How can you match specific footprint pads to specific schematic symbol nets?

[vbkvbkvbk]

New to KiCAD, but I come from the EAGLE world. I’m making my first custom board with custom footprints and schematic symbols. If I want to make a footprint whose data input pin is “D_IN” and match it with a schematic symbol that uses “DATA_IN” for that pin, how do those two pads “find” each other during CvPCB association? Essentially, how does this step happen:

KTOWN's Ultimate Creating Parts in Eagle Tutorial

From what I’ve seen, CvPCB just lets you pick any footprint and symbol that have the same amount of pins. But how do you choose which one goes where? I can’t find it in any tutorials I see.

[Rene_Poschl]

• How does KiCad know which symbol pin represents which pad of the footprint?
• What is the difference between footprints and symbols?
• How can i assign a footprint to a symbol?

Other topics can also be found here: (Start Here) Frequently Asked Questions

[Sprig]

@vbkvbkvbk

If I want to make a footprint whose data input pin is “D_IN” and match it with a schematic symbol that uses “DATA_IN” for that pin, how do those two pads “find” each other…

Short answer:

Typically the physical device packages have pin numbers assigned to them; by convention or DataSheet. These packages could be any range of different internal devices that use the same Land Pattern on the PCB yet have a vastly different Symbol.

Assign the same Pin number and Pad number to both the Symbol and the Footprint to connect these to the same NET. (KiCad does also allow Alpha characters in these fields, such as A or K, but I do not recommend this practice).

[dchisholm]

@vbkvbkvbk

. . . If I want to make a footprint whose data input pin is “D_IN” and match it with a schematic symbol that uses “DATA_IN” for that pin, how do those two pads “find” each other during CvPCB association? Essentially, how does this step happen . . .

The “FAQ” articles linked from the post by @Rene_Poschl provide a comprehensive answer to your question. My old post at Can’t connect LM7805 on my board (solved) illustrates a short, though incomplete, summary.

Side comment: KiCAD is KiCAD, and Eagle is Eagle. Neither program claims to be a replica of the other. Train yourself to think that both KiCAD and Eagle can achieve the same goal - a PCB layout ready to be fabricated by customary manufacturing methods - but there will be differences in the procedural details of how that is done. There may be a few situations where one program is truly superior to the other, but in most cases they are simply “different”. For each of us, our personal training and experience means that the differences seem unfamiliar, clumsy, or even unnatural until we gain experience and familiarity with the procedural details.

Dale