External connection on my schematic

[Jenny]

Hello,

For information, I am novice in kicad.
For my school project, I must create schematic with kicad.
I’ve advanced well and everything seems to work well.

But I have question about an external connexion.
On the schematic, I would like to represent an external connexion to connect wires.
For example, to connect a wire come from power supply on my schematic.

Many thanks for your support.

Jenny

[Rene_Poschl]

• Off-Board Components in KiCad 5

[paulvdh]

@Jenny

I would like to represent an external connexion to connect wires.

In KiCad there are some generic connectors, and also screw terminals.
Heck, my avatar is a 3-connection screw terminal from KiCad’s libraries.
You need the connectors on the PCB, so normal work flow of placing a symbol in the schematic and a footprint on the PCB apply.
If you want to go beyond the connectors, then the FAQ article Rene linked to explains the rest.

Ah, those memories from days gone by…
In the beginning I found it very weird to put connectors in the schematic. “It’s just for connecting wires, they do not do anything electrical”. And indeed just using some wire labels is fine if you only want the schematic, but if you also want to make a PCB, then placing the connectors on the schematic is the logical way to go.

[Jenny]

Hello, thank you for your help. It’s ok now.

[Neale]

Hello,

I am also new to KiCad but have been using Altium designer (S09) for many years.

This one feature in AD which I miss or cannot find in KiCad and is the ability to make a Symbol ‘Graphic’. Which means it can be placed on a Schematic for illustration purposes but not be included in the electrical connections. This plus the line allows items such as potentiometers, switches, etc., to be shown to aid illustration.

Is this possible?

Thanks

[SembazuruCDE]

@Neale

Which means it can be placed on a Schematic for illustration purposes but not be included in the electrical connections. This plus the line allows items such as potentiometers, switches, etc., to be shown to aid illustration.

Add the symbols as regular parts, but put a hashmark before the reference designator. For example, an off-board resistor would be “#R1” instead of “R1”. The part won’t be put on the PCB, nor will it show in a BOM.

[Neale]

Thanks for the info. For the connections to these parts I am using the Graphic Polyline but would have liked to be able to use a solid line by default instead of going back and editing the line style each section to solid. Maybe in V6 the default type and thickness can be set?