I’m using KiCad for a while. Now I’m starting with hierarchical sheets but I have a problem.
I place my subsheet, then go in this sheet place components and place some hierarchical pins.
Now I go back to the top sheet and import those hierarchical labels. So far so good. But now I don’t understand how the link from the net which comes from the subsheet is made to the net which is in the top sheet. I hoped they are linked when I use the same label name in the top sheet. but this isn’t the case. For illustration I have attached a picture.
For example I want to connect both pin 4 together from conn J9 and J14.
When I use the net highlighter tool, then I see that they aren’t connected. I could use now a net label to connect those two nets. But is this the way to do it?
You are mixing up a few things.
You have an imported pins from the hierarchical sheet that are connected to J9.
You also created new hierarchical labels that are connected to J14.
If you want to put J9 and J14 in parallel on a single PCB, then just wire them in parallel, or connect them with local labels.
If you want to design some multi-PCB project in which J9 and J14 are connected by external wiring between the connectors, this is not really supported by KiCad. There are some workarounds, but basically KiCad is still One project for each PCB.
For more help, make a better description of what you want connected to what, and what you are trying to design. Is it a multi PCB project?
Thank you for your help. I’ve read this topic with multi PCB project in another thread.
It is a single PCB project. The parts on the sub sheet are just to visualize where the wires from from the Board are going to. So therefore all parts on the sub sheets are just components which have to be connected to the PCB but they aren’t actually part of the PCB itself. Or in other words. J14 is part of the PCB and J9 is not part of the PCB.Therefore I have used the option "Exclude from board for J9.
Would yo think it’s better to draw only the components, which are effectively part of the PCB and don’t draw external components like motor’s and sensors etc.? Then I have to remember and imagine where the wires are used for. Therefore I tought it would be helpful to draw those components and use the “exclude from board” option for external components.
I think then I connect the wires with local labels as suggested.
Eventually it would also be better to replace the hierarchical labels on the main sheet also with net labels?
I have updated the schematic in the hope I’ve understood your advise correctly. I wasn’t sure about the “parallel” part.
It looks now so. However, when I use the net highlighter tool, then the correct wires light up. That seems to be good. I used also here hierarchical labels before, as I thought that it looks better. Because with local net labels the wires on the right side looks some kind of “open”. And with the other labels the lines look more “terminated”. Do you know if both versions are correctly?
If interested, I have shared the project on GitLab: Solar panel tracker project
Please note that it is still in developement status and that I’m not a learned electronics technician.
So it is more a hobby for me :-). Therefore I think some parts looks weird for an professional :-).
One way of doing it is placing all “off board” parts on your hierarchical sheet.
Your main sheet could then look like:
Or, if you don’t want to draw wires through numbers:
Another way is to split it into two projects.
One project then just has the PCB and all parts on it, and the other project is only used for documentation.
You can combine that with the idea of the “Multi PCB Project”
It would mean that your real PCB project has hierarchical labels, but no “master sheet”, and your documentation project does not have a PCB (so you do not have to mark anything as “not on PCB”, and uses the schematic sheet of the “Real PCB” as a hierarchical sheet.
This effectively means that you have turned the hierarchy around from what it is now.
I am fairly sure this should work but have not tested it.
If you want to test this, then do it on a copy of your project.
If it does not work or you do not like it, then it’s easy to throw away and the only loss is a bit of time.
Have many thanks for your kind help.
Okay I try around the different approaches and look what works the best for me.
Now I see also on the picture what was meant about the parallel wiring.
