How to copy paste footprint in layout and re-assign components

[picatostas]

Hi, I am designing a twin circuit which like 80% of it is same layout but 2 times. Is there a way to layout 1 part, copy paste it and reassign the components identifiers of the second part without changing the net-list ?

I hereby certify that I am not simply asking someone else to design a footprint for me.

This is an auto-generated message that is in place on the “footprints” section of the KiCad.info forum. If I remove it and ask for a footprint to be designed anyway, I understand that I will be subject to forum members telling me to go design my own footprint or referring me to a 3rd party footprint site.

[Qbort]

Right now you can copy/paste the two sections in the PCB and then manually rename the designators to make them match the schematic. Have a look at this post below:

Update PCB from Schematic's match methods

Updating an existing layout from its schematic requires KiCad to determine which footprint was previously connected to which symbol to avoid undoing your past work. For this reason every symbol is assigned a unique identifier (timestamp based unique ID). This ID is also tracked by the footprint instance. The alternative option is to use the reference designator assigned to your symbol either by the annotation process or by hand. Using the ID allows, changing the reference designator of a symbol…

[paulvdh]

From the little info I can read here, this seems to be an excellent candidate for the “Replicate Layout” script. (Search this forum (or github) for those magic words).

[picatostas]

This workflow worked ! I duplicated the layout, edit reference following schematic, deleted the non-layout-ed footprints and updated the pcb with the options suggested in the link suggested. It worked ! Thanks a lot