Copy and paste sub-circuit 114 times

[zenerbjt]

Hi,

I have to do a schem with 114 small subcircuits. (each subcircuit is the same as the others) . I wish to draw the sub-circuit once, then have it in a “box”, then just paste that box 114 times. The only way I can see to do this is with hierarchical sheets, as that gives me the “subcircuit in a box”…however, that also produces a separate schem sheet for each box (so that’s 114 schem sheets) and I don’t want that, so please advise on how to do this?

[der.ule]

If all the circuits are the same, you will just need to point all those hierarchical sheets to the same schematic. One schematic, 144 instance.

Hierarchical or flat schematic design, what is best for me? (How to deal with multi page schematics?)

Disclaimer: An unofficial colour scheme has been used to make the screenshots of this lecture. You can find it in https://github.com/pointhi/kicad-color-schemes (blue-tone scheme) Introduction The official documentation for this topic: http://docs.kicad-pcb.org/5.1.2/en/eeschema/eeschema.html#hierarchical-schematics KiCad in general is more geared towards the use of hierarchical design. Small flat designs are easily possible as well but making complex systems as a flat design is not as easy. W…

[paulvdh]

@zenerbjt

The only way I can see to do this is with hierarchical sheets, as that gives me the “subcircuit in a box

Yep.

@zenerbjt

however, that also produces a separate schem sheet for each box

Nope.

@zenerbjt

so please advise on how to do this?

You can re-use the same hierarchical sheet multiple times.

This is also the basis for the “replicate layout” script that helps a lot with, well, replicating the layout of one of the sub circuits on the PCB.

This link:

Need help using replicate_layout plugin

This evening I’ve experimented with this replicate layout script. I have never used, nor even installed any script in KiCad before, and therefore I consider myself an excellent newbie for commenting on the usability of the draft of this PDF tutorial. So I used the pdf as a guide to replicate some simple circuit and typed notes here as I went along, and afterwards read through these notes again for a bit of a cleanup. I’m using Linux Mint 19.3, so if it also works there, you can add it to your…

has a link to a pdf with a tutorial for using the “Replicate Layout” script. It probably also handles the part of re-using a schematic sheet in a hierarchical design, but I’m not sure about that.

[eelik]

@der.ule

If all the circuits are the same, you will just need to point all those hierarchical sheets to the same schematic. One schematic, 144 instance.

… and you can make it pretty easily so that you

• create one hierarchical sheet
• copy it (the hierarchical box) from the schematic
• paste it
• copy those 2 boxes and paste etc.

They all point to the same file but have individual sheet names.