New user and I have about 20 designs I’d like to redo in KiCad.
Most are too large to fit on a single page, so I’m using hierarchical sheets. I’m finding myself making all my hierarchical labels and power pins’ text bold to make them easier to find. I have to mark bold every time. Is there a way to make this the default behavior?
To me, making them all bold does not make it any clearer to me (see screenshot below), but it boils down to personal preferences.
If you select bold right when entering a new label, then the next label you add will also be bold. KiCad does remember these settings from the previous label.
KiCad does not set the entry for NEW labels to bold if you change an existing label to bold.
KiCad also does not remember this setting if you exit KiCad and then restart it.
When I was young I also had strong preferences about such things. after a bit of Zen meditation however I realized that just using the defaults is a lot easier on your psyche in the long run. Getting used to them also makes your work more consistent with what others do.
But if you insist, it’s your choice.
Also note that KiCad’s file formats are all text based and quite easily readable & understandable. You can quite easily hack into them with a text editor. This used to be common when KiCad was lacking some basic features, but as the functionality of KiCad itself expands, there is ever less need to do so.
A quick search for the label text in the schematic with a text editor reveals it looks like:
Text Label 5550 3150 0 50 ~ 0
This_is_a_label
Text Label 5500 3350 0 50 ~ 10
This_is_a_bold_label
The 4 digit numbers look like coordinates, and the other numbers probably correspond with other settings such as rotation, italic and bold.
If you want to know more about the internal files formats, then have a look at https://kicad.org/help/file-formats/
If you make any mistake during editing, it may confuse KiCad, so I strongly advise to make backups before you do so. Searching for a silly mistake can easily take an hour or more (been there, done that).
Thanks for the help.
I read that Kicad should save preferences when adding labels, but it didn’t seem to be doing so yesterday. In a new session this morning it was working.
I’ve worked for years drawing most of my schematics in illustrator or inkscape because they end up much more print friendly than any schematic software I’ve used. I’ve mostly used FreePCB for the last 15 years but occasionally used Eagle if I was doing work for someone else.
The biggest reason I want those bold is because the most common error on my part is managing different bias voltages or power connections. I’d like them to be really obvious, especially if this is spanning across several pages. Converting one of my projects originally drawn in illustrator on a single 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper is already 9 pages in kicad. I’m sure I’ll get better at it with more experience.
In KiCad you can also change the text size.
If you use standard graphics software for your schematics, then you probably just want the schematics and do not make PCB’s…
KiCad has export to .SVG:
Eeschema / File / Plot / …
(Also: Postscript, PDV, DXF, HPGL, both in color and B&W)
Plenty of options for documentiation or (web) publishing.
In KiCad, schematic symbols are pretty much fixed size. All the libraries are built around the same grid. In KiCad you also loose quite a lot of usable drawing area for the borders if you use the default page layouts. A reasonable compromise is to remove the border or make it very thin. If you want to be able to print on paper, then find out what the printable area of your printer is, and adjust to that (with some margin).
KiCad does have different “page sizes”. Eeschema / File / Page Settings. It might be worth it to you to choose a bigger paper size in KiCad, for example “C” ( 22"x34") and then use big labels, of twice or thrice the text size as the default. This makes them really stand out. “Paper Size” also does not mean much inside your PC. If you want stuff on paper, you can shrink to fit, or glue multiple sheets together. (Or get a big format printer).
[Edit] Ah, indeed, I couldn’t poke such a piece of paper straitht in the eye if it was in front of my nose. You can always change to A0, which is a nice square meter rounded to the nearest mm:
841 * 1189 = 99994
sqrt(2)*841 = 1189.353605955773
Result is that if you fold it in two (Fold in half?) you get A1 with the same length to width proportions.
Minor correction. You probably did mean C (because C will print on A (US letter) with 50% scaling), but the dimension of C is 17"x22". The dimensions you gave are size D.
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