Global and within the Project.
I update all symbols from the library (double click at symbol, select ‘Update Symbol from Library…’, select ‘Update all symbols in schematic’ and ‘Update’) very often.
Whenever I change anything in symbol in library I then update all symbols. I also do the same whenever I open any schematic I was not opening for some time. I also do the same for footprints at PCBs.
It is to ensure 100% compliance of everything with libraries.
