Documenting a schematic

[mamel]

Hello everybody ,
I created a diagram of my circuit on kicad, after having finished it I noticed that there were too many connections and that it was not very clear, I want to simplify it, I found examples for simplified diagrams,I want to at least simplify the connections for the decoupling candans, is it possible to do something similar to that in the photo and where can I find the T-shaped symbol?

Thank you in advance for your answer

[paulvdh]

Those look like simple power symbols, but they are not from KiCad. In KiCad the power symbols have an arrow in them:

It is very easy though to modify the look of a symbol, just hover over it, press [Ctrl + e] to load it in the symbol editor, change what you want and then close the symbol editor again. KiCad will then prompt you whether you want to update the schematic with your modified symbol. (To do it properly, some library management is also needed).

Another common method to cleanup the schematic is to put all “miscellaneous stuff” onto a separate hierarchical sheet. Below I show such a sheet. It has the voltage regulators, decoupling capacitors, spark gaps, and other small miscellaneous things. This leaves the main schematic sheet for all the “interesting” stuff.

[bask185]

To supplement Paul’s anwser. My own ‘religion’ dictates the use of hierarchial labels and busses between the sheets avoid placing actual components in the root sheet itself. This is ofcourse more of a guide line than actual rule. The most smallest designs I just draw in the root schematic.

I use graphical elements to draw things like RJ12 connectors and screw terminals.

I personally think it adds something to readability. In the blink of an eye I can see where the I2C bus goes and what stuff is connected to the bus.

I do sometimes take it to the extreme by even trying to place the sheets in the spots of where I want to eventually place the components. Especially for the connectors this matters to me.

For my very latest design I even made special symbols just for the connectors. I can now import a purely symbolic RJ12 symbol, a barrel jack and a screwterminal (which are all excluded from the board).

Besides looking pritty (im my opinion ) it serves several other purposes. It does go beyond what you are asking tho…

My main aim next to readability is reusability. I once dumped “my best possible work flow” Best possible workflow on this forum. It goes about not just reusing sheets, but reusing parts of boards as well.

I also do a lot of SMT assembly. So all the symbols in my sheets already have correct footprints and vendor part numbers. Therefor I don’t have to copy paste symbols to my own personal libraries in order to fix that.

I often face repetetive circuitry. Groups of footprints which has to be duplicated 16 times. With schematic sheets I only have the schematic of one of those 16 circuits. Than I can copy paste the sheets.

And doing this also allow me to use replicate layout plugin. Besides making just one schematic, I also can place and route just one of the 16 groups and let the plugin place and route the remaining 15 for me.

Hope any of this helps,

Bas