Draw graphic lines

How do I make a SOLID line the default - I am able to draw the lines but they are always “dashed”. I have to draw the line as “dashed” then “edit” it to solid. I would also like to be able to have a different default colour (at the moment I am changing it to BLUE although this seems to remain until I re-start the software).

I am drawing an “internal connections” diagram so don’t really want to use wires because there is no actual connection on the diagram, just a line from board A to board B or board C to a control. I suppose I could just use a standard drawing package but as the symbols I need are already in the library, it seemed to make sense to use KiCad.

Hi if you are not using Bus you can change the width (default on my system was 12) and color and possibly it may suit your needs. I use a custom library where I place hidden pins on every grid point and then draw lines with a wire. Just use for drawing and nothing electrical in my drawings. Note bus creates a junction if you intersect another bus line. Seems to delete junction with right click, junction delete.

Hi @mendy, it was only a simple drawing and I have now completed it using draw then edit, but I would still like to be able to solve the problem for future use. Surely I can’t be the only person who wants solid graphic lines rather than dotted/dashed etc. Another useful feature would be the ability to add an “arrow” to one or both ends of the line (luckily, all of my lines which needed that feature were horizontal and I was able to use “< or >” on the end of them).

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You can choose the globally used default color by changing the “Notes” color (see the screenshot by mendy). It changes the visible color of all existing items which don’t have a custom color set.

I can’t find a way to change the default line style.

The upcoming version 6 will have a bit better editing capabilities for graphics appearance.

Hi @eelik, I’m glad I’m not the only one who couldn’t find how to do it - I thought someone was going to tell me it was so obvious that I had missed it. The colour wasn’t too much of a problem but I’m sure most users want a solid line more than any other and if work is still being done on the new version, perhaps the option of adding arrows on the end of lines would also be useful.

Would it be possible to get a generic screenshot of the type of drawings you are doing to help envision possible other ideas.
eelik it has been brought up but seems like you can only have one type. A program I was using when on Windows could change thickness and color of individual lines but the emphasis is creating boards.
Just use Eeschema only for drawing and manage without those features. That is why all colors in screenshot are black as print to laser.

@mendy, I’m not sure how to do this but I will attempt to upload my “.sch” file.
RF5handsetWiring.sch (8.4 KB)

I guess there is a risk of inadvertently placing a solid line and erroneously seeing it as a wire or labelling it and not generating a connection so I can see why the default setting is a dashed line.

If you do not need this layout for anything other than generating a graphic, the nightly builds (5.99) will allow you to replace all the graphic lines with a different style. The usual warnings about using nightly builds apply - i.e. not backward compatible and may be unstable.

Screen Shot 2020-09-09 at 10.34.21 Screen Shot 2020-09-09 at 10.34.37

Screen Shot 2020-09-09 at 10.35.23

Hi John, I think that would be a useful feature for the next version but I’m fairly new to KiCad and don’t know my way around too well (if at all) so I think I’m better off sticking to something which is stable.

At least in v5.x it doesn’t seem possible to change the default style

apparently EESCHEMA has also an internal layer system and if you decide to put a line in the " LAYER_NOTES" layer, it will be dashed.

But as @eelik and @John_Pateman said, v6 will be better :slight_smile:

OK, cheers guys, it looks like I just have to wait for V6. Thanks for your efforts.

Hi Looked at drawing and figured out you are on 25mil grid and thus wires don’t connect. Right click and switch grid to 50mils then you may have to move some symbols and probably the wires. That is the reason for non connection of wires. Create a box symbol (50mil) and add a few zero length pins to play with in place of your Power Control PCB box. Should then see how the wires now connect. Or if you want to use you existing box you can create a symbol with just zero length pin. Then when you run wire to box you can use it to finish wire and remove dot. I used to do that way hint from Rene and I just created different sized boxes with pins on all grid points for more choices, fairly quick to do.x1 x2

Have fun great program

Was playing some more and you could mirror the connector on horizontal axis. On top it will move the Reference and Value but easy to move them back. Bottom one has unchecked show.

Hi @mendy, I didn’t use wires because I only wanted to provide instructions to someone else to assemble the product using ready assembled PCBs and how to connect everything inside the case, hence my need for non-dashed lines. The connector that you mirrored was already mirrored by me because the item has “half-through-holes” along its edge which need to be soldered into and I thought it would produce a more logical appearance. As long as the “wires” finished somewhere near the contact, that was near enough - the two small PCBs have wires soldered to 1206 resistor pads as connectors because the PCB is only 1 x 0.8 inch and contains 2 small ICs and about 10 other passives on one side (charge PCB) and on its reverse (power PCB) 2 transistors and 10 passives. Only one side is populated to allow the board to be mounted with adhesive pads - therefore requiring wires between the two to retain “backwards compatible” features.

No problem was playing and modified it a bit. Do use 50mil grid. Had to move a few symbols and delete existing lines and change to wires. Used zero length connector to eliminate the small circles. Couldn’t do anything per colors. Using wires you can run straight through to the small dot to make connection. As to V6 check it seems like possibly 2 or more years out.


Image is 50mil grid with moved as needed symbols and wires. Was good practice for me. Good day.

@mendy, glad you enjoyed it.

I think we can assume this query is now closed. Many thanks to everyone.

Regards, Geof

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