Duplicate block on PCB

Layout
1

I recently “discovered” that you can duplicate a block of components on the PCB board. However, it doesn’t work as I would expect it would/should/could work. Let me give an example.

Suppose I have an electrical scheme where I have functional block that is copied 5 times. Let’s also suppose the block that can be copied contains only resistors, 4 resistors per block. So, after annotation we will have R1 … R20 (5 times a block of 4 resistors).

I now go to my PCB app (after running annotation, DRC check, component association and netlist generation in the EESchema app of course) and lay out block 1 (that is: R1 - R4). The other resistors R5 … R20 are still waiting to be placed.

I’m satisfied with the layout I created for those four components (tracks are fine, connections between components R1 - R4 are also fine) and I want to duplicate that area next to the initial block. All goes fine, but there’s 2 things I find strange:

  1. The components in the duplicated block are also numbered R1 … R4. I would have expected they would contain a ? since you cannot have duplicated components on one and the same layer.

  2. When I take a component from the duplicated block and I re-assign let’s say R1 to a component that is still to be placed (remember, R5 … R20 are not placed yet), say R5 (that is the first resistor of the second block), then I would expect that that very R5 which was in the “still-to-be-placed” area would disappear from that “still-to-be-placed” area and that it would take the place of the resistor R1 in the duplicated block.

However, none of the above are happening.

How to approach the “duplicate” feature so that it solves the above two mentioned issues?

Best,
–Geert

2

If I understand you correctly you have a schematic and a layout, and the layout should follow the schematic as is normal.

For repeated blocks you should use

3 Likes
3

If I understand you correctly you have a schematic and a layout, and the layout should follow the schematic as is normal.

Exactly. But the strange thing is that you can have multiple components with the same number etc. when using the standard duplicate feature in PCB. To my opinion, that should not be allowed.

I had a quick look at that plugin. Didn’t know of its existence… It looks like it does what I’m looking for. I will have a closer look to what it exactly does.

4

You need to have hierarchical schematics and Place footprints plugin can/should be used before replicating layout

5

I agree wit all of the above. For cases like this the “Replicate Layout” script is an excellent fit.

It does not only handle the task of replicating component placement and PCB tracks, but you can also run the script multiple times, for example if one of the groups of components needs to shift a little bit, or when you decide that during a revision some extra components such as decoupling caps or other are required.

6

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