How to (draw or place) a free angle graphic line in schematic editor

Schematic
1

Related to another thread on this forum, I was trying to place some non-orthogonal information arrows into my schematic.

It seems that the tool for drawing graphic lines in a schematic did not allow free angle lines. I tried using CTRL, SHIFT and anything else I could think of.

They can be drawn in pcb editor but copy-pasting from pcb editor to schematic editor gave me just a lot of text.

image
image341Ă—555 8.55 KB

I tried using Visio to create a couple of .DXFs. EDIT: I removed these .DXFs as it turns out they were much of the problem and contained information which I did not want to post.

But when I try to import (File>Import>Graphics) either of those, I get

image

SFAIK neither one of those DXF images have cross hatching.

What am I missing? I am not so picky about this arrow I am trying to place in my schematic.

My last resort would be to (after saving a backup copy) open my schematic file with a text editor and see if that can do the trick. But that would be CHEATING!!! (I never do that. Nope…NOT ME!!)

Application: KiCad Schematic Editor x64 on x64

Version: 8.0.9-rc1, release build

Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.6
FreeType 2.13.3
HarfBuzz 10.0.1
FontConfig 2.15.0
libcurl/8.10.1-DEV Schannel zlib/1.3.1

Platform: Windows 11 (build 26100), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
OpenGL: Intel, Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics, 4.6.0 - Build 31.0.101.5186

Build Info:
Date: Feb 15 2025 21:56:41
wxWidgets: 3.2.6 (wchar_t,wx containers)
Boost: 1.86.0
OCC: 7.8.1
Curl: 8.10.1-DEV
ngspice: 44
Compiler: Visual C++ 1942 without C++ ABI

Build settings:

2

Dunno why you’d want this, but:
Preferences → Schematic Editor → Editing Options → Line Drawing Mode

1 Like
3

Thanks a lot. That seems to work.

Also…It seems that Visio was misbehaving.

  1. When I went to import the Visio shapes, in spite of the error message (after my post) it seems I was pretty much importing what I wanted. But I was also getting other contents of the Visio file.

  2. My version of Visio does not have an Export command. But I often select one graphic element in a Visio file and “save as” a .png. That works great. Gives me just the selected graphic element in .png format.

  3. But after my post, I see doing similar to “save as” a .dxf gives me the whole file and I was getting a lot of unwanted stuff.

  4. I made a new Visio file with only the desired graphic element. Saved that as a .dxf. That imported without the errors. But anyway, drawing a line directly in KiCad is much better.

Thanks again. You do not see the value in being able to draw an informational arrow (at a free angle so that it stands out?) Not as a usual thing, but I will be posting my schematic pretty soon…

4

I see your point/need. I’d probably make a couple of symbols (called “Info_arrow” or something like that) and use those instead. Then it’s more universal.

5

I briefly tried that. The symbol editor wanted a reference designation prefix. I suppose I could have done that but did not want to.

Also…I can see where my arrows might change angle or length between instances.

6

Just tried it myself. I’d say that a 0 deg. a 30 deg. and a 45 deg. would cover all instances (by rotating/flipping/mirroring). The reference designator can be set to hidden.
Like this (I’ve set the designator to “i” for information:

arrow
arrow1280Ă—800 84.6 KB

7

Yes I can see that.

But please see this:

Hmmm I had only intended to provide a link to the other thread.