Thank you for the tube socket footprints. I’ll see if I can integrate them into the Library.
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I think that article assumes the schematic HAS net classes. My imported from LTspice apparently lacks them, so I still need to find out how to create them. It seems I cannot do so from this menu:
I AM doing better since I stopped taking statins. I’m still anemic from losing 4 pints of blood with that stomach cancer in April, but getting better.
Pushing myself to learn new tools and software is almost a life-saving choice. It’s helping to keep my mind active and I look forward to each morning when I sit in front of the PC and open up my design and try to find ways to improve it.
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Euhm, yes, that is the right place to create a new net class. In your screenshot, there are already two netclasses: Default and Power. To create a third netclass, just click on the plus indicated at 1.
There is also an important distinction between a Netclass (which is a set of rules for track width, clearance and such) and a Net which is a bunch of wires that connects pins (in the schematic) or pads (on the PCB) to each other.
After you’ve created the net classes, you have to add nets to the net classes. The netclass assignments are done in the section of the menu indicated by 2.
For a longer version, you can read the manual:
Schematic Editor | 9.0 | English | Documentation | KiCad
And very likely you also have this installed on your PC, right inside KiCad, just click on Help in the main menu. Each sub program of KiCad has it’s own help files.
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I did some research on what was the most accepted CAD software for PCB design at PCB fabs and that’s what pointed me in this direction. Given that my first PCB design from scratch passed QC at JLPCB last week on the first go, I’d say it’s definitely THE tool for the job.
I wholeheatedly agree on the cloud services/subscription matter. I dumped Adobe in favor of Black Magic Design, not only for it’s superior utilization of hardware, but also for the one time license fee and no monthly bills. As one living mostly on pension, I have to cut costs in every way possible. I also took my house off the grid and generate 100% of my electricity with solar panels, which cover half of my land area. I’ve made it a policy to use open source software, whether it be 3D (Blender), AI, or PCB layout.
Ah, would love a 42" monitor, but I don’t have the room for it on my desk, and tend to stick with the “bulletproof”: HP displays. I’ve got four of them in the house. Another factor is a 42" may use more electricity. I watch every kWh because I generate and store my own electricity. The newer monitors tend to fail as soon as the warranty runs out. I’ve been running these HPs since 2008 and not a single problem so far. And finally, it would take quite a while to set aside money for a new monitor with my SS pension fixed at $912 a month. I really have to live frugally just to get by.
Many of my traces have on them when I zoom in. This problem is only with my imported from LTspice file. The other project, which started from scratch in KiCad, has no issues like that. I looked all over for that hide automatically generated net names check box. Searched the forums, but it’s not where the folks are saying it is. Preferences… Display Options… I can find several Display Options under each of the editors, but no such check box. Maybe it’s there and my blind eyes have missed it?
I’m familiar with BigClive’s channel. He mentioned difficulty swallowing. That’s something that’s started with me in the past couple of years. I take a LOT of vitamins every day. And a decade ago, I could take a handful and swallow at one gulp. Now I find myself often gagging on single capsules. All too often when drinking water, I choke on that too. Happened again after my colonoscopy yesterday when they gave me water and crackers. It went ‘down the wrong pipe’. Other issues… I trip often while ascending a flight of stairs. That’s a new problem. I’m having increasing difficult doing small repairs. That’s why I stopped servicing cassette decks and turntables 5 years ago. Can’t see well enough to work on intricate stuff like that and I keep fumbling and dropping screws. It’s maddening, because it’s like I can’t control my own hands with the precision I’m accustomed to! I consider myself fortunate to have married the greatest woman in the world, my wife, who looks after me like a mother hen watches her chicks. She sees me lifting something and runs over and says “I’ll do that.” I wish I had a son in addition to my daughter. Someone physically strong who can help me with the heavy lifting.
That much I was able to make happen, but what’s bugging me is the blue highlighted area on the right:
In the manual, there are nets in that field. In my LTspice imported project, there’s nothing.
While it would take less time for me to completely remake the project in KiCad, I am trying to use this as a learning opportunity to see if I can fix the project so that these net classes appear. I should be seeing Vcc and ground at the very least. Any idea why it’s blank?
After being distracted by a botched Windows update which rendered my graphics workstation unusable, I’m revisiting my driver PCB project.
One of the oddities I haven’t found the cause of is that my ground nets are shown as a trace, but also tied to the copper ground plane fill. Wouldn’t those ground traces just become part of the fill? Why are they displayed as traces? What setup mistake have I made to cause this?
It’s working normally. Tracks have a separate existence to fills.
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Note in the Appearance pane, you have control of the opacity of different objects. The default for KiCad has the opacity of Zones set differently than the opacity of Tracks so they ‘stand out’ a bit. If you want them to ‘blend in’, set the opacity the same for both.
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You have the choice of various connected objects in KiCad, in rough order of “stays exactly where you put them”:
- Graphics: circles, arcs, rectangles, polygons text etc. Doesn’t automatically avoid anything. Basically fully manual.
- Tracks: placed by the interactive router tool. Will actively avoid graphics and tracks of different nets in walkaround mode. Will push other tracks away in push-and-shove move, but not graphics. Does not avoid zones.
- Zones (aka fill, pour): fill the area automatically but stay away from tracks, graphics and keepout areas with specified clearance.
Any of these can overlap. If you draw a track through a zone of the same net, the function is that if something on a different net or a keepout “repels” the fill, the track will remain in place.
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I have to be careful to understand some of the terminology here. I think that’s part of the problem for me.
Yes, I see if I make the copper pour zone opaque, then I don’t see the ground traces anymore. They are all one copper fill.
But the DRC is still complaining, even if the copper fill is set to GND net:
There are over a dozen of these and they all point to the copper fill being isolated from GND. What am I missing here?
It’s issuing a warning that you have isolated ‘islands’ of Cu fill. If they’re an ‘island’ that doesn’t connect to a pin or via, then they’re floating. Note how around your circular tube socket, there isn’t enough room for the fills to flow around and between the pins, so it’s making isolated (unconnected) zones.
You have the option to have Kicad remove them (Remove island option in Zone Properties), change clearances such that flow between pins is possible, drop stitching vias on islands to force connection, or ignore the warning. Note you have zero Unconnected items, hence this is a warning rather than a error.
I’d suggest you try dropping a via say right in the center of valve U1. This will ‘stitch’ the isolated Cu island on Top Cu to the presumably not isolated Cu pour on the Bottom Cu since they overlap there. Re-flood and rerun DRC and you should see the number of warnings dropped. Rinse and repeat and you should be able to clear up all the warnings as it looks like you’ve got plenty of room.
Given that you have a ground fill on that layer, why run the ground traces at all? All they’re doing is reducing the effectiveness of the thermal relief spokes on all those ground pads.
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I tried that and it did clear the errors. What threw me off was that the entire ground plane was highlighted when I clicked on each error in the DRC list making me think it was complaining about the entire ground copper fill, multiple times.
It did remove some islands in locations that were limited by clearances.
Now what remains is a ton of clearance violations that I have to work on fixing.
I’ve been distracted lately with computer problems due to a bad Windows update, so please forgive my late responses.
Saw this on a Facebook KiCad group:
This is how I expected my ground plane would work. Notice the diode connects to ground and there’s only copper fill and no separate trace.
What’s different with how that’s done vs how I did it?
What’s different with how that’s done vs how I did it?
You added tracks manually, they didn’t. Tracks are not trimmed away by filled areas. If you just want the thermal relief connection (the “X” shape), delete the track.
Tracks don’t have to end at a pad, so you can still use tracks to connect filled areas.
I was able to delete the traces that AutoRoute put there in the GND net, and re ran DRC. Deletion of those traces seemed to cause no new errors.
I still have a bunch of clearance violations to resolve and a large number of these:
Since this was an imported schematic from LTspice, it came with a lot of these kinds of issues. If there is a way to properly import LTspice schematic to avoid this, that would be useful information.
THOUGHT: It occurred to me that may be the ground copper fill should be done BEFORE running the autoroute? That way autoroute will see that the ground connections are already made and not be directed to make them. If there’s no preexisting copper fill, autorouter will make the ground connections as traces. Possible order of operations may fix this?