Connecting many components with a single wire

Schematic
1

Please forgive me if this is too daft a question but I have only just started with kicad. I have5 resistors aligned vertically and the top node of each is aligned horizontally with all the others according to the grid. If I place a wire and set the start with ‘begin wire’ on R1, running it over 2, 3 and 4 until I get to ‘wire end’ on R5, has it connected to the ends of 2, 3 and 4, or do I have to mark those nodes as junctions?

Thanking all in advance.

2

Do it, then grab a resitor with [G] and try to move it around… what do you observe?
Stop this with [ESC].
Do this for all of your resistors…

For more commands like this hit [Shift]+[?]

PS: it won’t connect R2/3/4, you need to create junctions unfortunately. Maybe someone else will also chime in and point out proper schematic drawing or links to a tutorial/best-practices thing…

3

If you are just getting started with KiCad, then starting with the Getting Started with KiCad tutorial is a good start. :slightly_smiling_face:

https://kicad.org/help/documentation/#_getting_started

And after that, get familiar with the reference manuals of the different sub programs on that same documentation page. You can find a lot of info there faster than you can get a response from a forum.

1 Like
4

That should be visually tagged - a not connect is a small open red circle.

hmm, I just tried these operations, in V5 rc2

  • Drag wire over 5 aligned resistor ends (above question) -> all 5 connect (tie dots on central ones)
  • Move resistor to touch wire -> Connects automatically, with tie dot
  • Move resistor and place on top of wire -> splits and connects automatically
  • Move resistor and spin 180’ -> reconnects automatically.

All that looks quite clever/logical, and similar to LTSpice Schematic, which I would call mature.

1 Like
5

Cool - so it’s been changed from v4 to v5. Learn something new every day :slightly_smiling_face:

6

Even though the resistors connect at the resistor “terminal” I always add a short wire from the end of the resistor to the first bend or junction. This when I glance back at that area of the schematic I instantly know they are connected and don’t have to think. But this is just me.

Not in this thread but I have one rule I would consider “best practices”. Never ever make a cross junction. Always offset one of the wires so there is no junction where two wires cross.

1 Like
7

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.