Do I have to make a short wire off IC's pin in order to label it?

[pauljurczak]

Just started with KiCAD and can’t find the answer to this question. I want to label some pins of U1 on my schematic:

So far, I added a short wire to the pin, selected it and added a label (see GPIO4). Is there a simpler way of labelling IC’s pins?

[mf_ibfeew]

Thats the standard way of assigning nets and labelling them.

to save some work/mouse-clicks:

• If you want you can omit the short net on the pin and assign the label directly onto the pin. (I personally dislike the view of this solution so I don’t use it)
• my workflow: assign the first net+label, than select this net+label, copy+paste on all other needed locations/pins. Afterwards change every label-name according to the connected pin (doubleclick label and write the correct label-text)

[paulvdh]

One way is indeed to put the attachment point of the label directly on the end of the pin. you can mirror the label (with the X and Y shortcut keys) to put it’s attachment point on the other side.

Note that the small circles and squares disappear when KiCad recognizes a connection.

If you want to add a bunch of labels, you can make good use of the repeat function with the [Ins] key in KiCad.

First draw some unconnected wire segment:

Then hold the Insert key and let it repeat a bit (It’s easier to delete extra wires later then to make more).

Then place a label on the topmost wire:

And then press the insert key again for a while:

Usually labels connect to labels with the same name on another part of the schematic. To do that, draw a box over that section to select them all and press [Ctrl + D] to duplicate the block.
If you know in advance that you need (for example) only 8 labels, then just make a copy of the first 8.

[retiredfeline]

Remember you can choose the justification of the label so Right may work better than Left.

[pauljurczak]

Thank you for the all useful tips. What was surprising for this newbie is the implicit association of a new label with a pin near it. I’m glad it’s there, but I was not expecting this level of sophistication.

[Claudio.Lorini]

wow, this is a fancy trick! didn’t know that.
I wonder how many more i’m missing…