Did "save as" to test new pcb design, now PCB is not linked to schematic (5.99)

Schematic Association (CvPCB)
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I created schematic “main_board”, then wanted to see if I could compress things to save money on fabrication so did a “save as” on the PCB and called it “main_board_tight” so I would have two versions of a PCB based on the same schematic.

I can edit the pcb and save it, but now the link to a schematic is gone. I can’t update the board from the schematic. It asks if I want to “create a new schematic”, but I obviously don’t want to do that. Is there a way to have one schematic with multiple board designs? I assumed if they were all part of the same project, this would work. I thought of copying the .sch file and naming it to match the original by adding “tight” to the name, but not sure that is the best way. I also wondered about creating a new .sch file by answering “yes” to the question to make a new one and trying to cut and paste the entire schematic to the new file. What is the proper procedure for fixing this? Thanks!

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No, not built in to KiCad

This is the only way. The top-level (root) schematic sheet must match the name of the project (kicad_pro and board (kicad_pcb) files.

There is not an easy way to make PCB variants in KiCad today, but the “best” way is to save the whole project as (from the project manager), not just the PCB. This will create a duplicate of everything, so you’ll have to keep the two copies of the schematic in sync.

The way I would personally recommend to do it is with a version control system like Git. I would create a branch and re-make the “tight” version of the PCB with the same filename in that branch.

2 Likes
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I wonder what happens if you right click on the schematic in the file tree and rename it to the old file name. Make a copy to try it, obviously.

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